WARE BRUMMAGEM!
"As sure as a gun" is a worthy old phrase
That doesn't quite seem to apply in our days;
And that man is a cynic, or talking in fun,
Who says he's "as sure as an 'African' gun."
The Birmingham gun-makers loudly protest
That their products are good, if they're not quite the best.
Mr. Punch with the Brummagem boys will not quarrel,
But all guns should be trustworthy, stock, lock and barrel;
Be the game one is after an Arab or pheasant,
The chance of a barrel that bursts is not pleasant.
Good work brings good pay, as it always has done;
That (in the old sense) is "as sure as a gun!"
Mrs. R. has been uncommonly humorous lately. She observed, "What a foolish remark it was of Dr. Johnson's to say that 'who makes a pen would pick a pocket.' "Unless", she added, struck with a brilliant idea, "he was thinking of 'steel pens.' But I don't think there were any in his time."
