Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-08-29
GOLD TO Garcia GOLD.
billions OF Money ON the Windows in C
caro.

billions OF Money ON the Windows in Chi
cago.
''Do you know" man asked, that
here is one million dollars worth of
gold on the signs and windows of Chi
,ago?'
The other man did not know, but he
made inquiries of a number of decor
ators and letterers and came to the con-
:lusion that the first man had under
estimated it. There is one million
dollars worthsof gold pasted and plas-
tered in conspicuous places in Chicago
and there is more. The cigar mer-
chant and the church trustees, the man
nilliner and the ginshop man try to at
tract gold by displaying gold. 1t is the
old story of throwing a sprat to catch
herring. The most careless wayfayer
s caught by the aureate glitter of we'll
displayed gold-leaf. 1t tells every time
There's a fellow" you say, who
must be doing we'll"
And you always want to trade at the
shop of the fellow who is doing we'll.
So you take the gold-leaf on his win
dows in lieu of his bank account
Tradesmen have tracked down this
illogical trait of their customers and do
not ''spare the sprats."
There is no way of ascertaining how
many square inches of beaten gold are
scattered up and down the streets of
Chicago, nor of telling how much gold
is stacked away in the teeth of Chica-
goans.
One man put it this way: Now, I'm
in the business. There's a window
| Brown and Jones, Decorators and
Writers'-if you count 'em you'll find
that there are thirty-three letters in
all. Well, there's fifteen dollars worth
of gold there-pretty nearly fifty cents
letter. To be sure the writing is
big"
Whenever this man talks of writers
he means the fellow who pastes up
gold-leaf, and big writing is some
thing after the order of a ''display
head"
''Take the lettering throughout Chi
cago and l think it would be a fair
average" he went on, "to put each let
ter down as worth twenty cents in gold.
so out and count the letters and figure
it out for yourself"
The man he talked to didn't do 1.-THE
lacks enterprise anyway. This consti-
tutional timidity of his is probably due
to a bad habit he has fallen into of
lacking money. There is only one rec
| ogniZed cure for this, carrying con-
| stantly a few hundred dollars in the
left waistcoat pocket. This remedy is
| warranted to cure the worst case of
timidity in existence. The green "wad''
draws tits like the skin of goose's
neck on carbuncle.
But the timid man didn't go round
and count the letters and request the
| tradesmen who owned the letters to
| figure up the C st. Glittering general
tiles are good e. ,ough now and again.
Over a million dollars worth, then
and just think what a godsend that
would be to some struggling young
man like Jay Gould; or, if it were q
million dollars worth of brass instead
of gold, think what godsend it would
be to Jerry Simpson. And speaking OF
| Jerry Simpson reminds one that all is
not gold that glitters. Equally true
that all gold letters are not gold. There
has a base alloy crept into the trade
and it glitters like gold-leaf and costs
about as much as a yellow dog. Sc
economical folk have taken to using it
'Gold-leaf is going out of use," Wa
bash avenue decorator remarked, ''as
the substitute answers every purpose
and is cheaper. 1t lasts as long ant
holds its body every whit as well a:
the real. This is the age of limitations
anyway. You remember the only joke
Mark Twain has made in five years.
In these progressive days. he re
marked, wine is made out of every
thing-even grapes Well, it's the
same with gold-leaf.
GAS matter of fact, we had to come
to the imitation-its too hard to ge
the real article"
That's all right.
But it makes one tired to think o.
that million pasted up on the plate
glass of Chicago. Think of all the
good it might do-used as bichloride Of
old.-Chicago Tribune.