Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1896-05-09
SOME DISTINGUISHING SIGNS.
Origin of Embioms Used BY Various
Glasses of Tradesmen. ~.


| Origin of EmbIoms Used BY Various
Glasses of Tradesmen.
The last survivors of the old trade
signs are few, but they cling to life SO
tenaciously that the probability is they
will stay for good. The old style swing
ing signs that protrude from the sides
of the houses, and on windy days had
an unpleasant habit of crashing down
on the heads of any citizens who hap
pened to be struggling home, have hap
PLY been swept away by the march OF
progress. But we still have with us the
BARRIERS pole, the pawnbroker's golden
globular triplets, the tobacconist's
wooden Indian and the goldbeater's
gilded arm, with shirt sleeve rolled up
20 the shoulder, disclosing a massive
muscle, with sinewy fingers grasping a
goldbeater's hammer. The origin OF
these signs are matters of great interest
to the people who pass them daily and
know nothing of the significance of
their construction.
An interesting story is told in con-
nection with the familiar red, yellow
and green vases that brighten the win
dows of drug stores. The custom of
placing them there originated with an
npothecary who found himself one night
minus the red light with which trades
men of his class were accustomed to or
nament their store fronts. TO make up
the deficiency he got bottle of red
liquid and placed candle behind 1t.
The effect pleased him SO well that he
decided to improve it by placing Sec
ond red light in the window with the
aid of another bottle of red mixture and
an additional candle. This sign made
such n brave showing that an envious
rival cast about for means of inn
proving on the sign. He hit upon
the scheme of placing a bottle colored
with yellow fluid beside the red one,
and then surpassed his previous efforts
and carried ali before him by placing a
green bottle beside the yellow. The
three made a sign that caught the town,
and all the druggists quickly fell into
line. The bottles were in time replaced
with handsome vases at present in use
and the druggists sign was here to stay
to brighten the dingy streets of town
and villages.
Few among the many unfortunates
who pass beneath the three gilt balls
into the sorrowful interior of pawn
brokers' shop stop to consider the mean.
ing of the yellow sign, and they would
find little comfort in the investigation
if they did. The pawnbroller's symbol
came from the sign used by the Lom-
bard bankers, who took it from the sign
used by the Medci family of Florence.
The founder of the house had been q
medicus, or physician; his descendants
became bankers and brokers, and the
sign they adopted was based on Tie pills
that were dispensed by their ancestors.
AS they had become rich in their c;.lling,
it was necessary that the pills should
express something more than the mere
decoctions of n physician. so they were
done in gold and in that shape the three
pills" can be seen swinging over the
premises of every pawnbrol1er to-day.
The golden pills are used as a coat OF
arms for the descendants of the Mcdici
family, who became mobiles, but it is
not probable that any family of lobl1
birth and up-to-date ideas has continued
the use of the three balls as its heraldo
device.
Among the armys of unshorn jndi.
viduals who daily seek the familiar red
md white sign of the Iber, few know
the meaning of the part-color on the
pole. Probably not one in n hundred
could tell you himself what the colors
signify. The origin of the sign datea
back to the days when bleeding was the
faycrite remedy of physicians for most
of the ills that flesh is heir to. When
little bloodletting was prescribed the
barber was the man to do it, as he com.
bined the business of tonsorial artist
with that of surgeon.
The BARRIERS sign was adopted, as il
is in existence to-day, because the red
symbolizes the blood that the barber
drew from his patients in the interest
of the public health, while the white on
the poles stood for the white bandage
with which the wound was bound mp
after heclumsy operator had drawn the
prescribed quantity of red fluid.-St.
Louis Globe-Democrat.
MeneIek of Abyssinia.
All that has been seen of Menelek