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Another Real Tough Guy that you probably knew of!

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Charles Young (March 12, 1864 – January 8, 1922) was the third African-American graduate of West Point, the first black U.S. national park superintendent, first black military attaché,\.
Also the first black man to achieve the rank of colonel, and highest-ranking black officer in the Regular Army until his death in 1922.

Early life and education

Charles Young was born in 1864 into slavery to Gabriel Young and Arminta Bruen in Mays Lick, Kentucky, a small village near Maysville.[1]
However, his father escaped from slavery early in 1865, crossing the Ohio River to Ripley, Ohio, and enlisting in the Fifth Regiment of Colored Artillery (Heavy) near the end of the American Civil War.[1]
His service earned Gabriel and his wife their freedom, which was guaranteed by the 13th Amendment after the war. Arminta was already literate, which suggests she may have worked as a house slave before her freedom.
The Young family settled in Ripley when Gabriel was discharged in 1866, deciding that opportunities there in Ohio were probably better there than in postwar Kentucky. Gabriel Young received a bonus by continuing to serve in the Army after the war, and he had enough to buy land and build a house.
Charles Young attended the all-white high school in Ripley, the only one there who was African-American. He graduated in 1880 at the top of his class. He then taught for several years in the new black high school opened in Ripley.[1]

West Point

In 1883, Young took the competitive examination for appointment as a cadet at United States Military Academy at West Point.
He had the second highest score in his district, but the top candidate decided not to go and Young reported to West Point in 1884.
There was then one other black cadet, John Hanks Alexander, who had entered in 1883 and graduated in 1887. Young and Alexander shared a room for three years at West Point.
Although regularly discriminated against, Young did make several lifelong friends among his later classmates, but none among his initial class.[2]
He had to repeat his first year when he failed mathematics. He later failed an engineering class, but he passed it the second time when he was tutored during the summer by George Washington Goethals, the Army engineer who later directed construction of the Panama Canal and who as an assistant professor took an interest in Young.
(It was not unusual for cadets to need tutoring in some subjects. Young’s strength was in languages, and he learned to speak several.)[1]
As one of the very first African-Americans to attend and graduate from West Point, Charles Young faced challenges far beyond his white peers. He experienced extreme racial discrimination from classmates, faculty and upperclassmen.
Hazing was not an unusual practice at the male dominated military academies. Charles Young, however, was subjected to a disproportionate amount of abuse because of his color.[3]
There are many stories about Young’s struggles at West Point. Upon arrival to West Point, Young was welcomed in as “The Load of Coal”.[4]
Once, in the mess hall, a white cadet proclaimed that he would not take food from a platter that Young had already taken from. Young passed the white cadet the plate first, allowing him to take from it, then he himself took from the plate.[5]
Upperclassmen targeted and demerited Young 140 times, which would have been considered unusually high.[6] Whereas Young’s peers were referred to by their last names, Young was called “Mr. Young” as a kind of feigned deference.[4]
One of Young’s greatest struggles at West Point was loneliness.[7] A white classmate of Young’s, Major General Charles D. Rhodes, later reported that it was a practice of Young to converse with some of the servants at West Point in German to maintain some human interaction.[8]
Towards the end of his five-year stay at West Point, the merciless discrimination and taunts decreased.[9]
Because of his perseverance, some of Young’s classmates began to see past the color of his skin. Despite this and by his own admission, Charles Young’s time at West Point was fraught with difficulty.[10]

Career

Young graduated in 1889 with his commission as a second lieutenant, the third black man to do so at the time (after Henry Ossian Flipper and John Hanks Alexander, and the last one until Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. in 1936).
He was first assigned to the Tenth U.S. Cavalry Regiment. Through a reassignment, he served first with the Ninth U.S. Cavalry Regiment, starting in Nebraska.
His subsequent service of 28 years was chiefly with black troops—the Ninth U.S. Cavalry and the Tenth U.S. Cavalry, black troops nicknamed the “Buffalo Soldiers” since the Indian Wars.
The armed services were racially segregated until 1948, when President Harry S. Truman initiated integration by executive order, which took some years to complete.[11]

Marriage and family

After getting established in his career, Young married Ada Mills on February 18, 1904 in Oakland, California.
They had two children: Charles Noel, born in 1906 in Ohio, and Marie Aurelia, born in 1909 when Young and his family were stationed in the Philippines.[12]

Military service

 Captain Charles Young in 1903

 
Young began his service with the Ninth Cavalry in the American West: from 1889-1890 he served at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, and from 1890-1894 at Fort Duchesne, Utah.
In 1894, Lieutenant Young was assigned to Wilberforce College in Ohio, an historically black college (HBCU), to lead the new military sciences department, established under a special federal grant.[13]
A professor for four years, he was one of several outstanding men on staff, including W.E.B. Du Bois, who became his close friend.[1]
When the Spanish–American War broke out, Young was promoted to the temporary rank of major of Volunteers on May 14, 1898.
He commanded the 9th Ohio Infantry Regiment which was, in the terminology of the day, a “colored” (i.e. African-American) unit.
Despite its name, the 9th Ohio was only battalion sized with four companies. The short war ended before Young and his men could be sent overseas.
Young’s command of this unit is significant because it was probably the first time in history an African-American commanded a sizable unit of the United States Army and one of the very few instances prior to the late 20th Century.
He was mustered out of the volunteers on January 28, 1899, and reverted to his regular army rank of first lieutenant. He was promoted to captain in the 9th Cavalry Regiment on February 2, 1901.[14]

National Park assignments

In 1903, Young served as captain of a black company at the Presidio of San Francisco. He was then appointed acting superintendent of Sequoia and General Grant national parks, becoming the first black superintendent of a national park.
(At the time the military supervised all national parks.)
Because of limited funding, however, the Army assigned its soldiers for short-term assignments during the summers, which made it difficult for the officers to accomplish longer term goals. Young supervised payroll accounts and directed the activities of rangers.
Young’s greatest impact on the park was managing road construction, which helped improve the underdeveloped park and allow more visitors to enjoy it.
Young’s men accomplished more that summer than had been done under the three officers assigned to the park during the previous three summers.
Captain Young’s troops completed a wagon road to the Giant Forest, home of the world’s largest trees, and a road to the base of the famous Moro Rock. By mid-August, the wagons of visitors could enter the mountaintop forest for the first time.[15]
With the end of the brief summer construction season, Young was transferred on November 2, 1903, and reassigned as the troop commander of the Tenth Cavalry at the Presidio.
In his final report on Sequoia Park to the Secretary of the Interior, he recommended the government acquire privately held lands there, to secure more park area for future generations. This recommendation was noted in legislation to that purpose introduced in the United States House of Representatives.

