Thomas Lawson's Sharp Tongue.
A Marblehead fisherman reports hearing, while out one day in the bay, this bit of repartee between Thomas Lawson and a young woman, evidently no respecter of persons.
As Mr. Lawson, in a naphtha launch, passed the rowboat containing the girl, she called out:
"Hullo, Tom, how's copper?"
Instantly came the retort: "First-rate. How's brass?"