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“Manly Sport of Pigeon Shooting”
The Illustrated American March 24, 1894
http://books.google.com/books?id=tHV...AJ&pg=PA309&dq
A VERY pretty sport is pigeon shooting, and its popularity in this country is increasing every- day. In the neighborhood of New York alone there are close upon a dozen clubs where, during the season, there is at least one shooting a week. Such are the Carteret, the Westminster, the Country, the Hollywood, and Tuxedo clubs. There are persons who look upon it as a cruel pastime. But when one considers that the ultimate end of a pigeon is to have his neck wrung and to be sold in the market, it would appear far less cruel that he should end his days like a flash of lightning, and dying, enjoy the reputation of having done good service for a manly sport. Before it comes to their turn to take their places in the traps, these pigeons have a pleasant time of it. They are specially bred for the purpose and very well cared for in order that they may be strong on the wing.
Like most manly sports, pigeon shooting owes its being to England in the early part of this century. Some persons will go much farther back and trace its origin to hawking, which was a thoroughly cruel sport. Hawking declined in England after the days of the Stuarts, but never actually died out, and may at the present time be actually revived. Frederick, Prince of Wales, tried to make it the fashion, and had a falconry at Durdans, near Epsom, at present the seat of England's new Premier, the Earl of Rosebery. Some noblemen did the same thing during the early part of this century, but met with only fair success. One thing that militates against falconry in England is that the higher branches of the sport, kite hawking and heron hawking, have become impracticable there owing to the extinction of the kite and the impossibility of securing in so thickly populated a country the requisite conditions for the flight of the heron.
It was somewhere in the early twenties that a member of the bucks of London commenced to meet four times a week at Battersea, on the banks of the Thames, for the purpose of pigeon shooting. The first great record we read of was made by a Captain Ross, who, in 1828, killed from five traps at thirty yards, seventy-six birds out of eighty. Of the other birds, three settled on the fence, and one was hard hit, although the shooter's first barrel missed fire. In 1841 he killed, in a match at thirty-five yards rise, fifty-two birds out of fifty-three. In 1850 this club, which was called the Red House Club, was closed, .and trap shooting went out of fashion for some years. Its revival at Hurlingham brought it once more to the fore, and to-day, during the London season, you may see some three or four thousand of the elite of society on the grounds where polo divides the attention with pigeon shooting.
But there is no place in the world where pigeon shooting is done with as much style as at Monte Carlo. The annual international meetings there bring together the crack shots from all countries, who learn that excellence in this class of marksmanship is not the monopoly of any race. One year it is the French who take the lead, another the English or Americans, another the Italians. During the international week a prize of considerable value is shot for each day, but the principal one is the Grand Prix du Casino.
In the first year of the competition, 1872, this was won by Mr. George Lorillard, of New York. For the next six years Englishmen took it, and then, in 1880, Count Esterhazy won it for Austria. Italians have won it six times, Count Cuidicini carrying it off three times. This year it was won by Count Lichy, an Austrian.
Our sportsmen, although generally better in the field than the sportsmen of other countries, are, perhaps, not as good as foreigners at the trap. This is no doubt due to the fact that they are not accustomed to shooting in preserves.
The illustrations accompanying this article were taken at a recent return match, shot off at the Westminster Kennel Club grounds in Long Island, between the crack shots of New York and Philadelphia. In both matches the New York team proved victorious.
New York was represented by Messrs. Fred Hoey, George Work, Edgar G. Murphy, and
Capt. A. G. Money. Philadelphia, which was the favorite, had on her team Messrs. Charles Macalester, “D.S. Thomas”, H. Yale Dolan, and K.A. Welsh.
The match proved to be one of the best team matches ever contested in this country. Until the forty-seventh round the result was in doubt, and then the New York team only won by three birds. The Philadelphians, it is only fair to state, were not up to their usual form. At first the New Yorkers, with the exception of Captain Money, an Englishman now residing in this country, appeared to be in excellent condition, but they too did not do their best work, save in the case of Mr. Hoey, who killed forty-seven birds out of fifty, and got a good deal of applause for the workmanlike fashion in which he grassed the last twenty-eight. Mr. Macalester did the best work for Philadelphia, killing forty-six birds out of fifty.
At the twenty-third round the two teams were tied. The betting, which had been pretty dull up to this, now received a fresh impetus. But Murphy lost form after having killed twenty birds. Captain Money did the same, and Philadelphia came to the fore.
At the conclusion of the thirty-third round the Philadelphians led by three. At the thirty-sixth round they were in the lead by six. Then they did some poor shooting, and at the close of the forty-second round the score was a tie. Mr. Welsh now had some terribly poor luck, and this enabled New York to win in spite of Captain Money’s bad shooting. Capt. A.C. Money, New York