Other military assignments

Charles Young cartoon by Charles Alston, 1943

With the Army’s founding of the Military Intelligence Department, in 1904 it assigned Young as one of the first military attachés, serving in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
He was to collect intelligence on different groups in Haiti, to help identify forces that might destabilize the government. He served there for three years.
In 1908 Young was sent to the Philippines to join his Ninth Regiment and command a squadron of two troops. It was his second tour there. After his return to the United States, he served for two years at Fort D.A. Russell, Wyoming.
In 1912 Young was assigned as military attaché to Liberia, the first African-American to hold that post.
For three years, he served as an expert adviser to the Liberian government and also took a direct role in supervising construction of the country’s infrastructure.
For his achievements, in 1916 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) awarded Young the Spingarn Medal, given annually to the African American demonstrating the highest achievement and contributions.[16]
In 1912 Young published The Military Morale of Nations and Races, a remarkably prescient study of the cultural sources of military power.
He argued against the prevailing theories of the fixity of racial character, using history and social science to demonstrate that even supposedly servile or un-military races (such as Negroes and Jews) displayed martial virtues when fighting for democratic societies.
Thus the key to raising an effective mass army from among a polyglot American people was to link patriotic service with fulfillment of the democratic promise of equal rights and fair play for all. Young’s book was dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt, and invoked the principles of Roosevelt’s “New Nationalism”.[17]
During the 1916 Punitive Expedition by the United States into Mexico, then-Major Young commanded the 2nd squadron of the 10th United States Cavalry. While leading a cavalry pistol charge against Pancho Villa‘s forces at Agua Caliente (1 April 1916), he routed the opposing forces without losing a single man.[18]
Because of his exceptional leadership of the 10th Cavalry in the Mexican theater of war, Young was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in September 1916.
He was assigned as commander of Fort Huachuca, the base in Arizona of the Tenth Cavalry, nicknamed the “Buffalo Soldiers”, until mid 1917.[16] He was the first African American to achieve the rank of colonel in the US Army.[19]

Forced retirement

With the United States about to enter World War I, Young stood a good chance of being promoted to brigadier general.
However, there was widespread resistance among white officers, especially those from the segregated South, who did not want to be outranked by an African American.
A lieutenant who served under Young complained to the War Department, and Secretary of War Newton Baker replied that he should “either do his duty or resign.” John Sharp Williams, senator from Mississippi, complained on the lieutenant’s behalf to President Woodrow Wilson.
The President overruled Baker’s decision and had the lieutenant transferred. (In 1913, Southern-born Wilson had segregated federal offices and established discrimination in other ways.) Other white officers in the 10th Cavalry became encouraged to apply for transfers as well.
Baker considered sending Young to Fort Des Moines, an officer training camp for African Americans. However, Baker realized that if Young were allowed to fight in Europe with black troops under his command, he would be eligible for promotion to brigadier general, and it would be impossible not to have white officers serving under him.
The War Department instead removed Young from active duty, claiming it was due to his high blood pressure.[20] Young was placed temporarily on the inactive list (with the rank of colonel) on June 22, 1917.
In May 1917 Young appealed to Theodore Roosevelt for support of his application for reinstatement. Roosevelt was then in the midst of his campaign to form a “volunteer division” for early service in France in World War I.
Roosevelt appears to have planned to recruit at least one and perhaps two black regiments for the division, something he had not told President Wilson or Secretary of War Baker.
He immediately wrote to Young offering him command of one of the prospective regiments, saying “there is not another man [besides yourself] who would be better fitted to command such a regiment.” Roosevelt also promised Young carte blanche in appointing staff and line officers for the unit. However, Wilson refused Roosevelt permission to organize his volunteer division.[21]
Young returned to Wilberforce University, where he was a professor of military science through most of 1918.
On November 6, 1918, after he had traveled by horseback from Wilberforce, Ohio, to Washington, D.C. to prove his physical fitness, he was reinstated on active duty as a colonel.[15] Baker did not rescind his order that Young be forcibly retired.[20]In 1919, Young was reassigned as military attaché to Liberia.
Young died January 8, 1922, of a kidney infection while on a reconnaissance mission in Nigeria.
His body was returned to the United States, where he was given a full military funeral and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington, DC.
He had become a public and respected figure because of his unique achievements in the Army, and his obituary was carried in the New York Times.[22]

Honors and legacy

Young’s house near Wilberforce, Ohio

  • 1903 – The Visalia, California, Board of Trade presented Young with a citation in appreciation of his performance as Acting Superintendent of Sequoia National Park.
  • 1916 – The NAACP awarded him the Spingarn Medal for his achievements in Liberia and the US Army.
  • He was elected an honorary member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
  • 1922 – Young’s obituary appeared in the New York Times, demonstrating his national reputation.
  • 1922 – His funeral was one of few held at the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, where he was buried in Section 3.[22]
  • Charles E. Young Elementary School, named in his honor, was built in Washington, D.C. The first elementary school in Northeast D.C., it was built to improve education in the city’s black neighborhoods. It was one of several schools closed in 2008, but the building now houses Two Rivers Public Charter School.
  • 1974 – The house where Young lived when teaching at Wilberforce University was designated a National Historic Landmark, in recognition of his historic importance.[16]
  • 2001 – Senator Mike DeWine introduced Senate Resolution 97, to recognize the contributions of the Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth and Tenth Cavalry, and Colonel Charles D. Young.[23]
  • 2013 – President Barack Obama used the Antiquities Act to designate Young’s house as the 401st unit of the National Park System, the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument.[24]

Military medals

Young was entitled to the following medals:

Dates of rank

  • Cadet, United States Military Academy – 15 June 1884
  • 2nd Lieutenant, 10th Cavalry – 31 August 1889 (transferred to 9th Cavalry 31 October 1889)
  • 1st Lieutenant, 7th Cavalry – 22 December 1896 (transferred to 9th Cavalry 1 October 1897)
  • Major (Volunteers), 9th Ohio Colored Infantry – 14 May 1898
  • Mustered out of Volunteers – 28 January 1899
  • Captain, 9th Cavalry – 2 February 1901
  • Major, 9th Cavalry – 28 August 1912 (transferred to 10th Cavalry 19 October 1915)
  • Lieutenant Colonel – 1 July 1916
  • Retired as Colonel – 22 June 1917[25]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Brian Shellum, Black Cadet in a White Bastion: Charles Young at West Point, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 2007, pp. 6–13, accessed 8 Jun 2010
  2. Jump up^ Shellum, Brian (2006). Black Cadet in a White Bastion: Charles Young at West Point. U of Nebraska Press. p. 132.
  3. Jump up^ Shellum, Brian G. (2006). Black cadet in a white bastion : Charles Young at West Point. Lincoln [u.a.]: Univ. of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0803293151.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b “Charles Young”. The Crisis. The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc.: 104 1 July 1923.
  5. Jump up^ “Charles Young”. The Crisis. The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc.: 155 1 February 1922.
  6. Jump up^ Heinl, Nancy G. (1 May 1977). “Col. Charles Young: Pointman”. The Crisis. The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc.: 173.
  7. Jump up^ Heinl, Nancy G. (1 May 1977). “Col. Charles Young: Pointman”. The Crisis. The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc.: 174.
  8. Jump up^ Kilroy, David P. (2003-01-01). For Race and Country: The Life and Career of Colonel Charles Young. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780275980054.
  9. Jump up^ Heinl, Nancy G. (1 May 1977). “Col. Charles Young: Pointman”. The Crisis. The Crisis Publishing Company, Inc.: 173–174.
  10. Jump up^ Kilroy, David P. (2003). For race and country : the life and career of Colonel Charles Young. Westport, Conn. [u.a.]: Praeger. ISBN 9780275980054.
  11. Jump up^ “Chapter 12: The President Intervenes”. Center of Military History. US Army. Retrieved 2010-04-06.
  12. Jump up^ Brian G. Shellum, Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment: The Military Career of Charles Young, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska, 2010, p. xx, accessed 9 Jun 2010
  13. Jump up^ James T. Campbell, Songs of Zion, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, p. 262, accessed 13 Jan 2009
  14. Jump up^ Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, 1789-1903. Francis B. Heitman. Vol. 1. pg. 1066.
  15. ^ Jump up to:a b “Sequoia National Park”
  16. ^ Jump up to:a b c “Colonel Charles Young”. Buffalo Soldier. Davis, Stanford L. 2000. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
  17. Jump up^ “Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality” (2005), pp. 41–42; Military Morale of Races and Nations, by Charles Young (1912).
  18. Jump up^ “Pursuing Pancho Villa”. Presidio of San Francisco. National Park Service. 6 December 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
  19. Jump up^ “Col. Charles Young Dies in Nigeria; Noted U.S. Cavalry Commander Was the Only Negro to Reach Rank of Colonel”. New York Times. January 13, 1922. Retrieved 2008-08-08.
  20. ^ Jump up to:a b Rawn James, Jr. (22 January 2013). The Double V: How Wars, Protest, and Harry Truman Desegregated America’s Military. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 49–51. ISBN 978-1-60819-617-3. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
  21. Jump up^ The correspondence among Roosevelt, Young and F. S. Stover (who was raising money for the regiment) is in the John Motley Collection, Tredegar Museum. A fuller account is in Richard Slotkin, Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality, (2005), pp. 41–42.
  22. ^ Jump up to:a b “Charles D. Young”, Arlington National Cemetery, accessed 9 Jun 2010
  23. Jump up^ Charles Davis, “Colonel Charles Young”, Buffalosoldier.net, accessed 9 Jun 2010
  24. Jump up^ [1], accessed 7 April 2013
  25. Jump up^ Official Register of Commissioned Officers of the United States Army. December 1, 1918. pg. 1009.

