A Brief History of Rifle Exhibition Drill
The first documented performance of exhibition drill (XD) was performed by Hadji Cheriff at what is believed to be the Midway Plaisance of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. The film was later copyrighted by Thomas Edison in 1899, entitled "The Arabian Gun Twirler."
The performance, though quite absurd to today's standards, demonstrates without a doubt, rudimentary aerial (two 1½s over-hand thrown from the firing hammer) and over the shoulder techniques with a rather remarkable display of over-the-head drill (OTH), and ends right after an under the leg inverted spin.
What else is remarkable about this performance is the choice of weapon. Though it can not be absolutely determined, one can make a good case by viewing the below listed video stills that it was a .577 caliber, triple band, 1853 Enfield Musket: This weapon is 56" long and weighs about 9.5 pounds, which is 13" longer and slightly heavier than, if not as much as, drill weapons used today.
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Famous quotes containing the words history, rifle, exhibition and/or drill:
“... in America ... children are instructed in the virtues of the system they live under, as though history had achieved a happy ending in American civics.”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“Many times man lives and dies
Betweeen his two eternities,
That of race and that of soul,
And ancient Ireland knew it all.
Whether man die in his bed
Or the rifle knocks him dead,”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The hardiest skeptic who has seen a horse broken, a pointer trained, or has visited a menagerie or the exhibition of the Industrious Fleas, will not deny the validity of education. “A boy,” says Plato, “is the most vicious of all beasts;” and in the same spirit the old English poet Gascoigne says, “A boy is better unborn than untaught.””
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Swift blazing flag of the regiment,
Eagle with crest of red and gold,
These men were born to drill and die.
Point for them the virtue of slaughter,
Make plain to them the excellence of killing
And a field where a thousand corpses lie.”
—Stephen Crane (1871–1900)