Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1895-06-05
AN OLD SHOE.
1t Made Stop at Davenport Saturday
Ownies Rival for Fame,


little while ago the postal clerks in this
city, and on the railway postotice runs lead
ing into it, had their fun with Ownie, the
travelled r. P. o. dog. saturday the boys at
this office had the other r. P. o. nomad, the
celebrated old shoe, that was started by some
wag of a postal clerk at Watertown, Wis,
some two years ago, with request to the
postal clerks in whose mail it was found to
add their tags and pass it along. 1t was
marked for return to museum OF railway
postoffice curiOs in WatertOwn after Decem-
Der =, 1888. Since first sent out it has been
on Tie road continuously.
1t is a common S.. 80 shoe, of the sort that is
commonly put TO hard usage. 1t was well
worn by its owner till it was past doing fur
ther service with any show of responsibility
for self or tor him. and then it was given
goou ,1uiinlan Palace Car company shine, la
belea with plain directions, and started. A big
steel wire file is attached. This has been
filled with tags that have been attached to 1t
by the clerks through whose hands 1t has
passed, and another one like it has been add
ed, and likewise filled. The shoe is quite
heavy, out the weight of the tags exceeds its
own. 1t came in here from LeavenWorth,
Kan and went back over the southwest line
of the Rock Island Saturday night, bound for
! Kansas City.
The last tag added to it's big bundle was the
contribution of Assistant Postmaster Warren.
Teele, at once the Nestor and the poet laure-
ate of the Davenport -postotfice. Mr.. Teele
woos the muse to this strain:
This shoe belonged to d Chicago girl;
1t proved too small, so she gave 1T Whlrl.
1t landed safe in an X L. y. car,
Since then it S Travelled ever so lar;
pray you will keep it on the run
So the postal clerks can have some fun.
Warren Teele.
B. G. Arnold, of Princeton, Mo-, writes
All there! A-choo! "a shoe)
You need bOOtin-or foot In you
Go away, old shoe.
PASS this undressed kid along. I'm a little
modest myself is the contribution of j. L.
Polk, from Pacific j JUNCTION to McCook, Neb.
W. T. Carney of the same run adds merely
"Shoe, Fly"
G, @. Baker, Denver postoffice, adds,
Around the World in 50 Days"
c. S. Hawiey, same Office asks with evident
interest, Say, Sweet Marie, does this belong
to Trilby?" Sweet Marie is Il name that Oc-
ours naturally to a Denver man. Cy Warman,
its author. lives there.
Charles Winfield, on the Denver and Fort
Worth run. gives it as his opinion that THE
fools are not ali dead yet
| The tags show that it was pouched through
IRON Albany 10 Colorado. The Eastern
clerks seem not TO have had the leisure Of
! their friends IN the West, or else they had
| not the time. There is less eXuberance of wit
among their contributions at any rate, but
| once in while one Of theYankee boys breaks
out into sentiment.
Ralph Ernest Dickson, Of Bangor, Me- ex-
| presses an earnest hope--"May its sole have
| eternal rest.
j. G. Durrance, of Jacksonville, Fla, writes
under date OF the recent frost down that
way. Now on its way out OF Florida
: Another Florida clerk drops intospoesy-
''She is good Old shoe
And travelled many a mile.
And if, when she gets home,
The owner doesn't smile,
He will surely be mule"
The gag has evidently been sprung once too
often for the warm southern blood of Tom
Brown, of Nashville, Tenn. He writes You
scoundrel, sucker and son of gun! Stop
sending trash of this kind through the mail.
only write so as to give warming, as this
old shoe fake has become a nuisance to the
Nashville postoffice and the next one that
comes this way will meet a warm reception
IN the furnace" A skull and cross-bones
forms u fitting taiipiece to this whitecap
letter.
1t would take half day to go through the
mass of Etags that are attached. These are
only few samples that came easily TO light
on turning over the stack that have accumu-
lated Upon the retirement of the shoe next
Christmas day these sentiments contributed
by the postal clerks of the country, every
corner of which has been visited by this in
teresting piece of worthless footwear, will
probably be suitably embalmed in a scrap
book to be kept near the shoe itself in the
museum mentioned. Railway postal clerks
work hard. a little levity now and then is
surely to be permitted them.-DaUesgport (Ia.)
Democrat, Mdy 26.