Sources

  • This article is based in part on a document created by the National Park Service, which is part of the U.S. government. As such, it is presumed to be in the public domain.

Further reading

  • Chew, Abraham. A Biography of Colonel Charles Young, Washington, D.C.: R. L. Pendelton, 1923
  • Greene, Robert E. Colonel Charles Young: Soldier and Diplomat, 1985
  • Kilroy, David P. For Race and Country: The Life and Career of Charles Young, 2003
  • Shellum, Brian G., Black Cadet in a White Bastion: Charles Young at West Point, Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 2006.
  • Shellum, Brian G., Black Officer in a Buffalo Soldier Regiment, The Military Career of Charles Young, Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2010.
  • Stovall, TaRessa. The Buffalo Soldier, Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1997
  • Stewart, T. G. Buffalo Soldiers: The Colored Regulars in the United States Army, Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 2003
  • Sweeney, W. Allison (1919), History of the American Negro in the Great World War – infobox photograph

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THE NEW ITHACA RIFLE

Now this company has been around on & off now for a very long time. Their early shotguns were of the highest quality. Now they have brought forth this fine looking rifle.

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Ithaca Rifle in Tiger Maple

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All I want to know is this. When is Santa bringing me one?

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OWNING A GUN WON’T MAKE YOU A MAN by DAVIS M.J. AURINI

 

Davis M.J. Aurini

Davis was trained as a Historian at McMaster University, and as an Infantry soldier in the Canadian Forces. An author, strategist, Catholic medievalist, and an entrepreneur, his writing can be found at Stares at the World.

  

Let me start off by being absolutely clear about where I stand: I love guns.  I love their smell.  I love their sound.  I love the smooth slide of a well-lubricated bolt-action rifle.  I love the meditative perfection of feeling my round hit its target, before there’s any rational way that I could possibly know it hit, and yet I do know.  When body, mind, sight, and weapon all line up in sync, I know.
Furthermore, I love the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.  Without the Right to Bear Arms, Freedom of Speech is an empty abstraction.  It is the moral duty of every Christian to be prepared to defend the innocent with proportionate force, up to and including lethal force.  All who can own a gun should own a gun, it is our duty to be vigilant for threats against ourselves and others.  The words of our Lord and Savior state: “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.”
Gun control is a false promise, pushed by cowards and conniving elites: security without responsibility.  It is a lie believed by fools and those who blind their eyes to the truth that evil exists in the world, and that good men must be prepared to combat it.
But with this established, let us not fall into the same intellectual trap as the gun grabbers: mistaking the object for the intent.  The root cause of mass shootings is never a gun.  The gun is only the means.  Similarly, with every righteous use of a firearm, the firearm is incidental to the heroic intent.
The gun is an excellent tool, but before you master it, you must learn to master yourself.

Military Training


During my seven years in the army, my primary weapon was the C7A1 Service Rifle; an AR-15 variant, nearly identical to the M16A1 model then used by the American military.  It is notorious for being one of the more difficult battle rifles to operate.  Unlike the AK-47, which can be left buried in the mud for five years, tossed into the hands of an illiterate 15-year-old peasant, and then employed effectively, the AR-15 is prone to jamming if it isn’t maintained correctly.
And yet, if you give me a week and a truck full of ammo, I can give you a squad of well-trained marksman who’ll be able to implement the weapon in a variety of climates and conditions.  The rifle might be complex, but it’s not that complex.
What I can’t give you is a squad of soldiers.  They’ll still be a group of young idiots with chips on their shoulders.  It takes a lot longer to train young men to the point where they’re battle-ready, than it takes to train them in the usage of a particular weapon.  The core values of discipline, courage, and restraint require more than a week-long course.

Wax On, Wax Off


The 1984 film Karate Kid follows the life of a teenager named Daniel LaRusso.  He’s the son of a single mother who’s being bullied at school.  He approaches his neighbor Mr Miyagi, a wise old Karate Sensei, and asks that he teaches him how to fight.  Rather than granting his request, Miyagi puts him through a series of chores to prove his worth.  It is only after mastering these chores that LaRusso learns he was studying Karate the entire time.  The motions behind “Wax On, Wax Off” are the same skills he needs to block another man’s punch.
More to the point, he was learning discipline and commitment.  Like all young men, he was full of piss and vinegar, and he had an intuitive sense that an injustice was occurring.  What he lacked was the restraint to respond appropriately and proportionately to his situation.  Learning to fight was the outward manifestation of his spiritual growth, but it was the internal transformation which made him into a warrior.

God Created Men and Sam Colt Made Them Equal!

The great thing about the gun is that it’s just as dangerous in the hands of Bruno the Bodybuilder as it is in the hands of Beatrice the Church Lady.  The problem with it is that it can be mistaken for a short-cut to developing the warrior spirit.
Teaching young soldiers how to use guns – even a relatively complex one like the AR-15 – is the easy part of Basic Training.  Teaching them how to discipline themselves and restrain their heroic impulses is the hard part.
There are no short cuts in developing yourself as a man.  Mental ruggedness, fortitude, restraint, and guts are all qualities that have to be earned, and buying a piece of hardware won’t bestow them upon you.  While it’s your responsibility to own a gun if possible, it’s also your responsibility to be mentally prepared.  I’ll take an unarmed, grizzled vet over three young punks with pistols any day, because the vet understands that that the knives and guns are just tools; he is the weapon.
Until you’ve developed that same nature inside of yourself, you should be extremely cautious when handling your firearm.  Without proper mental care, the gun will provide an unwarranted boost to your ego, turning you into a loose cannon, rolling about the deck and injuring your allies.  Once you have developed that nature, you’ll realize the gun isn’t truly necessary.  It’s just an implement – what matters is your intent and will.
The gun can be used to implement your best qualities, or it can be a catalyst which brings out your worst.  Always be mindful that you stay in the driver’s seat.  Young men have incredible potential to do great good, or great evil.  Make sure you become an embodiment of the first.
The true warrior understands that it’s almost never the right time to fight; that fighting is deadly, and that all victories come at a great cost.  He fights not for the sake of anger, but for love; not with ego, but with humbleness.  From a place of confidence, not braggadocio.

