PUNCH,

OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

VOL. 103.



November 5, 1892.




CONVERSATIONAL HINTS FOR YOUNG SHOOTERS.

LUNCH (_continued_).--Perhaps the best piece of advice that I can
give you, my young friend, is that--for conversational purposes--you
should make a careful study of the natures and temperaments of your
companions. Watch their little peculiarities, both of manner and of
shooting; pick up what you can about their careers in sport and in
the general world, and use the knowledge so acquired with tact and
discretion when you are talking to them. For instance, if one of the
party is a celebrated shot, who has done some astonishing record at
driven grouse, you may, after the necessary preliminaries, ask him
to be good enough to tell you what was the precise number of birds he
shot on that occasion. Tell him, if you like, that the question arose
the other day during a discussion on the three finest game-shots of
the world. If you happen to know that he shot eighteen hundred birds,
you can say that most people fixed the figure at fifteen hundred.
He will then say,--"Ah, I know most people seem to have got that