"mdse.", 1913; query

[Gerald Cohen]

    Would anyone know the meaning of "mdse." in the quote below? It
appears in the newspaper _The San Francisco Bulletin_, Feb. 5, 1913,
p.17/3; 'Sporting Tit-Bits by "Mac":
'Any athlete can call himself an amateur until he is found with the
"mdse." on him.'
---This is the entire item. There may be some allusion to the Jim
Thorpe episode (he is mentioned in another item of the same column),
but I still have no idea about "mdse."

---Gerald Cohen