He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.
~G.K. Chesterton

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SAVAGE ARMS 99 .250-3000 SAVAGE







I had one of these and found out that they kick like a mule when fed the 300 Savage. Needless to say I traded it off. As I do not like getting (literally) a Bloody Nose from shooting it!
 

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Sharps Custom Mod 1874 Built By L. Shaver 30 Inch Bl. Mint Bore .45-70 Govt.

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SHARPS CUSTOM - MOD 1874 BUILT BY L. SHAVER 30 INCH BL. MINT BORE! - Picture 2
 

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N.S.F.W.

Something to think about. The next time you see one of those charity commercials begging for your money!

This was from a Guy that was born & raised in South Africa before coming to Texas. So I think that he may know what he is talking about.
 
Let Africa Sink
By Kim du Toit
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When it comes to any analysis of the problems facing Africa, Western society, and particularly people from the United States, encounter a logical disconnect that makes clear analysis impossible.
That disconnect is the way life is regarded in the West (it’s precious, must be protected at all costs etc.), compared to the way life, and death, are regarded in Africa. Let me try to quantify this statement.
In Africa, life is cheap. There are so many ways to die in Africa that death is far more commonplace than in the West. You can die from so many things: snakebite, insect bite, wild animal attack, disease, starvation, food poisoning… the list goes on and on.
At one time, crocodiles accounted for more deaths in sub-Saharan Africa than gunfire, for example.
Now add the usual human tragedy (murder, assault, warfare and the rest), and you can begin to understand why the life expectancy for an African is low — in fact, horrifyingly low, if you remove White Africans from the statistics (they tend to be more urbanized, and more Western in behavior and outlook).
Finally, if you add the horrifying spread of AIDS into the equation, anyone born in sub-Saharan Africa this century will be lucky to reach age forty.
I lived in Africa for over thirty years. Growing up there, I was infused with several African traits — traits which are not common in Western civilization. The almost-casual attitude towards death was one. (Another is a morbid fear of snakes.)
So because of my African background, I am seldom moved at the sight of death, unless it’s accidental, or it affects someone close to me. (Death which strikes at total strangers, of course, is mostly ignored.)
Of my circle of about eighteen or so friends with whom I grew up, and whom I would consider “close”, only about eight survive today — and not one of the survivors is over the age of fifty.
Two friends died from stepping on landmines while on Army duty in Namibia. Three died in horrific car accidents (and lest one thinks that this is not confined to Africa, one was caused by a kudu flying through a windshield and impaling the guy through the chest with its hoof — not your everyday traffic accident in, say, Florida).
One was bitten by a snake, and died from heart failure. Another two also died of heart failure, but they were hopeless drunkards.
Two were shot by muggers. The last went out on his surfboard one day and was never seen again (did I mention that sharks are plentiful off the African coasts and in the major rivers?).
My experience is not uncommon in South Africa — and north of the Limpopo River (the border with Zimbabwe), I suspect that others would show worse statistics.
The death toll wasn’t just confined to my friends.
When I was still living in Johannesburg, the newspaper carried daily stories of people mauled by lions, or attacked by rival tribesmen, or dying from some unspeakable disease (and this was pre-AIDS Africa too) and in general, succumbing to some of Africa’s many answers to the population explosion.
Add to that the normal death toll from rampant crime, illness, poverty, flood, famine, traffic, and the police, and you’ll begin to get the idea.
My favorite African story actually happened after I left the country. An American executive took a job over there, and on his very first day, the newspaper headlines read:
“Three Headless Bodies Found”.
The next day: “Three Heads Found”.
The third day: “Heads Don’t Match Bodies”.
You can’t make this stuff up.
As a result of all this, death is treated more casually by Africans than by Westerners. I, and I suspect most Africans, am completely inured to reports of African suffering, for whatever cause.
Drought causes crops to fail, thousands face starvation? Yup, that happened many times while I was growing up.
Inter-tribal rivalry and warfare causes wholesale slaughter? Yep, been happening there for millennia, long before Whitey got there.
Governments becoming rich and corrupt while their populations starved? Not more than nine or ten of those.
In my lifetime, the following tragedies have occurred, causing untold millions of deaths: famine in Biafra, genocide in Rwanda, civil war in Angola, floods in South Africa, famine in Somalia, civil war in Sudan, famine in Ethiopia, floods in Mozambique, wholesale slaughter in Uganda, and tribal warfare in every single country.
There are others, but you get the point.
Yes, all this was also true in Europe — maybe a thousand years ago. But not any more. And Europe doesn’t teem with crocodiles, ultra-venomous snakes and so on.
The Dutch controlled the floods. All of Europe controls famine — it’s non-existent now.
Apart from a couple of examples of massive, state-sponsored slaughter (Nazi Germany, Communist Russia), Europe since 1700 doesn’t even begin to compare to Africa today.
Casual slaughter is another thing altogether — rare in Europe, common in Africa.
More to the point, the West has evolved into a society with a stable system of government, which follows the rule of law, and has respect for the rights and life of the individual — none of which is true in Africa.
Among old Africa hands, we have a saying, usually accompanied by a shrug: “Africa wins again.” This is usually said after an incident such as:

  • a beloved missionary is butchered by his congregation, for no apparent reason
  • a tribal chief prefers to let his tribe starve to death rather than accepting food from the Red Cross (would mean he wasn’t all-powerful, you see)
  • an entire nation starves to death, while its ruler accumulates wealth in foreign banks
  • a new government comes into power, promising democracy, free elections etc., provided that the freedom doesn’t extend to the other tribe
  • the other tribe comes to power in a bloody coup, then promptly sets about slaughtering the first tribe
  • etc, etc, etc, ad nauseam, ad infinitum.

