388 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



THE MOANING 



For Forest and Stream,. 

 OF THE TIDE. 



?rpWAS a beauteous summer's night, the moon was shining bright ; 



_L I was dozing in my Sleepy-Hollow chair. 

 While dozing there I dreamed, and in my dream it seemed 

 To me that I was young again and fair. 

 I again was a young man, a courting Betsy Ann, 

 By the sea shore we were sitting side by side; 



And though our hearts with love were stirred, we uttered not a word, 

 We were listening to the moaning of the tide. 



But my dream was rudely broke by Betsy Ann, who spoke: 



"I wish that you'd untie that horrid curl" 



Just listen to the tune, he's moaning at the moon, 



And you've tied him up so he can hardly stir." 



Then I bid my dream adieu, though part of it was true, 



For Betsy Ann was standing by my side; 



And though we were not by the shore, to hear the ocean's roar, 



We were listening to the moaning of the tied. Luke Tbipp. 



TO A CAGED 



For Vorest and Stream. 

 BIRD. 



POOR bird! pine not because debarr'd 

 From drinking of sweet freedom's joys; 

 Secure from danger, death and noise, 

 Be philosophic— 'tis not hard. 



Enough to eat, to drink and spare. 

 So trim and neat thy cottage home; 

 Why shouldn't thou wish afar to roam, 

 Where lurks the spoiler and the snare? 



Just think how many of thy race 

 To want, cold, sickness, fall a prey, 

 Whilst thou canst ply the livelong day, 

 In thy snug, cosy resting-place. 



In vain I plead ! You shake your head 

 And try the iron bars once more; 

 You'd barter all your varied store 

 Of sweets— have liberty instead. 



Birdie, we share an equal fate, 



I would that freedom's joys were mine; 



Like thee I trouble and repine, 



And rail against my present state. 



And though enough to eat have we, 

 Yet life is but a dreary waste 

 To us who crave in vain to taste 

 The purer joys of liberty. 

 New Orleans, 216 Common street. 



Jab. Rtjnnegar. 



THE FISHERMAN'S SUMMONS. 



GUNS— A DIALOGUE. 



THE sea is calling, calling. 

 Wife, is there a log to spare? 

 Fling it down on the hearth and call them in, 

 The boys and girls with their merry din, 

 I am loth to leave you all just yet, 

 In the light and the noise I might forget, 

 The voiee in the evening air. 

 The sea is calling, calling, 

 Along the hollow shore. 

 I kuovv each nook in the rocky strand, 

 And the crimson weeds on the golden sand, 

 And the worn old cliff where the sea-pinks cling, 

 And the winding caves where the echoes ring. 

 1 shall wake them never more.J 



How it keeps calling, calling, 



It is never a night to sail. 



I saw the "sea-dog" over the height, 



As I strained through the haze my tailing s 



And the cottage creaks and rocks, well nigh 



As the old "Fox" did in the days gone by, 



In the moan of the rising gale. 



Yet it is calling, calling, 



It is hard on a soul 1 say 



To go tliuteriug out in the cold and the dark, 



Like the bird they tell us of, from the ark; 



Wuile the foam flies thick on the bitter blast, 



And the angry waves roll fierce and fast, 



Where the black buoy marks the bay.j ^^ 



Do you hear it calling, calling? 



And yet, I am none so old. i 



At the herring fishery, but last year,"] 



No boat beat mine for tackle and gear. 



And I steered the coble past the reef, 



When the broad sail shook like a withered leaf, 



And the rudder chafed my hold. 



Will it never stop calling, calling? 



Can't you sing a song by the hearth? 



A heartsome stave of a merry glass, 



Or a gallant fight, or a bonnie lass, 



Don't you care for yckir grand-dad just so much, 



Come near then, give .me a hand to touch, 



Still warm with the warmth of earth. 



You hear it calling, calling? 

 Ask her why she sits and cries. 

 She always did when the sea was up. 

 She would fret, and never take bit on sup 

 When I and the lads were out at night, 

 And she saw the breakers cresting white 

 Beneath the low black skies. 



But then, in its calling, calling, 



No summons to soul was sent. 



Now— well, fetch the parson, find the book, 



It is up on the shelf there, if you look. 



The sea has been friend, and fire, and bread; 



Put me, where it will tell of me, lying dead, 



How it called, and I rose and went.— All the Year Round. 



Petrarch. — La Nature tells us that in December last the 

 mortal remains of Petrarch were exhumed for certain an- 

 thropological purposes. The great Italian's bones were 

 found to be of an amber color, moist, and partly moul- 

 dered. The cranium, of medium size, was well preserved, 

 and the frontal bone fully developed. The dothing was 

 reduced to powder. From the size and length of the bones 

 the divine poet must have been a man of middle height, 

 and of robust constitution. Petrarch died in July, 1374, 

 idmost live hundred years ago. 



