Wayne Smith
11-21-2018, 10:10 AM
Frederick Law Olmsted (designer of NYC Central Park, among many others) took a ride through Texas in the 1850's with his brother. Written in A Journey Through Texas: or A Saddle-trip on the Southwestern Frontier, a fascinating read throughout.
" Of the Colt's (1851 Navy) we cannot speak in to high terms. Through subjected for six or eight months to rough use, exposed to damp grass, and to all the ordinary neglects of accidents of camp travel, not once did a ball fail to answer the finger. Nothing got out of order, nothing required care; not once, though carried at random, in coat-pocket or belt, or tied thumping at the pummel, was there an accidental discharge. In short, they simply gave us perfect satisfaction, being all they claimed to be. Before taking them from home we gave them a trial alongside every rival we would hear of, and we had with us an unpatented imitation, but for practical purposes one Colt we found worth a dozen of all others. Such was the testimony of every old hunter and ranger we met. There are probably in Texas about as many revolvers as male adults, and I doubt if there are one hundred in the state of any other make. For ourselves, as I said, we found them perfect. After a little practice we could very surely chop off a snake's head from the saddle at any reasonable distance, and across a fixed rest we could hit an object the size of a man at ordinary rifle range. One of our pistols was one day submerged in a bog for some minutes, but on trial, though dripping wet, not a single barrel missed fire. A border weapon, so reliable in every sense, would give brute courage to even a dyspeptic tailor."
Quite a testimony from an honest man.
" Of the Colt's (1851 Navy) we cannot speak in to high terms. Through subjected for six or eight months to rough use, exposed to damp grass, and to all the ordinary neglects of accidents of camp travel, not once did a ball fail to answer the finger. Nothing got out of order, nothing required care; not once, though carried at random, in coat-pocket or belt, or tied thumping at the pummel, was there an accidental discharge. In short, they simply gave us perfect satisfaction, being all they claimed to be. Before taking them from home we gave them a trial alongside every rival we would hear of, and we had with us an unpatented imitation, but for practical purposes one Colt we found worth a dozen of all others. Such was the testimony of every old hunter and ranger we met. There are probably in Texas about as many revolvers as male adults, and I doubt if there are one hundred in the state of any other make. For ourselves, as I said, we found them perfect. After a little practice we could very surely chop off a snake's head from the saddle at any reasonable distance, and across a fixed rest we could hit an object the size of a man at ordinary rifle range. One of our pistols was one day submerged in a bog for some minutes, but on trial, though dripping wet, not a single barrel missed fire. A border weapon, so reliable in every sense, would give brute courage to even a dyspeptic tailor."
Quite a testimony from an honest man.