WORSE AND WORSE.
There was a notice in the barber’s shop window reading “Boots Blacked Inside.” A pedestrian halted and read and reread the notice, and then opened the door and said:
“That ought to be shoes. Not one man in fifty wears boots in the summer.”
The barber didn’t say anything, but, after due reflection, concluded that the man was right, and so changed the notice to read: “Shoes Blacked Inside.” He had scarcely put it up when the same man came along again and opened the door to say:
“No one wants the inside of his shoes blacked. We pay to have the shine on the outside.”
The barber puzzled over it for a while, and realized that the man was right again, and next day the notice was replaced by one reading:
“The outside of shoes blacked inside.”
“That’s perfectly correct,” said the fault finder, as he came along in the afternoon. “Never give yourself away on the English language.[Pg 54]”