Sunday Afternoon at the Range
A rifle competition between Company D and the Seattle Rifles brings a crowd of spectators and ladies to the northern suburbs, highlighting the city's turn-of-the-century military enthusiasm.
The first shooting match between Company D and the Seattle Rifles, for the medal offered by L. P. Smith & Son, took place at the range in the northern suburbs yesterday afternoon. A large crowd of spectators were present, including a number of ladies. The shooting on both sides was good, but Company D led from the start, and won the first match of the series of two out of three, by a score of 876 to 880. The second match of the series will take place on Monday next at 9 p.m. Street cars ran to within a block of the range, and no doubt a larger crowd will be on hand than that which witnessed the shoot yesterday.
“A large crowd of spectators were present, including a number of ladies.”
In 1885, Seattle residents gathered in the 'northern suburbs' to watch competitive marksmanship, a common social pastime of the era. Today, those same northern neighborhoods are densely urbanized, and the practice of amateur militia shooting in public ranges has long since been replaced by the city's complex debates over urban density, transit, and public safety.
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