Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1894-06-26
~7-
puLLERs IN ONLY COPIES.
Clothing House Tn-Bouncers Only Types of
Middle Age Apprentices.

Middle Age Apprentices.
A reporter was walking through
the Bay" in lower Baxter street re-
Gently with Prof. A. v w. jackson, of
Columbia college. when two pullers in
ii rival clothing houses laid hands on
the professor and endeayored to drag
him foreibly into their respective shops.
Step right in. sir, said one Il can
fit you from head TO heel with the best
and cheapest clothes in the market"
Don't you believe him. cried the
other. ''Come in here with me- Ours
IS the most reliable clothing house in
New York"
The professor extricated himself gent
II from their clutches, and then turn
ing to the reporter, said:
suppose these fellows are great
annoyance to most people who pass
this way; but to nae they are extremely
INTERESTING. They are simply follow
Ing tine methods practised by the Lon
don apprentices during the middle
ages. This touting, or standing at the
door inviting passers-by to enter, was
at one time universal practice with
All kinds of shops, especially in Lon
don. 1t was part of the duty of APP
prentices to advertise in this way their
masters stock of goods. They would
stand in the street and intercept stran-
gers, crying: What do you laelx2 What
do You lack? and / have no doubt were
fally as importunate as their modern
Successors. / am informed that among
the milliners of Division street the
same practice prevails. 1 dare say it is
conEined exclusively to the Jews, al
though other shopkeepers doing bust
ness among them may be forced to
adopt the same method of soliciting
patronage. The Jews are very tena-
eious of old customs, and touting is I'M
doubtedly one of the trade traditions
that they have preserved
Just north of the Bend" in Baxter
street the professors attention was ar
rested by rude sign dangling from a
barber pole which bore the inscription:
4 Shave and Glass of Beex for Five
Cents"
That may be called relic of bar
bewism,' he said, with laugh. 'fYou
can appreciate my pun better when it
is Explained. A hundred years ago
and over, great many BARRIERS made
practice of supplying drinks to their
customers, and they hung out signs
very similar to the one yonder One of
these inscriptions, said to have been
composed by Dean Swift for barber,
who at the same time kept public
house, read
Rove not from pole to pole. but step in here,
Where nougbt excels the shaving but the beer.
Il do not suppose that at first the
BARRIERS furnished beer gratis to their
customers, but competition probably
induced them to do so later on. So the
proprietor of this little Baxter street
barber shop is, perhaps unconsciously,
reviving very old practice of his
trade.
IAN inquiry into the origin of mod
ern trade practices would prove an in
teresting study continued the pre-
fessor. I dare say that many things
which are now regarded as ingenious
innovations would be found upon in
vcstigation to be simply revivals of old
ideas and schemes. For example, there
is an umbrella shop in a side street up
town that has this ingenious placard
displayed in the window: Umbrella
Hospital Then follows a price list
setting forth the analogy between a
human being and an umbrella. Some
Of the items are: Restoring broken
rib, rs cents Inserting new spine, 25
cents; Restoring shattered constitn-
ton, 81 Setting dislocated neck, %
cents "A new membranous attach
nent, Sl.50' have no doubt that this
umbrella member is regarded by his
neighbors as an original wit, but he is
nothing of the kind His placard is
simply a reproduction of a sign that
was formerly displayed in the window
Of an umbrella shop in London. IN.
X. Sun.