THE JAPANESE CRACK SHOT.

Patea Mail, Volume I, Issue 68, 11 December 1875, Page 3

THE JAPANESE CRACK SHOT.

Tbe“ London Daily Telegraph” says: —“ A lion on the groiltid this year will be the, .Japanese officer who has been astonishing Hythe and the Aldershot by liiahing bull's-eyes from the shoulder at a thousand yards. Some say he is an Englishman who was naturalised at a tender age in Japan ; others again declare that lie can speak not a word of any European language. He is, at all events, a marvel of markmanship ; and when, at the Chiswick pardon party, a distinguished person said to the .Japanese ambassador, ‘ I hear you have a wonderfully "00l slot in this country,’ his Excel'enev replied, in the mod st an 1 di"> nified tersenessofa .Japanese gentleman, ‘ He is a good shot’; which answer meant more than a whole string of superlatives.” The same journal re ords the following anecdote about the said gentleman from a vast number which are going the rounds of the camp as substantially true*. “At llytbe, Major Muretta was pittid against one of the most celebrated musketry instructors in the camp, an officer who can, to use a a familar phrase, ' face the target,’ that is, can say were lie is i oing to place his shot 1 ’, and then do it. The Japanese major saw everything that the English lieutenant was aide to perform, and immediately' proceeded to cut him out in a manner that amazed all beholders. At Asa, near Aldershot, he was purposely misinformed as to the distance of a range, the number of yards as given him being 800, whereas in reality it was 1,000. Major Muretta said nothing, but calmly sighted bis rifle, and firing, bit the bull’s-eye. This be did again and again, and when he was told that he had been deceived in the distance lie said he had not been deceived at all.”