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notions—Small lightweight items for household use, such as needles, buttons, and thread.
button-hooks—A small hook for fastening a button on shoes or gloves.
cotton goods—bolts of fabric
hard goods—Products that aren't consumed or quickly disposed of, and can be used for several years. Cast iron, metal or ceramic. Also called durable goods.
soft goods—Textiles, clothing, and related articles of trade. Also called dry goods.
fancy goods—fabrics of various colors, patterns, etc., as ribbons, silks, laces, etc., in distinction from those of a simple or plain color or make. Adapted to please the fancy or taste; ornamental.
noggins—A small mug or cup. Also a unit of liquid measure equal to one quarter of a pint.
piggins—A small wooden pail or tub with an upright stave for a handle, -- often used as a dipper.
firkins—A small wooden barrel or covered vessel -- used for butter, lard, etc. Also any of several British units of capacity, usually equal to about 1/4 of a barrel or 9 gallons (34 liters).
hogshead—A large cask or barrel, of indefinite contents. Also any of various units of volume or capacity ranging from 63 to 140 gallons (238 to 530 liters), especially a unit of capacity used in liquid measure in the United States, equal to 63 gallons (238 liters)
cask—A barrel-shaped vessel made of staves headings, and hoops, usually fitted together
so as to hold liquids. It may be larger or smaller than a barrel. Also a unit
of measurement, referring to the quantity contained in a cask.
demijohn:
A large, narrow-necked bottle made of glass or earthenware, usually encased in
wickerwork. Commonly holds wine or ale.
flypaper—Paper coated with a sticky, sometimes poisonous substance, used to catch flies.
Model T Ford—When Henry Ford (1863-1947), began selling the Model T in 1909, the world was a much different place than it is now. Horses and wagons were common place. There were no highways, and most roads were still not paved. Shopping malls, "drive thru" restaurants and traffic jams were in the very distant future. But when Henry's "Tin Lizzie" hit the market, it was the beginning of the end of the 'horse and buggy era'. The 'T' was the first car that the average person could afford to buy. It wasn't very fancy, but it was reliable (by the standards of the day) and cheap and easy to fix when it did break down.
two-by-four store—putdown - small or petty of its kind, as in "this house and its two—by—four garden"
Uneeda Biscuit—The Uneeda Biscuit boy is the story of early American advertising boiled down to a single parable that just happens to be real history. In the early 1890s there were hundreds of hometown bakers putting out generic crackers in barrels with plain cookies in square shipping boxes. Mothers would say, "George, here' s a paper bag. Go down to the store and fill this with crackers." Uneeda was one of the first mass marketed products outside of its region, due to the "sanitary packaging" it promoted as being a step above the cracker barrel in terms of health and convenience. National Biscuit Co. launch the first prepackaged biscuit, Uneeda, with the slogan "Lest you forget, we say it yet, Uneeda Biscuit." Eventually, the company launches the first million-dollar advertising campaign for Uneeda.
sanitary package—first used to describe packaging to keep items like crackers from spoiling. From Encarta: "In 1899 the National Biscuit Company introduced its successful Uneeda Biscuit package. This package is generally considered to have signaled the end of the bulk-merchandising procedures of the country-store era."
cracker barrel—A large, cylindrical container, usually made of staves bound together with hoops, with a flat top and bottom of equal diameter. Holding crackers — a commonly purchased food item. People supposedly would gather round cracker barrels for conversation in old-time general stores.
Mail Pouch cut plug—a popular brand of chewing tobacco, sold in hard plugs that would be cut with a knife. The grocery store owner would use a mechanical device to cut the plug into flakes to sell or make hand-made cigarettes to sell.
sugar barrel—as above for cracker barrel, except holding sugar for sale
pickle barrel—as above for cracker barrel, except holding brine and pickles for sale
milk pan—shallow milk pans with flaring shoulders were common household items until the mid-1800s. Milk was allowed to sit until the cream had risen to the top and could be easily removed with a shallow spoon or skimmer. Glass pans were advertised as "preferable to all others" because they were "non-conductors" and therefore kept the milk "uninfluenced by storms or climate." But milk pans were also made of ceramics. The illustration of a ceramic milk pan titled "Milk Pan" (left ) is rendered by John Tarantino, probably 1940. From the National Gallery of Art. The glass milk pan (right) is from an Illinois State Museum exhibit of household objects, circa 1850.
tierce—A cask larger than a barrel, and smaller than a hogshead or a puncheon, in which salt provisions, rice, etc., are packed for shipment. Also a measure of liquid capacity, equal to a third of a pipe, or 42 gallons (159 liters).
bang beat bell-ringin’—exact meaning unknown, but likely refers to tactics used by traveling carnivals and patent medicine salesmen to draw attention and customers
big haul—seems to refer to money being made by con or criminal activity. Dime novels from this period talked about gangs of criminals planning "the big haul"
great go—passing a test or trial successfully (Slang)
neck-or-nothin’—figure of speech - at all risks, desperately (this term is thought to come from hangings in the western U.S., or from a phrase used in steeplechasing)
rip roarin’—Noisy, lively, and exciting.
every’time-a-bull’s eye—The precise accomplishment of a goal or purpose.
mandolin—A small lutelike instrument with a typically pear-shaped body and a straight fretted neck, having usually four sets of paired strings tuned in unison or octaves.
jews-harp—A lyre-shaped instrument of music, which, when placed between the teeth, gives, by means of a bent metal tongue struck by the finger, a sound which is modulated by the breath. Also called also jaw harp and Jew's-trump.
when the man dances the piper pays him—To pay the piper means "to bear the consequences of something". This twist means Harold Hill never has had to pay for his actions — as a matter of fact, he even profits from them without consequences.
thimble rigger—One who cheats by thimblerigging, or tricks of legerdemain. 1. Also known as a shell game: A game, usually involving gambling, in which a person hides a small object underneath one of three nutshells, thimbles, or cups, then shuffles them about on a flat surface while spectators try to guess the final location of the object. Also called thimblerig. 2. A fraud or deception perpetrated by shifting conspicuous things to hide something else.
neck-bowed Hawkeyes—Iowans from Hawkeye, Iowa in bowties
