The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-02-15
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THE LANGUAGE OF TRADE.

Words and Phrases That Don't Describe
the Things They Are Applied To.
"Your cloth is better than that"
said the tailor to the customer, placing
two pieces of worsted diagonal side by
side.
whats the difference?'' asked the
customer.
''Well," said the tailor, 'tths other
Is good part cotton.
''And mines all wool?" asked the
customer.
"Yours is mostly wool, - replied the
tailor. looking at the customer with ev-
ident surprise at his innocence.
The cant phrase. sail wool and a
yard wide, - has come to mean half cot
ton and 81 inches wide. Some persons
believe that the difference between
phrase and fact is to be attributed to
the tariff on woolens and worsteds, but
such discrepancies run through all
branches of trade whether they are af-
fected by the tariff or not. Every real
thing has come through modern inge-
nuity to have an admirable counterfeit
bearing the real things name, and so
meaningless have names become in trade
that the retailer sells the counterfeit I'M
der the name of the real with little or
no consciousness of untruthfulness Male
customers usually fail to understand
this and are outraged on discovering
that the thing does not correspond to its
name, but women who are born shop
pers long ago accepted the situation and
adopted the false nomenclature. They
do not resent as dishonest the conduct
of the grocer that offers fresh eggs"
at SO much and ''strictly fresh new laid
eggs'' at so per cent more.
Every woman knows that the shops
sell for silk material that has cleverly
made surface of pure silk on back of
cotton Women judge not by the name,
but by the price, the ''feel' and other
indications to which men are blind. 1t
was discovered a few years ago that
many imported silks were made with
only small percentage of real silk along
with clay for weight and soap for luster,
while American manufacturers were
turning out the real thing and finding
it despised.
There is q regularly recognized set Of
substitutes in every department of trade,
just as the druggists have substitutes
that are made to serve when some I'M
important Ingredient in prescription
is not at hand. The word porcelain has
actually lost its true significance, save
perhaps in the fine arts, and cooking
utensils are glibly sold as porcelain
lined" that have merely an inner sur
face of coarse glazed clay. A Philadel-
phian invented good many years ago a
! sort of white glass for lamp shades and
called it hot cast porcelain. and now
| many forms Of white glass are sold as
! porcelain. It has ceased to be a lie be-
cause all the world knows that the tern
is purely conventional.
| The phrase antique oak' has grad
ually come to mean, in the language Of
the cheap furniture makers, stained ash
or even poorer material, and the rug i'm
porters have contributed to trade tht
verb "to antique with its past parti
ciple s'antiqued, - the form commonly
used. "Mahogany' will soon mean il
the language of the cheap furniture trad'
any wood stained into distant imitation
of new mahogany. OF course the latte
| in turn is stained to initiate old mahog
any and is sold as SUCH Celluloid ha
become a counterfeit for almost any
thing, and it's protean devices are i'm
| -
ivory, and doubtless there are shopkeep
ers that sell it as such with no sense 0
fraud.
The Technology of the hardwar
trade is in chaotic state by reason c
the way in which counterfeits have oh
tanned currency. ''Steel hatchets,
made Of cheap iron, are sold at 25 cents
and the substitution of iron for stee
runs all through the trade. The mel
chant gauges his customer and ofe1
the counterfeit or the real, as the cas-
seems to demand, without any sense {
dishonesty. Electro plated iron goes fc
bronze, and cast iron goes for wrougt
iron. The fraud is SO transparent to an
one buying with his eyes open that
scarcely seems worth quarreling abou
The merchant acknowledges the natu1
of the counterfeit when pressed an
takes no shame in the acknowledgment
Perhaps some of them never see the rel
thing and are innocent of even constru
tive fraud.
When it comes to leather goods, IL
} same system of counterfeiting prevail
You may get what is technically Gale
an alligator skin" travelling bag
any price you wish to pay, but no mt
with an eye in his head is ever deceiv'
by the transparent device, and the des
ers deem it an innocent trick to plea
persons in search of what they cam
buy.-New York Sun.
, Beth Wrong.
A writer in Mr.. Astor's Pail Ne