Originally Posted by braindead

Thank you A.C.General !
well this is probably a simple one - in autumn of 1889 in one important Europ. capital the following happening took place : A circus troupe arrived to city and one of their acts was phenomenal sharpshooter . Last part of the show had the shooter call somebody from the public and from quite a distance shoot the ash from the ´somebodys´ burning cigar . The ´target´ was always one of the troupe , disguised as part of the public , but in this city , he was late . One man jumped to arena , lit a cigar and stood sideways to the shooter . Sharpshooter had hangover from previous evening and was very worried , but still performed the shot magnificently and shot the ash off the cigar .
25 years later the shooter wrote to the former ´target´ asked for a new opportunity . Of course there was no rematch .
Question - who was the target ?