A /I Uiipiiblislicd Manuscript of Frank Forcstci-'s. 



367 



hatchet, at about one foot above the 

 breech. The fracture presented the 

 crystalline or candid appearance, of 

 which Mr. Krider speaks. Of the frai?- , 

 ments, locks, stock or trigger guard, 

 except a ragged fragment of wood 

 with the heel-plate attached, not one 

 atom|could be discovered, though we 

 searched patiently and long; till at 

 length, observing a large hole driven 

 through the right front and cover of 

 the' poor fellow's hat, which had fallen 

 off, we found the right breech-pin 

 buried an inch deep in the trunk of a 

 large maple tree. The man's escape 

 was marvelous as the breech-pin en- 

 tered his hat directly over his right 

 eye, and scarcely an inch above his 

 hair. 



He was recovered from his hurts, but 

 never, I think, regained his nerve and 

 confidence with his gun. 



That was the first gun I ever saw 

 burst; but on each of the two Satur- 

 days next succeeding, another followed 

 suit. One a wretched scrap-iron Bir- 

 mingham ten-dollar affair, which flew 

 into flinters without doing any harm; 

 the other a long, American-made stove- 

 pipe, half-ducking, half northwest gun. 

 It burst to atoms, from the grip to the 

 middle of the barrel, not a fragment of 

 the exploded portions being ever found, 

 and wounded the unfortunate man who 

 fired it very severely in the head. 



It is then the object of Mr. Krider 

 and his editor, in putting forward this 

 unpretending little work, to give every- 

 one who chooses to inform himself, the 

 means of gaining the information he 

 needs, previous to purchasing a gun — 

 to enable every person, if not to judge 

 what a good gun is, at least, to know 

 what a good one ought to be, and what 

 is, and must be necessarily, an exceed- 

 ingly bad one — to enable every one at 



least to avoid the harpies, who, careless 

 of anything but the gaining a few mis- 

 erable cents — for the profit on these 

 atrocious murder traps, is a little more 

 than a matter of cents — ^deluge the 

 world with things called guns, the 

 muzzle of which, when they are loaded 

 and pointed toward any one, is b}' far 

 the most innocent portion of them. 



I can well understand the burst of 

 indignation which will be called forth 

 by this book, as a direct invasion of the 

 private monopolized rights of the 

 Birmingham slaughter mongers, and 

 their allies and fellow murderers, the 

 hardware gun-sellers — for I have my- 

 self, in some degree, experienced the 

 tender mercies of a similar class, the 

 New York gun importers and venders. 



I was so audacious as to express an 

 opinion in my ' ' Field Sports of the 

 United States and British Provinces of 

 North America," and to call attention 

 to the same points as those above men- 

 tioned. I took the extreme liberty of 

 venturing to say, not that Mr. Westley 

 Richards' was trash, or even, that it 

 was not good work, but that it was 

 Birmingham work and not London 

 work; and that I did not like Mr. 

 Westley Richards' work or Birmingham 

 work at all; but London work, and 

 especially West End work; Purdy's, 

 Egg's, Lancaster's, and most of all, 

 Moore and Gray's work. I had further 

 the vile outre assurance to deny that 

 Messrs. Dane & Co., of St. William 

 street, were London makers, and to 

 avow an opinion afterwards loudly pro- 

 claimed by the London trade, in the 

 examinations which followed the burst- 

 ing of their gun in Sir Claude Scott's 

 hand, that they were rather fine finish- 

 ers than thorough workmen, and that 

 their guns, as most Birmingham guns, 

 were not free from some suspicions of 



