The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-20

tradition says there was d TesuTrecuon of the old friendship before death came, and that the coquette discover ed too late that she had really loved one of the victims of her folly. While the rusty old pistols remain. the story will be retold from generation to gen. eration The sad tales of life are sell dom forgotten.
 The modern history of the Hopkins & Allen Arms Co.,, dates back to Feb ruary 4, 1890, when the factory burn ed to the ground Practically nothing was saved, and all the patterns and models were totally destroyed. The factory building which burned had been used during the Civil war as an arsenal, and its underground powder magazines are still utilized by the company for storage purposes. lm- mediately steps were taken to re-es- tabish the business on larger scale than before, and the work of mak- ing new models and patterns was pressed to the utmost While the new factory was building, work was con tinued at Worcester, Mass. and the removal to the new quarters, in the spring of 1901, was effected system- atically without involving the slight est loss of time-a machine that had been run all day at Worcester would
 be shipped at night and be running the next day in Norwich. It is a lib- eral education in the modern produc- tion of firearms to visit this immense new plant and observe the various ma chimes for shaping, boring and milling the many component parts of Hop kins x Allen arms-machines that are doing the work of hundred of men
 and have increased productive ability
 thousand-fold. The wonderful use- fulness of such machines in modern
 manufacturing cannot be overrated
 Formerly this work was done wholly
 by hand, and consequently there nlc not be absolute accuracy and uniform
 ity of product Now everything is ne-
 chanically perfect, and the finished product, though at mucn smaller cost, l is infinitely better and truer tc model 1 Though win a unity of system and management, the factory is divided in- l to departments, the manufacture of each part of the various arms being carried on separately, each process
 distinctly alone, under the supervision
 of experienced heads, The steel goes
 through the turning and boring da
 partlnents. and so on, until it finally
 reaches the assembly rooms, where
 each part Is fully tested before the
 arm is assembled Later there are
 further tests of the completed arm
 fer strength reliability and accuracy.
 In such a factory the wheels run like
 clockw.rk and there is no "iost mo-
 tipn." Each process is distinct in it.
 self, and il is a matter of specalza-
 tion throughout. Nearly one thousand
 men are employed by the Hopkins X
 Allen Arms Co, vast daily output
 is the result and the modern labor
 saTing methods and perfect office
 management permit putting on the
 market a high-grade line of firearms
 at a low cost.
 Intcrcst always attaches to pictures and des rirtionssof the arms of other
 days, even though their time of use and popularity is in the mem ory nf us
 all. Of the many models manufactur.
 ed by the company before it's factory
 burned, perhaps the best known was
 the Merwin- Hubert revolver, in ,32
 3S ard A calibers, the frame anc
 barrel of which engaged With dou
 hle locking joint so that by a sligh
 turn the barrel could be drawn for
 ward and the discharged shells eject
 ed. This revolver was a fayorite witt
 the Western cowboys and miners, be
 ing simple in mechanism, accurate land not at all likely to get out of re
 pair. Other arms that were quite large ly used in their time wer a combina !, ton rife and shotgun, falling -blocl
 single-shot sporting rife, and the 22 caliber Junior" rifle which last wa ] an important factor m closing thu : American market against the crad' , and unreliable "Flobert" and War : nant" Belgian rifles which were for l merly so extensively sold to our juve nile sportsmen. This little weapon, i'm proved in various respects, is stil , made.
 ' Of the arms shown in the full-pag } plates, the first is a revolving riff l which, considering what was the } thought to he the highest possible de ? velopment of firearms. must hay ? promised to he financial success fo : its makers. However it failed to wi : favor, owing to a lack of penetration [ which resulted from the escape c ? gas between cylinder and barrel Ther :, is something very pleasing in the ap ? pearance of a revolving rife, but arm : of this type have always fallen shor l of popular favor No. 2 is 8 single s shot muzzle-loading pistol widely use 2 in the early '40s. A notabl feature c !, this arm is the double action. showin 2 that this essential principle of in l modern revolver is not a new one. W l find the same principle again in tn T pepper-boX (No. 9, of which mentio = has been previously made. The per a per-box was muzzle-loading, percus e sion cap revolver and had great vogu k among the "forty-niners," as it the r represented the highest possibility f the way of speed of fire. No. show : a pocket rife. made in North Graftol
 Mass. in 1884 It is muzzle-loade : and the hammer was located unde n the breech of the barrel to protect th r percussion cap from rain and snow h its production doubtless antedatir Q that of waterproof caps. The sights C q this arm are very much like tho: 2 used on modern target rife. the reg = sight being adjustable Next in order y a single-shct pistol, with top hamm' l. and without a finger guard
 l. No. 6. breech-loading milita1 q rife, shows an attempt to adapt moC q ern ideas in gun construction to g q an ancient form of fixed ammunitio = The service cartridge then consiste |: of bullet and charge of powd, | contained in paper envelope. the CT r. of which had to he bitten of befoi