The prognosis is bleak, because none of this mayhem shows any sign of ending.
The conclusions are equally bleak, because, quite frankly, there is no answer to Africa’s problems, no solution that hasn’t been tried before, and failed.
Just go to the CIA World Fact Book, pick any of the African countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi etc.), and compare the statistics to any Western country (eg. Portugal, Italy, Spain, Ireland).
The disparities are appalling — and it’s going to get worse, not better. It has certainly got worse since 1960, when most African countries achieved independence.
We, and by this I mean the West, have tried many ways to help Africa. All such attempts have failed.
Charity is no answer. Money simply gets appropriated by the first, or second, or third person to touch it (17 countries saw a decline in real per capita GNP between 1970 and 1999, despite receiving well over $100 billion in World Bank assistance).
Food isn’t distributed. This happens either because there is no transportation infrastructure (bad), or the local leader deliberately withholds the supplies to starve people into submission (worse).
Materiel is broken, stolen or sold off for a fraction of its worth. The result of decades of “foreign aid” has resulted in a continental infrastructure which, if one excludes South Africa, couldn’t support Pittsburgh.
Add to this, as I mentioned above, the endless cycle of Nature’s little bag of tricks — persistent drought followed by violent flooding, a plethora of animals, reptiles and insects so dangerous that life is already cheap before Man starts playing his little reindeer games with his fellow Man.
What you are left with is: catastrophe.
The inescapable conclusion is simply one of resignation. This goes against the grain of our humanity — we are accustomed to ridding the world of this or that problem (smallpox, polio, whatever), and accepting failure is anathema to us.
But, to give a classic African scenario, a polio vaccine won’t work if the kids are prevented from getting the vaccine by a venal overlord, or a frightened chieftain, or a lack of roads, or by criminals who steal the vaccine and sell it to someone else.
If a cure for AIDS was found tomorrow, and offered to every African nation free of charge, the growth of the disease would scarcely be checked, let alone reversed.
Basically, you’d have to try to inoculate as many two-year old children as possible, and write off the two older generations.
So that leaves only one response, and it’s a brutal one: accept that we are powerless to change Africa, and leave them to sink or swim, by themselves.
It sounds dreadful to say it, but if the entire African continent dissolves into a seething maelstrom of disease, famine and brutality, that’s just too damn bad.
We have better things to do — sometimes, you just have to say, “Can’t do anything about it.”
The viciousness, the cruelty, the corruption, the duplicity, the savagery, and the incompetence is endemic to the entire continent, and is so much of an anathema to any right-thinking person that the civilized imagination simply stalls when faced with its ubiquity, and with the enormity of trying to fix it.
The Western media shouldn’t even bother reporting on it. All that does is arouse our feelings of horror, and the instinctive need to do something, anything — but everything has been tried before, and failed. Everything, of course, except self-reliance.
All we should do is make sure that none of Africa gets transplanted over to the U.S., because the danger to our society is dire if it does.
I note that several U.S. churches are attempting to bring groups of African refugees over to the United States, European churches the same for Europe. Mistake.
Mark my words, this misplaced charity will turn around and bite us, big time.
Even worse would be to think that the simplicity of Africa holds some kind of answers for Western society: remember Mrs. Clinton’s little book, “It Takes A Village”?
Trust me on this: there is not one thing that Africa can give the West which hasn’t been tried before and failed, not one thing that isn’t a step backwards, and not one thing which is worse than, or that contradicts, what we have already.
So here’s my (tongue-in-cheek) solution for the African fiasco: a high wall around the whole continent, all the guns and bombs in the world for everyone inside, and at the end, the last one alive should do us all a favor and kill himself.
Inevitably, some Kissingerian realpolitiker is going to argue in favor of intervention, because in the vacuum of Western aid, perhaps the Communist Chinese would step in and increase their influence in the area.
There are two reasons why this isn’t going to happen.
Firstly, the PRC doesn’t have that kind of money to throw around; and secondly, the result of any communist assistance will be precisely the same as if it were Western assistance.
For the record, Mozambique and Angola are both communist countries — and both are economic disaster areas. The prognosis for both countries is disastrous — and would be the same for any other African country.
The West can’t help Africa. Nor should we. The record speaks for itself.

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All About Guns

SHUTTLEWORTH/STEVENS STEVENS CUSTOM .40-65 CALIBER RIFLE. SPECIAL ORDER 2-BARREL SILHOUETTE RIFLE WITH 30” HEAVY .40-65 BARREL








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Gun Info for Rookies

Some solid advice – From the August 1955 American Rifleman, an article by Col. Townsend Whelen 

A Page from History: Musings of an Old Rifleman
From the August 1955 American Rifleman, an article by Col. Townsend Whelen (pictured above field testing a rifle) chronicling his observations on rifle accuracy over fifty years of shooting.
An unfortunate accident has temporarily precluded field activities, and so from an armchair I have been reviewing much of my past work to see what lessons and information could be gleaned from it. For the past 25 years I have kept quite complete records of all my shooting and experimental work, which includes considerably over 3,000 tests, scores, groups fired, as well as range and field experiences. Also, for the 25 years previous to these I have kept less methodical records. I have also collated much of the experiences of other methodical target-riflemen and hunter-riflemen. These records have concerned chiefly target and hunting rifles. Some of the lessons that can be deduced from this mass of data are, I think, incontestable.
These records show quite conclusively that the weight of the rifle has considerable bearing on the accuracy that may be expected; and with pure accuracy I include constant maintenance of location of center of impact, or zero. This seems important today in view of the increasing popularity of featherweight rifles. I have written many times that the heavier the rifle the more accurate it will be, other things being alike. The weight should always be considered in its proportion to the power and intensity of the cartridge used, and to some extent, I think, to the weight of the bullet employed. Thus the most accurate rifles I have worked with have been the heavy benchrest and varmint rifles in the ultra-high-velocity center-fire .22 calibers. In their barrel weight, particularly, they have been heavier in proportion to their charge than other rifles. Among these rifles are the only ones with which I have ever averaged minute-of-angle accuracy and less.
I am here considering only accuracy with good loads. Some loads, both factory and hand, give mediocre results with the best rifles. Thus I review only the records obtained with good bullets and sensible powder charges well suited to the arms tested.
My rifles in .250-3000 Savage and .257 Roberts calibers, in weights around 7.5 to 8.5 pounds, have always averaged better accuracy than any of the larger bores of light and medium hunting weights, because their weights are greater in proportion to their charges. A rifle taking a .25 caliber wildcat cartridge of ultra-high-velocity should weigh at least a pound more to equal the performance of these light rifles. Next come the .270 WCF and 7×64 mm rifles in the same average light sporting weight, which nearly equal the .25 calibers.

Col. Townsend Whelen at the benchrest

The author at the benchrest.