SOME two hundred and fifty years ago, a great deal of 

 information of an amusing or instructive character, 

 was conveyed to the reader by means of the dialogue. We 

 are not too old to remember when those solemn and pre- 

 ternatural little boys Sanford and Merton played a game at 

 cross purposes, and when Julia asked her mamma real stun- 

 ning posers about the moon, while Alfred put in, regarding 

 the erratic motions of the stellar system, all of which prob- 

 lems, the mamma, a lady of the Sommervilliantype, answer- 

 ed in the most off hand and deliberate manner. In fact it 

 was the chit-chat of no doubt a strictly astronomical, but 

 very tiresome family. 



Good old Isaac Walton loved the dialogue, and Piscator, 

 Yenator, Aucepsand Coridon talk to one another most sen- 

 sibly, and their quaint dialogue is one of the great charms 

 of the most admirable of books, the "Complete Angler." 

 Sir Humphrey Davy, not quite half a century ago, in some- 

 what stiffer and more stately style, pits Halieus against 

 Poites, and Physicus against Ornither, and we have given 

 to us in this way all that the great savant knew about 

 Salmonia, interpreted by his various dramatis persona'.. 



This dialogue method, perhaps a trifle antiquated, recall- 

 ing the classic Greek chorus, has of course gone out of 

 fashion, but it is by no means improbable that it may not 

 be in vogue again some day. Without being, however, 

 desirous of reproducing this method of instruction, having 

 simply heard our friends, Aries Virga and Papilla, talking 

 about guns and* breech-loaders yesterday, we tianscribe 

 their conversation without any comment of our own.) 



ARIES VIRGA AND PAPILLA — IN A CLUB ROOM.g 



Aries. — It is perfectly useless, you never can convince 

 me that a gun fitted for a gentleman's use, which is safe or 

 reliable and with any kind of penetration or precision can 

 be produced bv the tsross. 



Papilla. — Still it is within the bounds of reason. Egg or 

 Manton or Beckwith or others who lived seventy-five years 

 ago, who made guns for our fathers, certainly never 

 thought so. But neither the inventive nor the mechanical 

 power have remained at a stand still during this half cen- 

 tury. 



Aries. — In the first place the material in the guns those 

 master artificers made up fifty years ago were better than 

 what we use to-day. In old times they picked up all the 

 horse-shoe nails to make the barrels with. 



Papilla. — Now let us stop right there. It is quite probable 

 that could we investigate it by any exact methods of com- 

 parison, we could show that gun-powder fifty years ago, 

 was by no means as well made, nor as strong, nor as effec- 

 tive as it is to-day, and as for that, I think it has been demon- 

 strated, that with a lighter quality of metal, our guns can 

 stand quite as much rending or bursting power as the old 

 fowling pieces. We have had forcedly to make better bar- 

 rels, for stronger and more powerful powder. As to our 

 capability of selecting soft homogeneous iron for gun bar- 

 rels if we wanted to use it, which we do not, instead of our 

 having to pick it up by the single horse shoe nail we could 

 buy charcoal iron by the bloom, or ship-load, and have in a 

 single bar all those excellent qualities which were only at- 

 tainable seventy-five years ago, by collecting the material 

 bit by bit. The fact is if you wish to make iron barrels, 

 you might select iron from a hundred different grades. 



Aries.— That is all book learning, the result, my friend 

 Papilla, of your having attended some bothering course of 

 scientific lectures. Well then, if they do use steel for 

 barrels to-day it is because the iron was too bad. They 

 cannot finish guns in this country as well as they do in 

 England. No American guns have any finish to them. 

 They may be all right, but I do not want to carry a gun 

 which is not perfection — even if guns can be made by the 

 gross. 



Papilla. — Which shows your very excellent taste — ,'a 

 thing of beauty is a — ." 



Aries. — Allow me. It is not looks alone. The gun 

 must shoot well, and all that kind of thing, but at the same 

 time, I want to pass my nail all over my gun, and if it 

 catches any where, if it is not as polished and smooth as a 

 statue, why that condemns the gun in my sight, and for my 

 use. 



Papilla.— I appreciate in everyway, your good judgment. 

 Though you may be an exquisite in respect to your dress — 

 your dogs, and horses and your arms, I must confess that 

 you are a thorough master of the sportman's art, and there 

 are not many men in the field, better shots than my friend 

 Aries Virga. I must remark, however, that you are fortu- 

 nate in having at your command means without limit. If 

 I had your wealth, there is no doubt but that I would only 

 be satisfied with a gun which would be a master piece of 

 excellence and elegance. But yor must remember that 

 where you can spend a hundred dollars, I can only spend 

 five. While youi rational amusements cost you a thou- 

 sand or so a year, I am forced to restrict mine to less than 

 a hundred. Now in the United States, I do not suppose I 

 am the singular exception in thi£ respect; shooting here is 

 essentially democratic and universal; I have no head game 

 keeper, nor under keeper to see to my arms, and attend to 

 an arsenal of guns. What is wanted here in the United 

 States are serviceable plain and cheap breech-loading guns, 

 without any great elegance about them. Of course I expect 

 to shock you by the comparison, now, a washing ma- 

 chine — ." 



Aries. — A washing machine! Why that is arch treason. 

 What has such a thing as a washing machine to do with a 

 gun? 



Papilla.-— I was only going to state that other countries, 

 and other people, make other wants, and that just as cheap 

 and good guns are required in- the United States, and a 

 demand has set in for them, exactly for the same reasons 

 washing machines were invented and sold. It is only a 

 question of supply and demand. 



