Madison Square Garden
Forest & Stream
https://books.google.com/books?id=n0...J&pg=PA420&lpg
“The Parker Gun”
Mr. James Fadden (Tammany Hall and Bowery politician), it may be remembered, was much surprised and perturbed when first he came into the presence of an actual gentleman. Perhaps he was looking for an individual with large plaids in his trousers and a shirt front adorned with diamonds of great size and brilliancy, and whose usual converse should smack of the Roman emperor returning from successful war. Instead of this he found a man dressed as plainly and simply as possible, with conversation mild and modest, and displaying no ostentation whatever. Unused to inquiring into fields out of his daily experience, it may be that Mr. Fadden did not at first credit his eyes. Perhaps he reserved in favor of the plaids and jewels his opinion of what made a gentleman.
That was because Mr. Fadden was ignorant.
In ignorance some men are often misled by display or by pretense. They may be slow to realize the merit of the simple, the modest, the plain, the severe. They may misapprehend the men who are really at the top, because these men, being at the top, do not find it necessary in their own creeds to proclaim continuously the fact that they are at the top. The gentleman has no need to boast, and does not boast. Yet a gentleman may be good company when it comes to an awkward place or a hard emergency. It is best not to be misled by swagger or haughtiness, but to look carefully at the simple, the plain, the unaffected, the genuine. Having found such a character, be sure it will know how to give itself proper dress when the time comes.
For thirty years the Parker has been the gentleman of guns. In that time there may have been a few who did not recognize it as such. That was because they were ignorant. It is recorded that Mr. Fadden learned to admire the type he first viewed in the disbelief borne of ignorance. He came to recognize actual superiority. For thirty years the Parker gun has known itself a gentleman, and so have many thousands of its friends known.
At the Exposition one could see the Parker (in its simple but elegant home) in all sorts of clothes, depending upon the work in hand—in rough clothes, in business clothes, in morning dress, in half dress, in evening clothes. Every time (if you know gentlemen yourself when you see them) you could see the gentleman beneath the clothing, simple, plain, dependable, honorable, thoroughbred.
This is how we should describe the Parker. It is a gentleman, not only a part of the time, but all the time and in every situation. You can depend upon it.
Capt. A.W. du Bray—whom all the country knows as the most generous-minded of enthusiasts on the gun—was in charge of the Parker exhibit, and a happier arrangement than this could not have been devised, for he has been a devoted admirer of the Parker gun for these many years, and his ardor knows no cooling. Perhaps—one does not know but only guesses—it was his enthusiasm which suggested many recent improvements in outline and ornamentation in the higher grades of this standard arm,
“I claim for this Parker gun,” said Capt. du Bray, lovingly fondling the most expensive of the guns shown in the exhibit, “that in outline, finish, symmetry, balance, ornamentation, in short every element of beauty and completeness, it is the peer of any gun made on earth. As to its shooting or its durability I nerd not speak, for everyone knows how our guns shoot and how they wear. We have never made so fine a gun as we are making now. and I believe no one on earth is making finer. Look at this engraving. You see no longer pictures of dogs and game, but masses of close scrolls and lines, flowers, leaves, all making a solid and continuous mass of ornament. You will like this better than the old ways, but you do it cause the wedge simply goes further into its engagement and takes up any wear. It is a compensation without any screws. Yet you can take this fore end off with one hand and with perfect ease.”
“Look at these barrels. Do you see the sheaf of wheat stamped in the metal? That is the stamp of Sir Joseph Whitworth. It means these barrels are good as wheat, good as gold. They are the finest fluid steel made on earth. They come to us wrapped in tissue paper, each tube having Sir Joseph Whitworth's certificate appended to it. To the purchaser of one of these guns we give Sir Joseph's barrel number certificate, and add our- own that the barrels named in that certificate went into that gun, number so and so. Our guaranty is thus perfect. I think there is no more perfect gun made. It lists $400. Here is another in Damascus, a fine Pigeon gun, at $300. At $200 and $100 you have excellent grade guns, modern and handsome every way, and of course, the more moderate buyer can find good Parkers all the way down the scale. Here is a beautiful little 16 gauge, and I own I can't help loving it even though it has hammers. It is one of our old makes, but it is still a sweet sixteen to me. In 12-gauges we fit you as light as 6 lbs. 2oz., and here is a lovely 20 gauge which would delight the most fastidious of those Texas small-bore lovers of whom one hears sometimes. I don't believe a more perfect or more beautiful 20-gauge than this was ever made. It is good enough to eat.” (Even when no one is around Capt. du Bray sometimes takes some of his favorites out of the cases, to look at them just once more!)
The display of Messrs. Parker Bros, is made in one of the same great cases which they had at the World's Fair. At that place there were 108 guns shown. Here there were 75, but a very complete line, from cheap grades up to the highest price Pigeon guns. These latter are in a nicely padded revolving case, and being so accessible were perhaps more generally observed than the long double row of sturdy 12s. and 10s. within the big case. Even some 8-gauges were on hand.
The Parker exhibit was open and homelike, with no inclosing rail and no raised platform. It was right on the aisle, near the door of the main entrance, and consequently was much visited. “I believe there must be 500,000 of our guns in use,” said Capt. du Bray. “They come in here and say, ‘Ah, here is where we are at home. My brother shoots a Parker, or my cousin shoots a Parker, or my aunt's brother-in-law shoots a Parker.’ And I tell you, they all swear by the old gun.”
Well they may, for the old gun is a thoroughbred all the way through. For instance, there was one plain, ordinary gun shown in the Parker exhibit which was snapped (on the empty barrels) 1,003,000 times before it went out of the factory. Then it went out to the World's Fair and was snapped there no one knows how many thousand times. Then it went back to the factory, and a boy was hired to open and shut it, cock and snap it, for two weeks all day each day, the boy doing nothing else. Then the makers took out the right hand mainspring, cut away the plates so the locks could be seen, and sent these two locks, the old one and the new, down to the Sportsmen's Exposition to have the gun snapped some more. If there is any difference between the strength and action of the two locks, it is such as the ordinary ear cannot detect. Locks such as those would, wear out a dozen guns. They are, as their makers claim, indestructible. Yet this particular pair of locks was no better than those put into all Parker guns.
The cutting away of the plates over the locks of one of the guns showed the excellence of the cocking device. “This gun does not cock with a twist or a wrench,” said Capt. du Bray, “but you can see it is cocked by a direct, positive pull, not a strain. The fore end, too, is built with a wedge principle, so that it can never become loose, because the wedge simply goes further into its engagement and takes up any wear. It is a compensation without any screws. Yet you can take this fore end off with one hand and perfect ease.”
One could spend a long time at the Parker exhibit and learn something all the time. It was a dangerous place to go unless one wanted to buy a gun, for honest enthusiasm is infectious. Indeed, it must needs be a cold American who could help feeling an enthusiasm of his own for the beautiful specimens of gun-making shown in this display. This was one of the educating influences of the Exposition. Let one treat it as he may, it will trouble him to find more satisfying looking guns than he could see there. No one ever doubted the excellent qualities of this typical American gun, but once there was a cry against all American gun-makers, “Give us more grace of outline.” In all justice this cry should now be relegated to the past, and the force of this is unavoidably felt by anyone who did his duty at the Exposition and passed a few moments with the Parker gun.
01-16-2017, 04:57 PM
Linear Mode
