Poor Bluerock... he had trouble holding on to his Parkers!

[Don Kaas]

From "Sporting Life" 3/1/02...

Captain Money of the "E.C." and "Schulze" Powder Company, New York is mourning the loss of his Parker pigeon gun, which was stolen February 15, at Paterson, N.J. The gun was taken from the case and shells substituted, giving it the required weight so he did not discover it until some hours later. This is the second Parker gun Captain Money has lost in this manner."

The page on which this tidbit of gossip is found is also graced by a Parker advertisement featuring a lovely cut of a pistol grip AAH and shouting "4 Times a Winner of the Grand American Handicap at Live Birds"

[Destry L. Hoffard]

At least he was able to hang on to that one you just found!!!!

DLH

[Don Kaas]

Thankfully, they ordered the guns on Oct. 8 and took delivery on Dec. 10 1897. Capt. Albert William Money returned my gun to Parker Bros.for credit on 31 Dec. 1898. So this means Capt. A. W. "Bluerock" Money had no less than 3 Parkers- my gun and the 2 that were stolen. His son, Noel Ernest Money also had a Whitworth barreled AAH he had ordered a few years earlier. I do not believe there is any record of his youngest son, Harold Bloomfield Money (aka De Shootinest Gent'man) ever having owned a Parker. He was a great devotee of the Model 1897 Winchester however, as is well known.

The loss of the Parkers was not Capt. Money's only recent misfortune. It paled in comparision to the accident at his E.C. Powder plant in Oakland, NJ the prior September when a boiler blew up during lunch break and caused two other explosions resulting in 7 deaths and numerous injuries.

[Dave Noreen]

Harold was recorded shooting Parker Guns in the late 1890s through the 1901 GAH, but by the 1902 GAH he was shucking his famous Winchester Model 1897.

Capt. A.W. Money also suffered some bad luck on December 28, 1900, when George McAlpin slugged him is his office in NYC, breaking a bone in his face, after the Moneys complained about George's work as handicapper at the Cartaret Gun Club.

[Bill Murphy]

Is trapshooting still that much fun today? I've been shooting skeet for years and have never seen a punch thrown, only empty threats.

[Don Kaas]

McAlpin must have been PO'ed in the extreme...the back story of this dispute regards amateur gentlemen and gentlemen who shot routinely with the professionals in such events as the GAH. A faction at the Carteret G.C. wished to ban the latter from membership but apparently decided handicapping them to the extreme would also do the trick. This amateur vs. professional thing echoed the Victorian attitude towards sportsmanship then being imbued in the revived Olympic Games. Tuxedo, Philadelphia, Westminster, Riverton as well as Carteret all went through this until the days of the wealthy amateur American pigeon shooter, (men like Hoey, McAlpin, Macalaester, Dolan, etc.) shooting outside the confines of their private clubs all but vanished. It wasn't until the decades of the 50s, 60s and early 1970s men like them would return to big money tournament pigeon shooting in earnest in places like Philadelphia, Chalfont, Somontes, Porto and Mexico City.