The upkeep of board-schools in England comes out of the /rates/, which are local taxes levied upon householders. For that reason an English municipal taxpayer is called a /ratepayer/. The functionaries who collect and spend his money are not /office-holders/ but /public-servants/. The head of the local police is not a /chief of police/, but a /chief constable/. The fire /department/ is the fire /brigade/. The /street-cleaner/ is a /crossing-sweeper/. The parish /poorhouse/ is a /workhouse/. If it is maintained by two or more parishes jointly it becomes a /union/. A pauper who accepts its hospitality is said to be /on the rates/. A policeman is a /bobby/ familiarly and /constable/ officially. He is commonly mentioned in the newspapers, not by his surname, but as /P. C. 643a/--/i. e./, Police Constable No. 643a. The /fire laddie/, the /ward executive/, the /roundsman/, the /strong-arm squad/ and other such objects of American devotion are unknown in England. An English saloon-keeper is officially a licensed /victualler/. His saloon is a /public house/, or, colloquially, a /pub/. He does not sell beer by the /bucket/ or /can/ or /growler/ or /schooner/, but by the /pint/. He and his brethren, taken together, are the /licensed trade/. His back-room is a /parlor/. If he has a few upholstered benches in his place he usually calls it a /lounge/. He employs no /bartenders/ or /mixologists/. /Barmaids/ do the work, with maybe a /barman/ to help. The American language, as we have seen, has begun to take in the English /boot/ and /shop/, and it is showing hospitality to /head-master/, /haberdasher/ and /week-end/, but /subaltern/, /civil servant/, /porridge/, /moor/, /draper/, /treacle/, /tram/ and /mufti/ are still strangers in the United States, as /bleachers/, /picayune/, /air-line/, /campus/, /chore/, /scoot/, /stogie/ and /hoodoo/ are in England. A /subaltern/ is a commissioned officer in the army, under the rank of [Pg106] captain. A /civil servant/ is a public servant in the national civil service; if he is of high rank, he is usually called a /permanent official/. /Porridge/, /moor/, /scullery/, /draper/, /treacle/ and /tram/, though unfamiliar, still need no explanation. /Mufti/ means ordinary male clothing; an army officer out of uniform is said to be in /mufti/. To this officer a sack-suit or business-suit is a /lounge-suit/. He carries his clothes, not in a /trunk/ or /grip/ or /suit-case/, but in a /box/. He does not /miss/ a train; he /loses/ it. He does not ask for a /round-trip/ ticket, but for a /return/ ticket. If he proposes to go to the theatre he does not /reserve/ or /engage/ seats; he /books/ them, and not at the /box-office/, but at the /booking-office/. If he sits downstairs, it is not in the /orchestra/, but in the /stalls/. If he likes vaudeville, he goes to a /music-hall/, where the /head-liners/ are /top-liners/. If he has to stand in line, he does it, not in a /line/, but in a /queue/.