[ti:Wildcats Congressmen, Money, Oil Wells and Strikers] [ar:Warren Scheer] [al:Words and Their Stories] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]Now, the VOA Special English program Words and Their Stories. [00:17.97]Today, we tell about the word "wildcat." [00:22.55]Humans have always depended on animals. [00:27.90]From the beginning of human history, [00:31.75]wild animals provided food, [00:34.73]clothing and sometimes medicine. [00:38.41]We may not depend as much on wild animals now. [00:43.96]But we hear about them every day. [00:47.73]Americans use the names of animals in many ways. [00:53.61]Many companies use animals [00:59.31]to make us want to buy their goods. [01:03.33]Automobile companies, for example, [01:06.25]love to show fast horses [01:09.24]when they are trying to sell their cars. [01:12.27]They also name their cars for other fast powerful animals. [01:18.19]Automobile manufacturers and gasoline companies [01:24.14]especially like to use big cats to sell their products. [01:28.96]They like lions, tigers and wildcats. [01:35.17]When Americans say "wildcat," [01:38.67]they usually mean a lynx, an ocelot or a bobcat. [01:43.15]All these cats attack quickly and fiercely. [01:47.34]So wildcats represent something fast and fierce. [01:53.28]What better way is there to sell a car [01:56.86]than to say it is "as fast as a wildcat"? [02:00.19]Or, what better way is there to sell gasoline [02:05.01]than to say that using it [02:07.34]"is like putting a tiger in your tank"? [02:09.67]An early American use of the word [02:14.07]"wildcat" was quite different. [02:15.84]It was used to describe members of Congress [02:19.96]who declared war on Britain in 1812. [02:23.40]A magazine of that year said [02:26.71]"the wildcat congressmen went home." [02:28.53]It said they were unable to face the responsibility [02:32.59]of having involved their country in an unnecessary war. [02:37.06]"Wildcat" also has been used as a name for money. [02:42.24]It was used this way in the 1800s. [02:46.79]At that time, [02:53.16]some states permitted banks to make their own money. [02:56.54]One bank in the state of Michigan [03:00.54]offered paper money with a picture of a wildcat on it. [03:05.24]Some banks, however, did not have enough gold [03:08.21]to support all the paper money they offered. [03:11.69]So the money had little or no value. [03:15.32]It was called a "wildcat bill" [03:17.76]or a "wildcat bank note." [03:20.95]The banks who offered this money [03:23.32]were called "wildcat banks." [03:23.58]A newspaper of the time [03:26.96]said those were the days of "wildcat money." [03:30.76]It said a man might be rich [03:33.55]in the morning and poor by night. [03:36.13]"Wildcat" was used in another way in the 1800s. [03:42.08]It was used for an oil well or gold mine [03:45.95]that had almost no oil or gold in it. [03:49.61]Dishonest developers would buy such property. [03:54.28]Then they would sell it [03:56.15]and leave town with the money. [03:58.27]The buyers were left with worthless holes in the ground. [04:02.49]Today, wildcat oil wells are in areas [04:07.19]that are not known to have oil. [04:09.41]Yet another kind of wildcat is the "wildcat strike." [04:14.88]That is a strike called [04:17.69]without official approval by a union. [04:20.76]During World War II, [04:23.38]an American publication accused wildcat strikers [04:27.07]of slowing government production. [04:29.79]This VOA Special English program [04:40.48]Words and Their Stories was written by Jeri Watson. [04:45.01]I'm Warren Scheer.