Aries — Of course, I was waiting for that. You always' 

 must lug in political economy into subjects under discussion. 

 But it is nonsense in talking of sportsmen to bring in wash- 

 erwomen. There is an art, a mystery about the manufac- 

 ture of a fowling piece, especially of a breech-loader. Why, 

 even the names you see on English guns of the great makers, 

 these people themselves do not know how a gun is made. 

 It is the foreman of the shop who keeps the secrets. It 

 comes down from father to son. Very few can fathom it. 

 I am afraid friend Aries you are rushing in where angels 

 fear to tread 



Papilla. — Bless me, Aries! I do declare you are fully 

 imbued with that nonsensical idea, and speak of the mystery 

 of the gun maker, in a wdiisper. I do acknowledge to 

 make a good gun, for a modern breech loader, is much 

 more difficult to construct properly than the muzzle-loader, 

 requires no end of mechanical instinct, and inventive 

 power, though men's hands and brains have advanced in 

 cunning with the work required of them. Since you ob 

 ject to my washing machines, have you any disinclination 

 to compare a gun with a watch ? 



Aries. — It is according to what you want to prove. Go 

 on, however. 



Papilla. — Is a gun a more de'icate piece of mechanism 

 than a watch? 

 ^ Aries.— Wli3 r no! 



Papilla. — Well then, if we can make good serviceable and 

 cheap watches in the United States, not Frodshams, or 

 Dents, or Jurgensens, precisely, but watches which an- 

 swer every possible service, why can not we do the same 

 thing for guns? 

 Aries. — But I would rather still have a Dent watch. 

 Papilla. — And so would I, but if I and you and fifty 

 others men wanted to pay seventy-five guineas for an 

 American watch, I have no doubt but that the watch- 

 makers in the United States could produce watches 

 for those figures, precisely as good as the the best Eng- 

 lish watches, and even as to style a trifle more elegant. 

 In this 19th century, there can be no monopoly of manu- 

 factures. 



Aries. — Well, is it just because people generally will no.t 

 pay as much for an American gun as for an English gun, 

 that English guns are better? 



Papilla. — Not exactly, but that may have something to 

 do with it. But my friend Aries, as I consider your judg- 

 ment admirable as to guns, do tell me what you think is a 

 good breech-loading gun? 



Aries. — Well, what I fancy is vranted in a breech-loader, 

 is a guji that will not rattle, and will withstand any amount 

 of wear and tear, in or out of water, and which is safe. 

 An arm not to be taken out on the back porch, to shoot a 

 passing # wood-cock with, but one which can be carried into 

 the forests, or in the blinds or in the boat, and can be 

 knocked about camp, and will bear all kinds of hard usage 

 for months. 



Papilla. — Will your fine guns do that? 

 Aries. — Certainly they will, and stand the work betur 

 than coarser made arms. I may differ from others, but 1 

 want a breech-loader, a gun where the barrels are fastened 

 to the stock of the piece. 

 Papilla.— No tip ups? 



A r i es - — No, Idont want hinge pins, nor grips, nor eccen- 

 trics, nor fancy breech actions of any kind. 

 Papilla. — Are you describing a Snyder Allen then? 

 Aries. — Not exactly, mine is an ideal gun, for in the Sny- 

 der Allen the pin in the side box breech becomes loosened 

 sometimes when you are not aware of it. 



Papilla. — You then agree with the ordnance officers, 

 who have all of them in the last five years, given the cold 

 shoulder to all tip up or hinged arms ? 



Aries. — Lefaucheux made the first hinged breech-loading 

 gun, and he has been I think too servilely copied Ord- 

 nance officers are right about the arms adapted to their 

 use, and I can't for the life of me see where the distinction 

 can be drawn in regard to the mechanical principles be- 

 tween what makes an efficient military and a sporting-arm. 

 The same system ought to work in both — because—." 



Papilla. — Bravo! now that is just where I have you. I 

 thought your good judgment in regard to arms would have 

 brought you to the subject of military arms. Now I put it 

 to you, as a sane reasoning man, in the manufactuie of 

 good serviceable guns for our soldiers in the United States, 

 with the Springfields, the Remingtons, the Sharpes, the 

 Ward Burton's, the Maynards, the Berdans, the whole rest 

 of them, have we not arrived at very great perfection? 

 These guns are all made like buttons, not by the gross, but 

 by the thousands, one like another, like watches, or wash- 

 ing machines. You must acknowledge that. Well then 

 what reason is there, why some of these manufacturers can- 

 not produee honest, strong, safe and cheap breech-loading 

 guns by the same wonderful mechanical resources which 

 they have invented for turning out military weapons of the 

 utmost precision? 



Aries. — You can make an army gun in quantity, I sup. 

 pose, but, nevertheless I must insist that fine guns are like 

 Cremona violins, and are not turned out like buttons. 



Papilla.— Most of the world is satisfied, and must remaii 

 so, with commoner musical instruments; it is only the grand 

 masters, like Aries Virga, who can pay for their Cremona'^ 



