Читать книгу Gun Digest 2011 онлайн

125 страница из 495

An original Brownie, as drawn by Canadian illustrator Palmer Cox (1840-1924).

Contemporary writers have reported that due to its diminutive size, ease of concealability, and near superiority to other designs available at the time, the Brownie was an attractive and appealing all-purpose handgun. It was named after a similarly-endowed mythical character which was very popular in that era’s literature: the Brownie, a fictitious elfin character created in the late 1800s by Canadian illustrator Palmer Cox (1840-1924). Though perhaps hard to appreciate today, Cox’s Brownies were as popular in late-Victorian America as Smurfs would be a century later, and their name inspired a number of popular consumer products. The very popular Kodak “Brownie” camera is a good example; another is the junior division of the American Girl Scouts, founded in 1912, which added a branch for younger girls in grades two and three called “Brownies” with this explanation: “Our Brownie age level gets its name from folk tales of little brownies that would enter homes and help the occupants with housework. This sets the tone for Brownie Scouts who are learning to help others.”