Desbecker-Block Tailoring Co., Buffalo, N.Y.

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Wed, 06 May 2015 13:21:28 +0000

The front of this advertising trade card for the Desbecker-Block Tailoring Company (above left) depicts a traveling salesman (note the "Samples" case in front of him) who's the "man on the spot" (or at least the man on an oversized playing card).

The punning pants piece on the back of the card (above right) was widely circulated in newspapers and magazines as early as 1892. It often appeared under the title, "A Boy's Essay on Pants," with an explanation about an unidentified "boy in Wichita schools" who was "suspended for reading the following essay on 'pants.'" The same pants rant and illustration was also published as a postcard.

Desbecker-Block Tailoring Co., Buffalo, N.Y.

Tailors to all America. Samples. We've a man on the spot. He takes your measure--we do the rest. You'll find him at the store of J. T. Loucks, local agent, Hvoca, N.Y. (over).

Pants are made for men not for women. Women are made for men not for pants. When a man pants for a woman and woman pants for a man they are a pair of pants. Such pants don't last. Pants are like molasses--they are thinner in hot weather and thicker in cold. Men are often mistaken in pants; such mistakes are breeches of promise. There has been much discussion whether pants is singular or plural. Seems to us when men wear pants it is plural and when they don't it is singular. Men go on a tear in their pants and it is all right. When the pants go on a tear it is all wrong. If you want to make pants last make the coat first. (over).

Elwood Nettleton at His Dancing Class Reception, 1911

nobody@ipernity.com (Alan Mays) — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 21:33:16 +0000

Alan Mays has posted:

Handwritten note on the back of this real photo postcard: "Elwood Nettleton, age 11, as he looked at his dancing class reception, April 1911."

Interestingly, a brief biography of Edward L. Nettleton in A Modern History of New Haven and Eastern New Haven County, Volume 2, by Everett Gleason Hill (New York: Clarke Publishing, 1918), pp. 321-22, mentions a son named Elwood: "Elwood T. Nettleton, the third son, was born in West Haven in 1899 and is now attending the Sanford School at Redding Ridge, Connecticut." Since Elwood T. Nettleton would have turned 12 years old sometime in 1911, it's possible that this is a photo of the same Elwood Nettleton taken prior to his birthday that year.

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Desbecker-Block Tailoring Co., Buffalo, N.Y.

Elwood Nettleton at His Dancing Class Reception, 1911