PIDGIN-ENGLISH 



PIED PIPER 



penny stamp. In 1895 view cards 

 were published in Great Britain. 

 A great impetus was given to illus- 

 trated post cards when, in 1898, the 

 official size was increased to 5 j by 

 3J ins. In 1904 the left-hand side 

 of the front of post cards was 

 allowed for illustration, hitherto 

 confined to the back. . 



Among British states officially 

 issuing pictorial post cards are New 

 Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, 

 Natal, and Victoria. Many foreign 

 states issue view cards, notably 

 Greece, which, in 1902, made them 

 a state monopoly. During the S. 

 African War various official and 

 semi-official picture cards were 

 issued in S. Africa, the Mafeking 

 siege post cards afterwards fetching 

 7s. 6d. each. The earliest known 

 French post cards were published 

 during the war of 1870-71 for the 

 use of soldiers at Conlie camp, and 

 later for sailors. These bore en- 

 gravings of arms, national em- 

 blems, and patriotic legends. 



Hotels and rly. companies early 

 ut'Jised picture post cards for ad- 

 vertisement purposes. Picture 

 post cards are now used for adver- 

 tisement and propaganda pur- 

 poses, as also by philanthropic 

 societies, political and other insti- 

 tutions, and for exhibitions, etc. 

 The oldest officially issued picture 

 post cards in America were a set of 

 12 published in 1893 to popularise 

 the great exhibition at Chicago. 



The exchanging and collecting 

 of picture post cards attained ex- 

 traordinary popularity in the first 

 decade of the 20th century, and 

 gave rise to the manufacture of 

 albums, cabinets, frames, etc. A 

 literature sprang up to minister to 

 the craze, monthly magazines deal- 

 ing with it being published in 

 various countries. The chief 

 organ of the cult was The Picture 

 Post C.ird and Collector's Chronicle, 



published in London, Jan., 1900-8. 

 The raising of the rate for post 

 cards in the U.K. from d. to Id. 

 in 1918, and in 1921 from Id. to 

 ld., however, did serious damage 

 to the trade, though they could 

 still be sent for Id. if only five 

 words of greeting were written. 



The illustrations on post cards 

 are reproduced by practically 

 every process, including wood- 

 engraving, steel and copper plates, 

 chromolithography, collotype, the 

 three-colour and ordinary process 

 block and line blocks, photogravure 

 and photography. Mechanical and 

 musical cards with gramophone 

 records pasted on them, multiple 

 view, "talking," and other eccen- 

 tric cards are or have been made. 

 There are also stereoscopic cards 

 and life-insurance-carrying post 

 cards. * 



Pidgin-English. Medium of 

 communication in Chinese ports 

 between English-speaking people 

 and the natives. It is sometimes 

 used as a sort of lingua franca even 

 by natives themselves from dif- 

 ferent districts. Pidgin is a corrup- 

 tion of " business." It is a jargon 

 composed chiefly of English words, 

 although containing an admixture 

 of Chinese, Malay, and Portuguese, 

 corrupted in pronunciation and 

 arranged according to the Chinese 

 idiom. The name is given to 

 similar jargons in other parts of 

 the world. 



Piecework. In industry, a sys- 

 tem of payment of workers by the 

 piece or job instead of by time. In 

 theory the system is recommended 

 as tending to increase output by 

 providing the worker an incentive 

 to quicker production, and also as 

 furnishing employment for a large 

 number of outworkers. In practice 

 it is open to objections, chiefly in 

 the direction of exploitation of' 

 labour, which have led to the im- 



The Pied Piper of Hamelin. An artist's impression of one of the scenes 

 described in Browning's poem 



Fr-.m the painting by George J. Plnwell 



position by trade unions of restric- 

 tions on its use, and to the inclu- 

 sion in factory and workshop legis- 

 lation of clauses protecting piece- 

 workers in the textile and other 

 trades, especially by requiring 

 employers to furnish pieceworkers 

 with sufficient particulars to enable 

 them to ascertain the rate of wages 

 at which they are entitled to be 

 paid. See Outworker. 



Piedmont (Ital. Piemonte, foot 

 of the mountain). Compartimento 

 of N.W. Italy. It is bounded N. by 

 Switzerland, W. by France, S. by 

 Liguria, and E. by Lombardy. It 

 embraces the provs. of Alessandria, 

 Cuneo, Novara, and Turin. Mount- 

 ainous on all its borders but the E., 

 the remainder is a fertile plain. In 

 the N. and N.W. are the Pennine 

 and Lepontine Alps, in the W. the 

 Graian and the Cottian Alps, and 

 in the S. the Apennines and the 

 Maritime Alps. The beautiful Lago 

 Maggiore lies on its E. border. 

 Piedmont is watered by the Po and 

 its tributaries. The chief products 

 are rice, maize, wheat, wine, olives, 

 chestnuts, truffles, hemp, and silk. 

 Silver, lead, coal, copper, and salt 

 are mined and exported. Its area 

 is Il r 331 sq. m. 



In Roman times a part of Gallia 

 Transpadana and Liguria, it was 

 successively a part of the Ostro- 

 gothic, Lombard, and Prankish 

 kingdoms, and in the llth century 

 was mostly acquired by Savoy, of 

 which it became the most im- 

 portant part, Turin being the 

 capital of the dukes. In 1718 the 

 dukes became kings of Sardinia, 

 their realm comprising that island, 

 Piedmont, and Savoy, and this 

 title was retained until Victor 

 Emmanuel II became king of Italy 

 in 1861. 



Piedmontite. In mineralogy, 

 name given to a variety of epidote. 

 A manganese epidote, found in 

 Piedmont, Italy, Japan, etc., it is 

 reddish black in colour, and is 

 sometimes used as a gem stone. 



Pied Piper of Hamelin, THE. 

 Poem by Robert Browning. Writ- 

 ten for a child friend, Willie Mac- 

 ready, and published in Dramatic 

 Lyrics, 1842, it is based on the old 

 legend of a Rattenfanger or rat- 

 catcher named Bunting, who, em- 

 ployed to rid the town of Hameln 

 from rats, and denied the promised 

 reward, enticed, by his piping, all 

 the children of the town into a 

 mountain cavern, which instantly 

 closed upon them. There are 

 several variations of the story, e.g. 

 those of the Fiddler of Brandenburg 

 and the Hermit of Lorch, and it ap- 

 pears in the folklore of China and 

 Persia. See Hameln ; consult also 

 Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 

 S. Baring-Gould, 2nd series, 1868. 



