The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-03
ONE DISTINGUISHED SIGNS


Nis'n OF the Emblems Us-d by Var Gus
sses of Trad smen.
From the st. Louis Globe Democrat.
| Inc last survivors Of the old trade
signs are few, but they cling TO life so
tenaciously that the probability is they
Wlll stay for good. The old style swing
| ing signs that protruded 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
! pehed TO be struggling home have
happily been swept away by the march
OF progress. But we still have with us
the BARRIERS pole, the pawnbroker's
golden globular trlplets, the tobaccon-
lists wooden Indian and the goldbeat-
ers gilded arm, with shirt sleeves
rolled up to the shoulder disclosing a
massive muscle, with sinewy fingers
/ graSping a goldbeater's hammer The
! origin of these signs are matters of
! great interst 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
| apothecary who found himself one
night minus the red light with which
tradesmen of his class were accus-
toned to ornament their store fronts.
To make up the deficiency he got a
bottle of red liquid and placed a candle
behind it. The effect pleased him so
well that he decided to improve IL by
placing a second red light in the win
dow with the aid of another bottle Of
red mixture and an additional candle.
This sign made such a brave show
that an envious rival cast about for
means of improving on the sign. lie
fna soho Of Fa1a afV hot
tie colored with yellow fluid beside the
red one, and then surpassed his pre-
vious efforts and carried all before |
him by placing a green bottle beside |
the yellow. The three made a sign |
that caught the town and all the drug !
gists quickly fell into line. The bot
ties were in time replaced with hand |
some vases at present in use. and the |
druggists sign was here to stay to
brighten the dingy streets of town and |
village
Few among the many unfortunates
who pass beneath the three gilt balls
into the sorrowful interior of a pawn
brokers' shop stop to consider the
meaning Of the yellow sign, and they |
would find little comfort in the inves-
tigation if they did. The pawnbroler's
symbol came from the sign used by |
the Lombard bankers who took IL from
the sign used by the Medici family of
Florence. The founder of the house
had been a medicus, or physician; his
descendants became bankers and brok-
ers, and the sign they adopted was
based on the pills that were dispensed
by their ancestors. AS they had be-
came rich in their calling, ii was nee
essary that the pills should express
something more than the mere decoc-
tions of physician, so they were done
in gold and in that shape the three
pills can be seen swinging over the
premises of every pavnbroker to-day.
The golden pills were used as a coat of
arms for the descendants of the Medici
family, who became mobiles, but IL is
not probable that any family of noble
birth and up-to-date Ideas has con-
tinued the use of three balls as its
heraldic device.
Among the armies of unshorn indi-
yiduals who daily seek the familiar red
and white sign of the barber, few know
the meaning Of the parti-color on the
pole. Probably not one barber in
hundred could tell you himself what
the colors signify. The origin Of the
sign dates back TO the days when
bleeding was the favorite remedy OF
physicians for most of the ills that
flesh is heir to. When a little blood
letting was prescribed, the barber was
the man to do It. as he combined the
business of tonsorial artist with that
of surgeon.
The BARRIERS sign was adopted. as 1t
is in existence to-day, because the red
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 band
age with which the wound was bound
up after the clumsy operator had
drawn the prescribed quantity Of red