ABSTRACT
I was out walking one Sunday afternoon during the early years of my residence in New York, and in a retired street, west of Washington Square, came across a sign, occupying a position over a narrow passage, that impressed me as curious. The name was O. Stickheim which I Americanized as O. Stick-him. The business announced was carpenter, and the sign would seem an invocation to charge a high price; but between the line that expressed the name and the one that designated the business there was another line, composed of very small letters, enclosed in parentheses, that spelled out the words (in the rear).
