doça,' tells us that, the Cardinal having conceded to the Chapter of the cathedral at Toledo, the administration of the building-fund, the Chapter in 1485, nominated as workman (obrero) the Canon Juan de Contreras (Lib. II., cap. 62, par. 2). May we not conjecture, then, that, if clergymen are now provincially called bricklayers, it is because their mediæval predecessors were, with a special reference to building, called 'workmen'? Possibly, from the appointment of certain ecclesiastics in former days under the name of operarii or workmen, for the repair and maintenance of public edifices in the University of Oxford, the title of bricklayers may have passed, in course of time, to the neighbouring clergy of Oxon and Berks. The use of bricks, which ceased in this country after the decline of the Roman power, is stated by Hallam to have been reintroduced, probably from Flanders, in the early part of the fourteenth century.
With perhaps equal propriety the term [bricklayer] is thought to refer to the [Greek: oi)kodomê\ tou= sô/matos tou= Christou=] (Eph. iv., 12), trusting that they, like St. Paul, are wise 'master builders'; builders on the only true foundation, 'which is Jesus Christ.' Edify, edificare [Greek: oi\kodomei)/u] have primary reference to houses built with hands, as well as to the spiritual one of building up the Church of Christ.]
Bricklayer's Clerk, subs. (nautical).—One of the hundred names given to a lubberly sailor.—W. Clark Russell. For synonyms, see Strawyarder, and Cf., Bail.
Bricks, subs. (Wellington College).—A sort of pudding.
Bridge, subs. (cards').—A cheating trick at cards, by which any particular card is cut by previously curving it by the pressure of the hand. Used in France as well as in England, and termed in the Parisian Argot faire le pont sec, also couper dans le pont. The modus operandi of avoiding, or rather of neutralizing the cut, which is the very backbone of the card-sharper's art, is somewhat difficult, and is generally performed by one of two methods, termed respectively the 'bridge' and the 'pass.' In the former method the sharper, at the end of his shuffle—the cards being still held backs uppermost in the left hand—takes some twelve or fifteen of the underneath cards lengthwise between the thumb and first and second fingers of the right hand and throws them on the top of the pack, at the same time giving them a slight squeeze outwards which causes them to assume an imperceptible curve. When placed on the table to be cut, the pack will now, owing to this curve or 'bridge,' present in the middle a very slight gap almost invisible to the eye; and experience shows that the odds are twenty to one that the adversary will cut exactly at that very spot, thus taking off the twelve or fifteen cards thrown on the top and bringing the 'readied' portion of the pack back to its original position.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 266. I got my living by card-playing in the low lodging-houses. . . . I worked the oracle; they were not up to it. I put the first and seconds on, and the bridge too.
