THE SHOOTING CLUB.

EDITORS HERALD-CRIMSON.-In your issue of Monday last, there appeared an editorial criticizing the way in which the Harvard Shooting Club was organized, and also condemning the choice of Walnut Hill as the club range.

Last Thursday, it will be remembered, a notice was published in these columns asking all interested in shooting to meet in Holden Chapel to take steps toward the formation of a shooting club, and a notice to the same effect was posted in Memorial. In response to this call about 100 men came together and organized the club by electing officers, choosing a name and appointing committees. Among this number '85 and '84 were well represented, and every man nominated for any office by these classes was elected to that office, with the exception of one or two men, who declined to run.

If, then, these two classes had not interest enough in the project to even nominate men for the club offices, it would seem to be just as well for the prosperity of the club that its officers should be men who take an active interest in its affairs even though they may happen to belong for the greater part to one class. In point of fact, however, the management of the club's affairs is in the hands of the board of directors, composed of representatives from each class, so there need be no fear that any partiality will be shown to any one class.

When the writer of your editorial condemns the choice of Walnut Hill as shooting ground for the club, he shows plainly that he has himself made no investigations on the subject, and that he has either forgotten or never heard the arguments in favor of this choice. Walnut Hill is as accessible as any of the ranges near Boston, and is, as all shooting men know, the best equipped range in the United States, both in respect to its accommodations for rifle shooting, and those for shooting glass balls and clay pigeons. It is hoped that the match committee will determine upon a series of rifle and shot-gun matches, to be shot during the winter months, and Walnut Hill is the only range accessible to us which offers accommodations for winter shooting. The only expense to be incurred by the club this winter will be in the purchase of medals or cups for prizes, and in procuring a seal for the shingle. All expenses at Walnut Hill are covered by the price paid for glass balls and target hire by those who shoot. The glass balls cost two cents apiece, and clay pigeons are but three cents, and in these prices is included the pay for trappers and scorers and the use of a convenient and well warned shooting-house. The rates of target hire are about 30 cents an hour, per man, which includes the service of experienced markers, in the butts.

If an attempt were made to equip grounds near the college this fall, we should find the club saddled with expenditures which would render heavy assessments necessary, and it seems far better to wait till spring before making any such attempt when the club will be more firmly established and possessed of more experience. As to the remarks made in your editorial on the inadvisability of shooting over the 800, 900 and 1000 yards ranges, it should be stated that no thoughts of such long-range practice have been entertained by any one in any way connected with the club, and if the writer of the article in question had been present at last Thursday's meeting, he would have heard it stated that the matches for rifle competition would be shot at 100 and 200 yards range, in order to encourage those to whom rifle-shooting is a new experience.

In conclusion, it should be said that the club does propose to benefit the greatest possible number, by building up an interest in shooting among the undergraduates, and it is to the shooting men of each class that it looks for that hearty support by which alone an organization of this kind can become effective.

JAMES A. FRYE.