Sharp County record., 1891-09-10
GOLD TO CATCH GOLD.
Millions of Money on the Windows in Chi
cago.

VI lloney On Ine WINDOWS III Cl
cago.
"Do you know" man asked, 'that
there is one million dollars worth of
gold on the signs and windows of Chi,
cago?"
The other man did not know, but he
made inquiries of number of decor.
ators and letterers and came to the con.
clusion that the first man had under.
estimated it. There is one million
dollars worth of gold pasted and plas.
tered in conspicuous places in Chicago
and there is more. The cigar mer.
chant and the church trustees, the man
milliner and the ginshop man try to at
tract gold by displaying gold. 1t is the
old story of throwing sprat to catch
a herring The most careless wayfayer
is caught by the aureate glitter Of we'll
displayed gold-leaf 1t tells every time.
There's 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 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 display
head"
'Take the lettering throughout Chi.
cago and l think it would be fair
average" he went on, ito put each let
terdown as worth twenty cents in gold
Go out and count the letters and figure
it out for yourself"
The man he talked to didn't do it-he
lacks enterprise anyway. This consti-
tutional timidity of his is probably due
to bad habit he has fallen into Of
lacking money. There is only one rec.
ognized cure for this, carrying con-
stantly 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
tig'v:R 'n1, ,thaJast, eesrifg general
itioss arc st7u'vrough now and again.
Over a million dollars worth, then
and just think what godsend that
would be to some struggling young
man like Jay Gould; or, if it were a
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 base alloy crept into the trade
and it tglitters like gold-leaf and costs
about as much as yellow dog. So
economical folk have taken to using it.
'Gold-leaf is going out of use, "a Wa
bash avenue decorator remarked, "as
the substitute answers every purpose
and is cheaper. 1t lasts as long and
holds its body every whit as well as
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-it's too hard to get
the real article"
That's all right.
But 1t makes one tired to think OF
that million pasted up on the plate.
glass of Chicago. Think of all the
good 1t might do-used as bichloride of
gold. Chicago Tribune.