They Wonder Where Shire Is

New York, 1895

The friends of Robert Shire, of Flushing, are anxious to learn his whereabouts. He left Flushing about a week ago, and nobody seems to know what has become of him. Shire conducted a grocery store. He transferred his interest in the store to Charles Ruland.


Hot Water Boiler Burst

The hot water boiler in the kitchen of Mrs. Margaret Burchill's house, at Long Island City, burst Wednesday morning when the servant built the fire in the range and badly wrecked the kitchen.


A Defunct Excise Board

Governor Morton having approved the action of Judge Garretson in removing from office Michel Doyle, John F. McGowan and Frank P. Krug, who composed the excise board of the town of Newtown, County Clerk Sutphin declared the offices vacant on Friday.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 1.

Buying Fruit

1901

The prudent man never buys the fruit which is marked with the highest prices, and his motive is not merely economy. He knows that the second grade fruit is riper than the most expensive, which in nine cases out of ten is too green to be eaten immediately. It is held at high prices because the dealer knows that it will keep, and as it ripens and grows better fit for human consumption its price will be reduced. That is the stage of the fruit when the price is lowered for the first time. It is then ripe and in condition to be eaten. And the prudent man who doesn't always feel that he has got the best article only when he pays the most for it buys his fruit at the marked down price. — New York Sun.

Good Business Men

1899

Richard Cadbury, who died in Jerusalem in the spring of the present year, was one of those hard-working men who build up their own fortunes, and in doing so make the fortunes of many whom they employ. When his father died, thirty-eight years ago in Birmingham, England, Richard and his brother George found themselves the proprietors of a grocery business, one of the features of which was the manufacture of cocoa and chocolate. In it were employed a dozen men.

The sons determined to devote themselves entirely to the making of chocolate and cocoa. To-day the firm employs twenty-four hundred people in its extensive works on the outskirts of Birmingham, and the populous little town of Bournville is wholly dependent on the Cadbury enterprise for its existence.

It was, however, in relation to his workmen and workwomen that the best side of the successful business man was manifested. As prosperity came to him he allowed a share of it to fall in their way. And he not only showed by his conduct that he believed master and men to be one in aim and interest, but also that he recognized a higher Master of the business than Richard Cadbury.

The day's labors were always begun by gathering the people together for a few minutes of quiet acknowledgment of dependence on the goodness of God, and His ever-mindful care.

Richard Cadbury and his brother had a personal interest in every worker. When the women left the firm to get married, — the only thing they ever left for, — the brothers knew just where they went and how they were getting on. Such simple friendliness between employer and employed is the best check to the spirit of suspicion that in the present day divides the worker from the capitalist. — Youth's Companion.

Fake Beard Lands Gary Man in Cell

March 1920

Merchant-Sleuth Finally Released by Detroit Cops

DETROIT, Michigan — Wearing a false goatee and mustache, Isidor Vila, a well-to-do business man of Gary, Indiana, was arrested here.

Vila conducts a grocery store in Gary. During the strike there last summer a large number of the strikers opened charge accounts at his store. Many of them disappeared without paying their bills, some of them coming to Detroit. Vila decided to go on a collecting trip. He provided himself with false scenery, as he figured he would have a better opportunity of locating his debtors.

Detroit was the first city he visited, and five minutes after he left his hotel adorned with the camouflage he was spotted and arrested, despite his strenuous objections. The Gary authorities wired the Detroit police that Vila was a law abiding citizen and he was then released.


Weds Girl To Whom He Restored Beauty

PEORIA, Illinois — Two years ago Miss Ruth Wheeler, a Peoria school teacher, went to the offices here of Dr. Raymond C. Willett, orthodonist. An otherwise beautiful face was slightly marred by teeth which had grown crooked. She appealed to Dr. Willett to perform an operation to straighten them. Recently, in Chicago, the couple married. Miss Wheeler is the daughter of one of Peoria's prominent families. Dr. Willett is one of the best known practitioners in Peoria.

Women Cannot Collect Damages If They Wear Long Skirts

Chicago, 1903

Law Hitched to the Skirt

Women must hold up their skirts and protect their gowns from threatening nails and sharp corners while shopping or marketing, says the Chicago Tribune.

Justice Hurley yesterday refused the protection of the law to those who neglect such simple precautions. It also appeared that the woman who goes marketing in a silk skirt with a flowing train, made for Derby day, has little standing in his court.

On these points Mrs. Lucy O'Donnell, 1010 Garfield boulevard, lost her suit for damages against John R. Thompson. Mrs. O'Donnell's skirt, in an unhappy moment, caught on a nail on an orange box in Mr. Thompson's store at 38 State street and a large hole was torn in the garment. She said the gown had cost $15 and she wanted that amount of money from Mr. Thompson.

"You were in a great hurry when you entered the store?" asked Adolph Raphael, Mr. Thompson's attorney.

