There are plenty of other “jokes” left such as pulling a chair from under any one about to sit down, or putting tin tacks in his boots; but of course they have the disadvantage of not actually killing him, and you may be prosecuted for damages, but the joke of shooting a man on the “did not know it was loaded” principle entails no unpleasant consequences on the shooter. He is always acquitted even as when a defendant said “I only pulled the trigger to frighten her, having forgotten to unload my rifle when I left the trenches in France to come back to England.” Imagine a soldier not unloading and cleaning his rifle when coming out of the trenches, but leaving it to rust during his leave home in England!!!
CHAPTER XXXII
USING ONE’S BRAINS IN SHOOTING
Pistol shooting is not merely the mechanical art most people think it is, a man who does not use his brains and think out things will go on making the same mistakes all his life and never improve or become a good shot.
There is no such thing as luck. A bad shot means a fault somewhere, and the good shot is he who can diagnose the cause of this fault and correct it.
I saw a most ridiculous instance of a man not using his brains.
A man was practising next me at Gastinne-Renette’s. He shot some two hundred shots, beautifully grouped but all to the left.
I asked a friend if he had noticed this. He answered that he had seen this man shooting constantly, that he was a regular attendant and had been for years.