I have most thoroughly tested dozens of .30-’06 sporting rifles weighing from 8.5 to 9.5 pounds (without scope or sling). Some of these individual rifles have been tested over 50 times, during the course of some 20 years. None has ever equalled the average accuracy of the very slightly lighter .25, .270, and 7 mm rifles, because, I think, the .30-’06’s are lighter in proportion to their charge. A possible exception, appearing just recently, has been the accuracy at short ranges attained with the 125-grain Sierra bullet in .30-’06 rifles, which is a charge of less intensity, better suited to a light rifle. Thus I think that the weight of the bullet has some bearing on the results. However, the .30-’06 is a highly accurate caliber in a rifle of weight commensurate with its power, starting about with the Winchester Model 70 rifle with target-weight (medium heavy) barrel weighing about 10.25 pounds, and of course including the heavier free-rifles and bullguns weighing 12 pounds and over. Rifles for the .300 Magnum cartridge should weight about a pound heavier than the .30-’06 to give equal accuracy according to my records. In heavy bullguns, the .30-’06 was as accurate as the .300, only it did not buck the wind as well.
Minute-of-angle accuracy
Some writers continually allude to certain makes and calibers as being ‘minute-of-angle’ rifles. They would not talk so loosely had they tested a very large number of rifles, calibers and loads at the benchrest. One prominent writer recently asserted that to qualify as a long range game rifle the firearm should average minute-of-angle groups. I have yet to test a rifle powerful enough for game larger than deer at distances over 250 yards that, in a weight anyone would care to carry in the hunting field, would average minute-of-angle groups with the best ammunition, or anything like it. If a rifle gives one such group out of 10, that does not make it a ‘minute-of-angle’ rifle. Also, there are very few shooters who can fire such small groups at the bench except from rifles of rather light recoil.
The finest accuracy is desirable in target rifles because the skill of our best riflemen has always kept pace with the improvement in accuracy. It is also important in varmint rifles because of the small target. On the other hand, minute-of-angle accuracy is not essential in a big game rifle, even for long range. An average of anything under 2.5 minutes is sufficient to surely strike the vital portion of a large animal, and most moderate weight .30-’06 rifles will qualify. Thus, while extreme accuracy is not always a governing consideration, yet a highly accurate arm will always prove more interesting and satisfying. We will use it more, become more accustomed to it, and our performance with it under practical conditions will be of a higher order.
Lastly, I might remark that a lifetime of experience on long and hard hunting trails indicates that six ounces more weight in each shoe is far more fatiguing on a long day afield than two pounds extra weight in one’s rifle.
Maximum loads
In about half the instances where I have made a test of one of my rifles with one of the maximum loads as given in tables in handloading books, the test card shows some notation as “Excessive load,” “Hard extraction,” or “Cases stretch.” In possibly one-fourth of these tests the accuracy has not been up to the average for the rifle. That I have never had an accident is due, I think, to my work all being confined to rifles in first rate condition that were close to standard in bore and chamber dimensions and headspace. And also I measure and weigh a sample from each box of bullets opened. I do not fire maximum loads except for an occasional test for information. I do not want any of the difficulties that come with them in my target or hunting ammunition.
I fear that too many young shooters think these maximum loads are the most desirable ones. Instead they should regard them as a danger signal—”Approach with caution.” Irrespective of the powder charge there are so many other variables that may put such a load way over the top in pressure—a bore or chamber a little tighter than normal, a different primer, a different case, or even a bullet that may be of the correct weight but of a different make from the one used when the maximum load was first tried. The caution to start three grains under the maximum charge, and work up gradually, should never be disregarded by anyone.
Power for hunting
My thoughts on killing power have been formed not on range tests, but rather in long personal experience in the game fields going way back to black powder days, and in the experiences of just a few other hunters of wide and long experience who are also good shots. Experiences and opinions of others less experienced are not always reliable, and are liable to be influenced by things they have read without sufficient experience to evaluate the same.
Killing power must be inseparably connected with good marksmanship, becuase hits in non-vital parts of game will not always prove fatal, no matter how powerful the cartridge. On the other hand, the modern high-velocity bullet penetrating into the chest cavity will always prove quickly fatal, and all that is needed is a bullet of sufficient sectional density to surely penetrate through the heavy shoulder bones into the chest. A well-constructed .25 caliber bullet of 117-grains fired at a muzzle velocity of 2700 fps will practically always do this on any American game, up to 200 yards at least, and is the lightest load that can be advised. The .270 caliber 150-grain bullet at 2900 fps will invariably do it up to 350 yards, and nothing more powerful is needed. These two calibers will give fine accuracy in rifles of moderate weight. Very heavy bullets of large caliber are needed only for the heaviest game that is hunted in thick timber where the hunter may have to take the only shot offered on an expensive trip. This may be one at the hind quarters of an animal, and a bullet is needed that will smash through into the vital chest cavity. But a rifle shooting such a heavy cartridge is not ideal for long range, and few sportsmen can fire it with accuracy.
In my own hunting, if I did not feel sure of hitting in the chest cavity—the ‘boiler room’—I did not fire. My record of a rather large percentage of clean kills is due to my early acquiring ability with Lyman sights to align properly and quickly on game, and to time my squeeze to coincide with the first catching of such aim. This ability is easily acquired by dry shooting.
Sights
The accuracy of any rifle is limited by the sights with which it is equipped. With the very best iron hunting sights the finest rifle is only a 100-yard rifle for woodchucks and a 200-yard rifle for deer. The finest iron target sights limit the best rifle to a possible on the standard NRA targets, but a good scope makes a large proportion of hits in the X-ring possible. Modern telescope sights have very greatly increased the capabilities of all good rifles.
In order to hit, to know the vagaries of a rifle, the setting of the sight required for various distances, winds, and charges, sights must be capable of accurate adjustment, and to be able to put these adjustments on record for future reference and study, it must be possible to record these adjustments precisely. The vernier sights on the old Sharps match rifles, the Pope micrometer adjuster for the Springfield ’03 rifle, the Lyman 48 receiver sight, and the mounts of modern target telescope sights permit of adjustment and recording in terms of minutes-of-angle, and with such adjustments valuable data can be recorded for field use and detailed study.
In recent years the reticle adjustments of hunting scopes have been largely freed from lost motion, but except in three or four models the reticle dials of these scopes are totally inadequate for accurate changes in sight adjustment and for recording such adjustments. The graduations are crude, hard to read, not numbered, and in most cases there is no zero line and no place on the dial housing where a zero line can be scratched. You do not know where you have been, where you are, or where you are going. This applies even to some of the finest and most expensive hunting scopes that are perfect optically. Clicks are provided and these suffice to enable the average sportsman to sight his scope in for one distance and one load, but the seriously-minded rifleman will learn little about his rifle and loads if he is limited to such adjustments only.
Reliability
The longer the distance at which a target can be surely hit, the more efficient and reliable the rifle. The first shot is by far the most important and is almost always delivered from a cold rifle; often from a barrel that is both cold and clean. Do you know where a bullet fired under these conditions will hit? Ordinarily you have no sighting shots at game or on the battlefield.
This first shot does not always hit where the subsequent shots of a score center. Do you keep a record that will tell you where the first shot will likely hit, and what allowance you must make for it? If you do not, you are not likely to connect with that first important shot.

Col. Townsend Whelan's data card

Col. Whelan’s record card for the 32nd test of an FN Mauser rifle. Description of the rifle appears on another card. Cards measure 5×8 inches and all tests on each rifle are filed together.

If you are a target shooter the chances are you do not keep such a record. You may know your approximate sight adjustment for a certain distance for a warm, fouled bore, but you depend on your sighting shots to place your center of impact in the X-ring. You keep no records that would help you to hit with the first shot.
I seem to have been impressed with the importance of hitting with the first shot at an early age, probably because I was a hunter long before I became a target shooter. Thus, from almost the very first, my records have included the conditions for the first shot each day—sight adjustment, wind, temperature, ammunition, and shooting position. And the spot where this first shot struck has been noted, usually by the notation “ICC” on the target diagram on the score sheet, meaning “first shot from a cold clean bore.”
For reliable hitting without a sighting shot a notation of the firing position is also necessary, because so many rifles shoot to at least a slightly different center of impact when held in various positions, particularly with or without a tight gun sling. But too much attention should not be given to very slight changes in hitting point caused by one changed position, because my tests have clearly shown that there is almost always a slight change, most likely due to how the recoil is taken up on the shoulder—not much, but possibly up to 3/4 minute plus or minus each time one starts to shoot prone or from benchrest.
Work in recent years seems to indicate that rifles with free-floating barrels are most reliable in placing their shots from different firing positions, and with different conditions of bore, close to the center of impact of the subsequent series of shots; that is, the zero is more consistently maintained under all conditions.
Thus to my one-track and simple mind it has always seemed that the best and most efficient rifle was the one with which you could most surely hit a small object the first shot at the longest distance—a distance that often had to be more or less estimated. And I think that such a rifle will usually give the smallest groups, and thus be best for competitive target shooting. It pays to keep records—a score book.
Col. Townsend Whelen was a rifle shooter who fired on the Army team in the first National Trophy Rifle Team Match in 1903. He hunted widely over North America and was an intense student of firearms and author of 11 books and innumerable pamphlets on guns and shooting. Additionally, he was an accomplished benchrest shooter.

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Art Related Topics

One Hell of a Good Hunting in Africa Film

The Ghost & The Darkness

*******Trigger Warning!! Pro Hunting Story!********
Image result for the ghost & the darkness
I have had the DVD of this Film since it first was available. Which was quite a long time ago.
I even showed to my students in class. If they had done a great job for the week in my class as a reward. My Thugs / Students seemed to enjoy this film a lot.Especially this part for some reason! Go figure. But let us move on now.

