STRANGE TRADES

Evening Star, Issue 19763, 13 January 1928, Page 3

STRANGE TRADES

A BOOK OF JOBS MYSTERIOUS OCCUPATIONS. ‘ A Dictionary of Occupational Terms ’ —or more concisely, a 13ook of Jobs—is the most recent and the mightiest of Government contributions to literature (states a London correspondent) . It defines 29,106 occupations; some of these arc synonymous, it is true, but the irreducible quantity is a noble 16,837. it is a fine impressive book in a blue cover. It weighs it lbs, and costs a guinea. There is a magnificently phrased foreword in which space has been found for the favorite Latin quotation of a high official—“ mutatis mutandis.” lie writes leisurely, one presumes and with a quillpen. There are still quill pen makers. There are also, of the same romantic order, goose girls (otherwise ganderesses or gossards)', and shepherd’s I«Kfs. . .... There arc also wizards, even if this boils down to 11 entertainers,” on search in the body of the work. Uodics? There arc body slitters and body notchers. They have a murder-' ous tang about them, but the first is merely concerned with shirts, and the second with tin.

One home in England, at least, must have the happiest slogan in the world with which to greet father on bis return from won:— ‘‘ Here comes the bogey man,” pipes the youngest, for father is a bogey man; be fills coke bogeys in the gasworks. Father also has a bogie boy to help him. Note the exquisite care with which the ,Ministry of Labor differentiates in the spelling—bogey man, but bogie boy. Great scope is offered to men who may he arrested and asked their occupation. The answer, “1 am an agent,” covers 13-1 varieties, which would stagger even a police sergeant. What merrier trade can there bo than that of an ale taster And what mysteries lie behind the occupations designated by slosher, woffler, younker, wuzzer, towrer, fabler, swagger, tubbio, too flattener, a smasher, and a second-bobbin-and-flv-framc tenter P

A pulpit man is not, as the reviewer supposed at' first, a sub-variety of parson, Nevertheless, he regulates the blast in a Bessemer converter from a pulpit; and parsons have always regulated swearing. One secs a vague but pleasing analogy. A modern, up-to-the-minute note is struck by the occupation of “coxswain of airships,” and yet it has an old flavor about it appropriate to the working of the official mind. “Coxswain—” bless your hearts! It means a navigator, highly scientific persons in this sense. The can walloper is in direct contrast with anything scientific. Ho is a boy, obviously—see can boy; and the can boy or walloper lives np to the best tradition of boyhood, for ho breaks things. He breaks the silver when a can is full. It will be no surprise to a w r orld of honest people to learn that there are thirty-five varieties of twisters; but these honest ones must realise that these are honest twisters. The first, for example, is a boa twister; do not jump at conclusions. This boa twister is a man. You are thinking of the boa constrictor.