The Lusk Herald

REVOLVERS, COWBOYS, AND CAVALRY.

The competitions upon the last day of the Wimbledon meeting are not the least useful of the series, as they are intended to improve the shooting of our cavalry. The need of this is great indeed. Although as far back as the civil war in the United States it was proved, beyond doubt, that cavalry armed with swords had not the remotest chance of success against those armed with revolvers, and though every nation in Europe arms its cavalry with the latter weapon, the English war office—with even more than its usual impudence and obstinacy—refuses to furnish our cavalry with this weapon. The revolver is a weapon requiring much practice to be of value, but in the hands of one who has mastered its use it is a terrible weapon.

A cowboy of New Mexico is not regarded as a good shot unless when riding at full speed along a line of telegraph poles he can put a ball into each as he passes it; and the result is that although the Indians consider themselves as more than a match for the regular cavalry they will fly before a party of cowboys, even if they outnumber them many times, while 100 cowboys would rightly consider themselves as a match for a whole regiment of regular cavalry. The sword was an admirable weapon in the olden days, but a soldier armed with only a sword might be as well unarmed altogether were he to meet one armed with a revolver who was an adept in its use.—London Standard.