This story / movie is sort of based on the truth. About when the British Empire was attempting to open up central Africa for the Ivory Trade. During the end of Queen Victoria’s reign, circa 1890’s.
Image result for british empire
It was decided upon to build a Railroad into the interior of what is present day Kenya. To help in the Ivory Trade & setting up of Coffee Plantations.
I believe at the time it was called the Lunatic Express by the Press. Which should tell you something.
Image result for british kenya

This mighty effort was then stopped cold by a pair of Man-eating Lions. These two man eaters then had to be hunted down & killed at great human cost.
Image result for kenya the ghost & the darknessI really liked the fact about this film. That the Producers of this film did not wince from showing. On what really happens when you make a mistake in the field. As there is a lot of blood & gore shown in this film.
Image result for the ghost & the darkness guns used in
File:Two.jpg
Bottom line. I think that it is one of the best Hunting in Africa Films that I have seen yet.
Below are some examples of the three main rifles used in the movie. As you can see, some serious firepower was used back then.
From top to bottom. A BSA Lee-Speed Sporter, Farqueson falling block single shot rifle and a Holland & Holland double barrel rifle. A neat photo from the Nitroexpress.com forum.

Also below is some more information about this great film. I hope that you like this.
Grumpy
http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Ghost_and_the_Darkness,_The

The Ghost and the Darkness

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ghost and the Darkness
Ghostandthedarkness.jpg

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Stephen Hopkins
Produced by
Written by William Goldman
Based on The Man-eaters of Tsavo
by John Henry Patterson
Starring
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography Vilmos Zsigmond
Edited by
  • Robert Brown
  • Roger Bondelli
  • Steve Mirkovich
Production
company
  • Constellation Films
  • Douglas/Reuther Productions
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date
 October 11, 1996
Running time
 110 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $45 million[1]
Box office $75,019,405[2][3]

The Ghost and the Darkness is a 1996 American historical adventure filmdirected by Stephen Hopkins and starring Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. The screenplay was written by William Goldman. The story is a fictionalized account of the Tsavo Man-Eaters, two lions that attacked and killed workers at Tsavo, Kenya, during the building of the Uganda-Mombasa Railway in East Africa in 1898.
The film received a mixed critical response upon release and later won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing for supervising sound editor Bruce Stambler.[4]

Plot[edit]

In 1898, Sir Robert Beaumont, the primary financier of a railroad project in Tsavo, Kenya, is furious because the project is running behind schedule. He seeks out the expertise of Lt. Colonel John Henry Patterson, a British military engineer, to get the project back on track. Patterson travels from England to Tsavo, telling his wife, Helena, he will complete the project and be back in London for the birth of their son. He meets British supervisor Angus Starling, Kenyan foreperson Samuel, and Doctor David Hawthorne. Hawthorne tells Patterson of a recent lion attack that has affected the project.
That night, Patterson kills an approaching lion with one shot, earning the respect of the workers and bringing the project back on schedule. However, not long afterwards, Mahina, the construction foreperson, is dragged from his tent in the middle of the night. His half-eaten body is found the next morning. Patterson then attempts a second night-time lion hunt, but the following morning, another worker is found dead at the opposite end of the camp from Patterson’s position.
Patterson’s only comfort now is the letters he receives from his wife. Soon, while the workers are gathering wood and building fire pits around the tents, a lion attacks the camp in the middle of the day, killing another worker. While Patterson, Starling and Samuel are tracking it to one end of the camp, another lion leaps upon them from the roof of a building, killing Starling with a slash to the throat and injuring Patterson. Despite the latter’s efforts to kill them, both lions escape. Samuel states that there has never been a pair of man-eaters; they have always been solitary hunters.
The workers, led by Abdullah, begin to turn on Patterson. Work on the bridge comes to a halt. Patterson requests soldiers from England to protect the workers, but is denied. During a visit to the camp, Beaumont tells Patterson he will ruin his reputation if the bridge is not finished on time and that he will contact the famous hunter Charles Remington to help because Patterson has been unable to kill the animals.
Remington arrives with skilled Maasai warriors to help kill the lions. They dub the lions “the Ghost” and “the Darkness” because of their notorious methods of attack. The initial attempt fails when Patterson’s borrowed gun misfires. The warriors decide to leave, but Remington stays behind. He constructs a new hospital for sick and injured workers and tempts the lions to the abandoned building with animal parts and blood. When the lions fall for the trap, Remington and Patterson shoot at them; they flee and attack the new hospital, killing many patients and Hawthorne.
Abdullah and the construction men leave, and only Patterson, Remington, and Samuel remain behind to face the marauders. Patterson and Remington locate the animals’ lair, discovering the bones of dozens of the lions’ victims. That night, Remington kills one of the pair by using Patterson and a baboon as bait. The workers celebrate, though later Patterson dreams about his wife and infant son visiting him in Tsavo, only for them to be killed by the remaining lion before he can get to them.
Waking from his nightmare the next morning, Patterson discovers that the remaining lion has dragged Remington from his tent and killed him; Patterson and Samuel cremate Remington’s corpse on a pyre at the spot where he died. Grief-stricken and desperate to end the carnage, the two men burn the tall grass surrounding the camp, driving the surviving lion toward the camp (and the ambush they set there). The lion attacks Patterson and Samuel on the partially constructed bridge and after a lengthy fight, Patterson finally kills it. Abdullah and the construction workers return, and the bridge is completed on time.
The film ends with Patterson’s wife arriving with their son, and a narration by Samuel, who informs the audience that the lions are now on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Even today, he says, “If you dare lock eyes with them, you will be afraid”.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

The film is based upon The Man-Eaters of Tsavo by Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson, the man who actually killed both real lions.

Screenplay[edit]

William Goldman first heard about the story when travelling in Africa in 1984, and thought it would make a good script. In 1989 he pitched the story to Paramount as a cross between Lawrence of Arabia and Jaws, and they commissioned him to write a screenplay which he delivered in 1990.[5]
“My particular feeling is that they were evil,” said Goldman of the lions. “I believe that for nine months, evil popped out of the ground at Tsavo.”[6]
The script fictionalises Patterson’s account, introducing an American big game hunter called Charles Remington. The character was based on Anglo-Indian big game hunter Charles H. Ryall, superintendent of the Railway Police.[7] In original drafts the character was called Redbeard, and Goldman says his purpose in the story was to create an imposing character who could be killed by the lions and make Patterson seem more brave; Goldman says his ideal casting for the role would have been Burt Lancaster.[8]
According to Goldman, Kevin Costner expressed interest in playing Patterson, but Paramount wanted to use Tom Cruisewho ultimately declined. Work on the film slowed until Michael Douglas moved his producing unit with partner Steven Reuther, Constellation Films, to Paramount. Douglas read the script and loved it, calling it “an incredible thriller about events that actually took place.”[6] Douglas decided to produce and Stephen Hopkins was hired to direct.
Val Kilmer, who had just made Batman Forever and was a frequent visitor to Africa then expressed enthusiasm for the script, which enabled the project to be financed.
The part of Remington was originally offered to Sean Connery and Anthony Hopkins but both declined; the producers were considering asking Gérard Depardieu when Douglas decided to play the role himself. Stephen Hopkins later said he was unhappy about this.[9]
In early drafts of the script, Remington was originally going to be an enigmatic figure but when Douglas chose to play him, the character’s role was expanded and was given a history. In Goldman’s book Which Lie Did I Tell?, the screenwriter argues that Douglas’ decision ruined the mystery of the character, making him a “wimp” and a “loser”.[10]

Locations[edit]

The film was shot mainly on location at Songimvelo Game Reserve in South Africa, rather than Kenya, due to tax laws. Many Maasai characters in the film were actually portrayed by South African actors, although the Maasai depicted during the hunt were portrayed by real Maasai warriors who were hired for the movie.