"Of course I was in a hurry. I had been to meet some friends at the depot and I wanted to do my marketing and get home. I rushed in and hastened to the rear to the meat counter. Suddenly I heard something tear. I was walking so fast I had to take two more steps before I could stop to investigate. Then I found my fine silk skirt torn to pieces.

Mrs. O'Donnell proceeded to tell how the garment had been made to wear on Derby day and what its value was.

"Was not that an expensive gown to go shopping in?" suggested the attorney.

"That doesn't make any difference," retorted the witness.

"And did you hold the train up?" asked the court, taking a hand in the questioning.

"No, I did not. If I had, the tear would have been much worse."

"Those orange boxes were securely stowed under the counter," Justice Hurley said. "The fault was with Mrs. O'Donnell, she should have held up her skirt. Let women carry their skirts and not trail them over the floors and furnishings."

Plenty of "Kick" in Grocer's Brew; Still Blows Up and Wrecks Store

1920--

NEW YORK, N.Y., May 20. -- The plate glass windows of a grocery store in South Brooklyn were blown out a moment after Policeman Francis Smith had passed the building at 2 a.m. By the time Smith and Policeman McMahon had climbed through the jagged aperture and made their way through the store's tumbled heaps of cans and green goods, scores of residents of the neighborhood were pouring into the street.

In a back room of the grocery were found two stunned men, who later at the police station, where they are held for the Federal authorities, described themselves as Dario Santeveshl, 35, proprietor of the grocery, and Tony Petitschi, 49, the grocery man's friend.

The police say the explosion was of a home-made still. Apparently a milk can filled with "mash" had been put to boil on a gas stove. From the top there had been a spiral copper pipe running to a barrel. The lid of the milk can was clamped down so tightly that the steam supposed to condense in the pipe, and run into the barrel as "hootch," blew up. There was little left of the can and windows in several other buildings in the neighborhood were broken. The residents for a time attributed the explosion to a "blackhand" bomb.

According to the police, they found near the wrecked apparatus a forty-gallon barrel of wine and a three-gallon jug of alcohol. The two prisoners suffered only from shock.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, May 22, 1920, page 4.

Grocer Swindled by Small Boy

San Antonio, Texas, 1906
----------
SWINDLED BY BOY.

Lad Worked on Groceryman's Sympathies and Got a Loaf of Bread.

A small boy about seven years old went into Earnest Broggie's grocery store on South Laredo street the other day. The lad was crying in a strangled sort of way, and, when asked what was the matter, he said that he had a pin in his throat.

The groceryman started to phone for a doctor, but the boy wouldn't hear of that. He said that if he could get something soft to swallow, it would be all right. The scared groceryman gave the lad a cake, but that didn't seem to remove the pin.

By this time the boy seemed in a bad way, but he managed to gasp out for some bread and a little oil. The excited groceryman rushed around and procured the bread and oil, in haste to relieve the boy, who was a son of one of his customers. When the loaf of bread and bottle of oil was given the boy he promptly removed the pin -- and himself, also, from the store, and gave the laugh at the kind groceryman.

Mr. Broggi, the groceryman, now ponders often on the wisdom of the young.

--The San Antonio Daily Light, San Antonio, Texas, June 28, 1906, page 8.

Comment: The grocer's name is given both as Broggi and Broggie. In the original article the boy manages "to kasp out," which doesn't sound right.

AN ABSOLUTE FALSEHOOD

-- To the Public: --

There seems to be a story going around that we, the undersigned stole some gas from the gas pump in front of the store of Graham Bros. at Webber, Kan., the night of November 5th. This is an absolute falsehood and anyone telling or repeating such a story, is telling an untrue and malicious tale.

(Signed) BEN YOUNG,
PERCY TAYLOR.

--probably from Superior, Nebraska newspaper

...and speaking of Graham Brothers of Webber, Kansas...

HIGH GRADE FOOD STORES - HGF STORES

SPECIALS
for
FRIDAY & SATURDAY
19 September 20

H.G.F. SOUP (Vegetable or Tomato) 2 cans 19¢
2# ITEN'S FAIRY SODA CRACKERS 29¢
H.G.F. LARGE MILK 3 cans 25¢
2# package RAISINS 19¢
H.G.F. BROOMS 69¢
#2½ H.G.F. FANCY YELLOW CLING PEACH HALVES in syrup 3 cans 69¢, per dozen 2.74
LEE OATS 9¢
SENSATION COFFEE 42¢
HERSHEY ¼# COCOA 2 for 19¢
H.G.F. APPLE BUTTER 23¢
LEE 4# GRIDDLE CAKE FLOUR 29¢
H.G.F. #5 WHITE CORN SYRUP 39¢
SUMMER GIRL MARSHMALLOWS 19¢
H.G.F. TOILET PAPER 2 rolls 19¢
#1 EMERALD ENGLISH WALNUTS 27¢

GRAHAM BROTHERS
Webber - Kansas

--unused postcard, 1¢ green Jefferson printed postage