The Douglas Shoe

1900

The best advertised and consequently the best known shoe in the world today is undoubtedly made by the W. L. Douglas Shoe Co., of Brockton, Massachusetts.

The one idea of this company has always been to sell a shoe for $3.50 which equals in every way the $5 shoes of any other concern. They are able to do this on account of there being no middle man's profit, as the goods are sold direct from the factory to the wearer. In 60 of the principal cities of the country they have their own retail stores. The goods are made in all sizes and widths, and few shoes equal them for style and durability.

The factory at Brockton employs over 3,100 hands, and, all labor troubles are settled by the state board of arbitration. Nothing but union labor is employed, and pay is about the best average wages of any shoe workers in the United States. The factory payroll amounts to $17,435 per week. This company makes shoes for men only, and it is their proud boast that over one million men wear them. — Denver (Colo.) Post.


Geese and Sages

One day in presiding at table at his country home in Windsor, Vermont, with a swarm of grandchildren about him, Senator William W. Evarts is said to have asked: "What is the difference between this goose before dinner and me after?" After much futile guessing, he answered, in quiet glee: "Now the goose is stuffed with sage, and soon the sage" — pointing to himself — "will be stuffed with the goose."


Words

In coining such modern words as "telegram," "photography," etc., the Japanese have recourse to the Chinese language, as we do to the Greek.

Bears, Geese, Flowers, Robins Back on Job

1920

Nature Prophets Come to the Front as Spring Arrives

HACKENSACK, N. J., March 25. -- A bear, full of pep after awakening from his winter sleep, treed Charles Ehrberg of Rochelle Park Sunday night, but Charley was rescued by his friend, William Seeman.

WINSTED, Conn., March 25. -- A robin hopped all over Dr. W. S. Hulbert's lawn, although the grass was covered with snow and the mercy was below 30. It was the first redbreast of that year, and everybody knows what that means.

CAPE MAY, N. J., March 25. -- Seven flocks of geese were seen flying over this city, each flock numbering fifty or more. They were on their way to northern feeding grounds. Farmers are plowing their fields.

MILFORD, Conn., March 25. -- Frank Wilson, residing at South Milford, brought to the Center the other day a large branch of apple blossoms, more than twenty separate twigs and branches. It made a bouquet more than twenty inches in diameter. He is sure it means an early spring.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 1.

Trappers Prophesy a Long, Hard Winter

Michigan, 1919--

TRAPPERS PROPHESY LONG, HARD WINTER

THEY SAY NATURE HAS GIVEN ANIMALS ESPECIAL PROTECTION AGAINST COLD

Old heads in the trapping game go, each year, to the woods during the fall, to return before Thanksgiving time to tell the populace the character of the approaching weather. Their prophecy is based upon observation of nature's devices to protect her four footed charges from weather. No one doubts these prophets whose testimony is given below:

For weeks the beaver dams have been winter proof with the food supplies in. The dams this year are larger than formerly.

Bruin's coat is as glossy now as in mid-January. This means a cold winter sure, trappers say.

Immense flocks of geese have gone south. The north was deserted by them weeks ago.

Tree "cooties" are scarce and are nearer the ground than usual. Moss is heavier, bark is thicker, buds of trees are warmly encased.

Deer are herding early and all fur-bearing animals are a month nearer "prime."

--Ironwood Daily Globe, Ironwood, Michigan, November 20, 1919, page 13.