Filming[edit]

While the real man-eaters were, like all lions from the Tsavo region, a more aggressive, maneless variety, those used for filming were actually the least aggressive available, for both safety and aesthetic reasons. The film’s lions were two male lions with manes. They were brothers named Caesar and Bongo, who were residents of the Bowmanville Zoo in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, both of whom were also featured in George of the Jungle. The film also featured three other lions: two from France and one from the USA.
Director Stephen Hopkins later said of the shoot:

We had snake bites, scorpion bites, tick bite fever, people getting hit by lightning, floods, torrential rains and lightning storms, hippos chasing people through the water, cars getting swept into the water, and several deaths of crew members, including two drownings…. Val came to the set under the worst conditions imaginable. He was completely exhausted from doing The Island of Dr. Moreau; he was dealing with the unfavorable publicity from that set; he was going through a divorce; he barely had time to get his teeth into this role before we started; and he is in nearly every scene in this movie. But I worked him six or seven days a week for four months under really adverse conditions, and he really came through. He had a passion for this film.[6]

Reception[edit]

The film won the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing (Bruce Stambler) at the 69th Academy Awards. However, Val Kilmer was nominated for the Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor. Reviews were mixed, with Rotten Tomatoesgiving it a 50% rating based on 46 reviews. Roger Ebert said the film was so awful it “lacked the usual charm of being so bad it’s funny” adding it was “an African adventure that makes the Tarzan movies look subtle and realistic”.[11] Ebert would put the film on his list of the worst movies of 1997. Conversely, the late David R. Ellis listed this film at #8 on his “Top 10 Animal Horror Movies” countdown, a list he made to promote the release of Shark Night 3D.[12]
Hopkins said in a 1998 interview that the film “was a mess… I haven’t been able to watch it.”[9]
In India, the film was remade in Telugu as Mrugaraju and released in 2001.

Home release[edit]

The Ghost and the Darkness is available as a one-disc DVD. There are no special features besides a theatrical trailer for the film. The film was released on LaserDisc in 1997 as a one-disc, double-sided release featuring a Dolby Digital audio track.

Historical accuracy[edit]

The Tsavo Man-Eaters on display in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois.

Although Patterson claimed the lions were responsible for up to 135 deaths, the definitive peer-reviewed paper on man-eating lions and the circumstances surrounding this notorious event states that only about 28–31 killings can be verified (Kerbis Peterhans & Gnoske, 2001). (This figure does not take into account any people who may have been killed but not eaten by the animals.)[13] The original lions are on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.
Patterson’s 1907 book itself states that “between them (the lions) no less than 28 Indian coolies, in addition to scores of unfortunate African natives of whom no official record was kept” were killed. This lesser number was confirmed in the definitive paper on man-eating behavior and the Tsavo lions by Kerbis Peterhans and Gnoske (2001)[14] and soon thereafter in Dr. Bruce Patterson’s definitive book The Lions of Tsavo: Exploring the Legacy of Africa’s Notorious Man-Eaters published by McGraw-Hill in 2004. Patterson wrote the book at the Field Museum in Chicago, where the lions are on display. Kerbis Peterhans & Gnoske showed that the greater toll attributed to the lions resulted from a pamphlet written by Col. Patterson in 1925, stating “these two ferocious brutes killed and devoured, under the most appalling circumstances, 135 Indian and African artisans and laborers employed in the construction of the Uganda Railway.”[15]
In the film, both lions are depicted having manes. In reality, the man-eaters lacked manes, as male Tsavo lions possess either minimal manes or none at all.
Michael Douglas’s character, Charles Remington, is entirely fictional. Patterson hunted and killed the rogue lions more or less on his own. However, as noted in the article on the real Patterson, some time later another man was killed under mysterious circumstances; this death is said to be inspiration for Hemingway’s “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber“.
The film claims that Tsavo means “a place of slaughter”. Tsavo is the Akamba word for ‘slaughter’. The region has been referred to as “a place of slaughter” due to a history of tribal warfare between the Maasai and the Akamba.
The location where the bridge was built is now called Man-Eater’s Camp. It is in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya, about 125 kilometres (78 mi) east of Mount Kilimanjaro and 260 kilometres (160 mi) southeast of Nairobi, at 2.993558°S 38.461458°E.

See also[edit]

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Gun Owners of America Readies Lawsuit Against Trump’s Bump Stock Gun Control

A bump stock device that fits on a semi-automatic rifle to increase the firing speed, making it similar to a fully automatic rifle, is shown here at a gun store on October 5, 2017 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Congress is talking about banning this device after it was reported to of been used in the Las Vegas shootings on October 1, 2017. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

George Frey/Getty Images

by AWR HAWKINS11 Mar 2018395

Gun Owners of America is preparing to file a lawsuit once the Trump administration puts bump stock gun control in place.

On March 10, 2018, Breitbart News reported that the Department of Justice was finalizing its bump stock ban. It will center on a redefinition of the term “machine gun” in order to allow regulatory action against firearm accessories that do not convert semiautomatic firearms in automatics.

In other words, the term “machine gun” will cover machine guns and non-machine guns, conversion devices that turn semiautomatics into automatics as well as firearm accessories, like bump stocks, that do not.
On January 23, 2018, Breitbart News reported that former ATF Gun Tech Chief Rick Vasquez warned that re-working and re-defining terms to achieve a bump stock ban will lead to other bans.
He explained that ATF was, at that time, handling the initial phase of formulating the ban. He told the Military Arms Channel the ban would be “a regulation with the strength of a law.”
He said it will ban “any device that automatically resets a firearm and enhances the rate of fire,” and warned that such an approach would be “extremely broad.”
He observed, “They are trying to target binary triggers, [bump stock] devices, and other devices, but that is such broad language, can I take that to a Gatling gun? … So now you start stretching this [new] definition, and who is going to decide what the [standard] rate of fire is?”
Vasquez’s warnings came roughly two weeks after Gun Owners of America (GOA) warnedthat the Trump administration’s bump stock gun control would lead to other controls.
They suggested that an ATF powerful enough to arbitrarily redefine words so as to ban legal firearm accessories is an ATF that will not stop with bump stocks. They predicted that another crisis could lead to another redefinition which would allow the ATF to swoop in for magazines and aftermarket triggers too.
GOA executive director Erich Pratt told Breitbart News:

GOA is committed to fighting any regulation or ban on bump stocks. This issue goes far beyond stocks, because regulating devices that allegedly increase the rate of fire of a firearm can eventually be applied to match triggers, magazines or semi-automatic firearms. In essence, a bump stock ban opens the door to regulate and ban commonly-owned firearms and firearm parts. A ban on bump stocks would have huge implications for the exercise of our gun rights, and that is why GOA is already looking ahead to a lawsuit challenging the regulation.

GOA is pledging to file a lawsuit against bump stock gun control as soon as it is enacted.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.