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Whats My Line?

BY ROBERT LESTER PORTER

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What s My Line?
How many of your colleagues can identify these extinct jobs?

1. Whitesmith
2. Cotter
3. Limner
4. Ostler
5. Cordwainer

Robert Lester Porter, CPA

1. A smith works in metal; a whitesmith in tin and iron, there also are blacksmiths, tinsmiths, coppersmiths, gunsmiths.

2. A farm laborer who lives in a cottage.

3. One who illuminates manuscripts or draws or paints in publications.

4. An innkeeper, also hostler.

5. Originally a worker in cordovan leather, but came to mean a shoemaker.

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