"mdse.", 1913; query

[Bruce Dykes]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gerald Cohen" <gcohen at UMR.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2001 22:05
Subject: "mdse.", 1913; query


>     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."

I read this very transparently as mdse.=merchandise(as others have
noted)="goods"

How far back do we have "goods"="incriminating evidence"?

bkd