Arizona republican., 1902-11-22
DEMIJOHNs AND THEIR USES.

Why do we call a jug in a wicker work casing or box 'demijohE?" That name naturally suggests 'half-John." or "John half-full," or somebody or something directly or indirectly con- nected with some John" and liquer. But demijohns are used for holding all sorts of liquors-not necessarily intox- icants by any means.
 The origin of the word is a trihe clouded. We get it from the French "demejeanne," which signifies a "demi' john," just as in our language. An5 that word appears to have been origin ally corruption or an accommodation, so called, of Dame Jeanne," or Lady Jane-or else to have gone into the French tongue directly from the Arabic flanagan" Ga demijohn). said to be so called from Damaga town in north ern Persia, once famous for its glass works. and to have been the spot where glass jugs enclosed in wickerwork were originally made.
 From a dealer in glassware it was learned by a New York reporter the other day that the largest demijohn made regularly for the trade has q capacity of only five gallons. The smallest holds only one and a half ounces. or less than a gill. That size is used chiefly for perfumery and cor dials
 Between the five-gallon and the gill size" this dealer explained, "demijohns are made in many sizes, including quarts, pints and half pints. In these smaller demijohns there is a consider able holiday trade. Demijohns are not very costly, anyway, but the very smallest are the most expensive pro- portionately. A gill demijohn sells for more than one that will hold a galloE, the simple reason being that the little one must be covered with care as to it's appearance, while in the larger sizes the chief thing required is serviceabil- ity. So the basket work on the very littlest demijohn may take more time and cost more for labor than that on q demijohn some sizes larger.
 Probably the first idea of most people would be that the demiiohn is made solely to contain liquor; and very likely it is used more for that than for any other one purpose. But demijohns are. in fact. used for many purposes. They are used for vinegar and for moIasses, for perfumery and for rum, for cordials and for extracts, for essences and for
 
 and in the drug and other trades. Almost all the demijohns used in this country are made here. though some are imported from Germany and ! France. From those countries also we get. containing drug importations. some Odd-shaped demijohns Grger than any we use in this country. Here for in stance is a French demijohn that holds approximately 6Ia gallons. It is tall and of straight-sided. cylindrical form. | and carried in a hamper-like outer l basket, with two handles one on either side at the top. This makes a nice looking package and is handy to lift and carry around, but railroads don't like to handle wicker-co bottles of that sort on account of their liability | to break
 On the other side they pack the demijohns like that with cork scraps or scraps of sponge for their protection in transportation. Our big demijohns here, above five gallons. are made in the form of what are called box dcmi- johns, the bottle being incased not in wickerwork, but in box, or wooden crate. For that matter there are now made many box demijohns of smaller sizes as we'll"