Winfield M1873
WINFIELD M1873. (See also, ONE IN A THOUSAND, RIFLE, WINFIELD REPEATING ARMS COMPANY) Known for its accuracy, long range, and quick fire, the Winfield M1873 was referred to by Confederate soldiers as "that damned Yankee rifle that they load on Sunday and fire all week."The M1873's side-loading lever action made it possible to fire many shots in succession without reloading. It was also the first Winfield rifle to use center-fire cartridges.
The Winfield M1873 earned prominence in the United States as a rifle that could be used both for protection in and around the home and for hunting game, particularly buffalo, which it was powerful enough to bring down at 200 yards. After two years of production, the M1873 was so popular that the Winfield Repeating Arms Company started a special line. Specially finished M1873s were engraved with the words "One in a thousand"and sold for
$100 - quite expensive for the time - and were said to be even more accurate than the standard model.
Correspondence, Philip Huff Jones
Typewritten, carbon copy
December 7,1894
Mr. Winfield, Sir,
I am sorry that you thought necessary to send me such a letter as your last. The troubles of the world have given a morbid tone to your feelings, which it is your duty to discourage. I cannot agree to entertain your proposition, either in justice to yourself or to my own interests. The location in which you have suggested I insert my last letter is suited to the task in neither size nor terrain.
If you did not wish to partner your company with my cause, you had only to say so. Or, perhaps better yet, simply never to have answered, pretending to an error on behalf of the postman.
If by accident you have taken it into your head, if by any sad accident you should believe that I am to be insulted with impunity, I can only assume that you are no better than a beggar's shoe. This one point being distinctly understood, I shall feel myself more at liberty to be explicit. You church bell, you gibface, you hedge creeping plague sore! Your arrogance, or perhaps the success of your company, has turned your brain. What you have clearly failed to understand is the urgency of the situation. Our problems will soon become yours, if they have not already. This is of no small consequence and far beyond the reach of the God on whose mercy you call.
But perhaps there is no need for undue severity. Let us meet as if we had not exchanged letters, and let us pray we never meet.
Philip Huff Jones, M.D.
Superintendent, Louisiana State Asylum at Jackson
Unpublished manuscript, "Bad As They Seem
Author: Hayden Collins
Undated
Bleached paper, typewritten, 8.5x11 in
-5-
They closed the shop for one week and went into the swamps to train with the woman who called herself Lynch. Jos, who preferred the sledgehammer to a ranged weapon, who preferred the wet mash of flesh and the crunch of bone reverberating up her arm after a direct hit to the distant ease of long-range firearms, learned to shoot, and a Winfield became her constant companion. Fin, who could Robin Hood any target with a crossbow, practiced with knives, a pistol, and a machete. But the knives were her favorite. Such an intimate way to incapacitate flesh.
It took several days to learn to shoot, but Jos was focused, obsessively so; the twins both were. They took quickly to every weapon Lynch was able to provide, though she had but one trunk: a portable arsenal and their first box of toys.
A pack of rabid dogs were their first real opponents, and the twins slaughtered them with ease, working back to back: methodical, brutal, graceful. Lynch watched from a nearby perch, ready to take down the dogs with her own rifle should the twins prove incompetent, but she found no reason to fire.
Learning to track was more difficult, and local black bears provided the practice they needed. As they learned to read the signs, Lynch described the beings they could expect to face. The gruesome butcher with the head of a pig, skewered with hooks and bits of metal. A giant spider that lurked in dark, enclosed spaces, skittering and fast, clicking and keening and hungry. A tall, spindly killer, deceptive and quick. They would, she explained, receive a large bounty if they were successful in killing creatures like these
"Then I guess we're going to be rich," Fin said, the rare light of a smile illuminating her lips.
