River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1899-12-14
PUBLIC SIGNS UNHEEDED.
Cautions and Warnings Thnt ArS
Disregardcd by the People as
Mere BlufTs.

Anybody who makes a study of the
various phases of metropolitan life"
said the wide-awake man, car testify
that while all the rules and regula-
for the guidance of the public are sup
posed to be vested with the sancity of
genuine laws, many of them are in re-
atty nothing more nor less than gigan-
tic bluffs. The uninitiated, as a rule,
are unable to detect the gold from the
dross and unwittingly put all on the
same basis, but the man with expert
INC can tell Mt a glance which means
business and which does not.
perhaps the sign with which the
public is most familiar is the one seen
in restaurants warning patrons that
the management viii not be RESPONSE
bic for hats, wraps and umbrellas.
This notice is all very well in a way
and really does good service, inasmuch
as il predisposes people to be more care
full of their belongings thar they would
be were there nothing in sight to re-
mind them of the penalty lack of vigil
lance frequently exacts. But if you
should be so luckless as to suffer the
loss of either of the above mentioned
articles, and cared TO push the matter,
the proprietor would probably make
good the loss. nine times u of ten,
Notwithstanding the placard TO the
contrary.
Hotels are equally prodigal of asser-
tons which are not founded on the
solid rock of truth, as you will find
out if you ever attempt to test them.
In the set of rules found in each
of these big hostelries many houses in
sert q clause to the effect that the host
will be in nowise responsible for a
guests mail. Yet in spite of this dec
laration, / know for a fact that the
proprietor of a Broadway hotel recent
ly paid one woman a neat little sum of
money which she said had been sent
her in a letter which had been lost
through the carelessness of the clerk.
The man did this, too, without any posi-
tive proof that the woman had lost the
money. He settled rather than run the
risk of having trouble.
another bluff is found in the ele-
vators of many big buildings. A good
ly number of these lifts are decorated
with a notice informing passengers
that if they do not call their foor be-
fore reaching it, the elevator positively
will not return to the landing after
having passed it, to let the dilatory of
fender off. Every elevator boy, every
~janitor and every real estate agent
firmly believes he means what he says
when the notice is put up, yet the man
is a sorry tactician, indeed, who can
not get whisked up or down the height
of a half story and put off on the de-
sired floor.
Passengers on street cars and ele-
waited railroads encounter a variety of
bluffs. They are positively forbidden
to stand on front platforms, yet they
calmly ignore the order. They are for
hidden to e~xpectorate on the floors, yet
to the regret of every fair-minded per-
son, some of them do that, too. On
some of the lines the ears are fitted out
with a sign half a yard long informing
passengers that if they do not get
their transfers when paying their fare,
or at certain designated places, the con-
ductor will not furnish them with
passes. But this, also, is a bluff, and
the conductor who adheres TO that rule
is a hardened villain.
There are many places, such as
libraries and museums, where it is an
nounced in glazing letters that silence
must be preserved here yet scores of
inconsiderate, th~oughtless people come
into these places daily, who not only
talk, but raise their voices to a Shrek
when so doing. 1t isn't right, of course,
but they do it, because the sign is a
bluff.
Scarcely a day passes that a man in
business does not get into stores and
factories and offices where the notice:
No admittance,' stares him in the face.
If he is a timid man he will stay out,
but many people who have not a parti-
Gle of business there work their way
in behind those closed doors, for that
is only another bluff.
II am a regular caller at a select
book and art store uptown where the
visitor is told in polite put forcible lam
guage that there are books in certain
parts of the store which ne must not
handle, yet those same books are
turned inside out daily. This Don't
touch sign is quite eomrnon-and like
wise quite useless. Florists display it,
and jewelers., and the custodians of all
treasure houses, but if l went into any
of those places with the feeling that
I wanted to touch l should do so with
the assurance that even though detect
ed in the transgression l would be pref
ty sure to be granted immunity from
punishment.
Then there is another bluff that we
all know about. This is the notice seen
in Office buildings ~forbidding beggars,
peddlers and even book agents from
pursuing their calling within. In spite
of hat order there are few downtown
buildings where agents of all sorts and
even beggars do not ply their vocation
undisturbed. The theaters put up a
big bluff, too, against those who buy
standing room. The ushers bluntly
and decidedly forbid these devotees of
artistic drama to rest their weary
bones on the steps in the a%isles, yet if
these devotees produce bluff for bluff
they are pretty sure to sit through the
greater part of the performance and no
power known to the theater usher is
going to dislodge them from their low
ly but impregnable position.
Then, there is the No smoking
bluff. The places where men are for
hidden to indulge in this pleasure are
legion, yet the places where they re-
ally do refrain from smoking are very
few. This list of apparent limitations
to the public's powers and privileges
might be continued indefinitely. There
are a thousand and one things we are
told in emphatic and even threatening
terms we must or we must not do, but
the majority of those instructions are
found to be nothing but good big bluffs
which can be counterbalanced by equal
aggressiveness. Why, if you have a
mind to and go about it in the right
way, you can even walk on the grass
and nobody will stop you, for under GER
tain circumstance the familiar Keep
off sign is also a bluff."-N. Y. Sun.
Insect Pests of Spruce and Pine.
In a bulletin recently published by
the West Virginia agricultural expert
ment station an account is given of in
vestigations to determine the aus of
Az nrbaoIfbr- condition nf the Sprupa