"adornment of the hardware"--solution

[Gerald Cohen]

   First, many thanx for the several replies to my query about
"adornment of the hardware." I just noticed another example of
"hardware" in a 1913 baseball article:
_San Francisco Bulletin_, April 15, 1913, p.14, cols. 1-3;(title)
"Seals Will Have Week To Make Good." (subtitle): "Manager Howard
Changes His Mind About Tying Hardware to Some of His Hopes." ["hopes"
= players].

    "Tying hardware"--this can only refer to a can.  The manager was
considering canning (firing) some of his players. I'm pretty sure
that slang "can" (to fire s.o.) derives from "tie a can on (s.o.),"
although I'm not clear about the justification for this imagery.

---Gerald Cohen