Smallwood boots

• Format: Manuscript
• Language: English
• Published: 1974
• Subjects: English language > Dialects > Newfoundland and Labrador; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/elrcdne/id/48003

smallwood n [David Smallwood, Grandfather of J. R. Smallwood] specialized in the manufacture of leather fishermen's boots. They were made mostly by hand and in three styles; one came well above the ankles, the other came up to the knees, and the third pretty well to the thighs, [over] [reverse] He employed a Frenchman who called himself Count deCourcy. I don't know if he actually was a count, but my grandfather found him quite useful to write doggerel verse about Smallwood's boots. These verses were printed on cards and distributed in large quantities, and they came to be very well known. I remember one: Smallwood's Boots are the best of leather, / Smallwood's Boots they suit all weather, / Smallwood's Boots they are so grand, / They are the best in Newfoundland! / I don't know just where these lines fit in, but they were part of it too: Smallwood's Boots for lads and lasses, Smallwood's Boots - They suit all classes. It wasn't great poetry, I reluctantly admit, but it constituted magnifi- cent advertising in Newfoundland during the 1880s and 1890s. Over the front door of his shop on Water Street, David hung a huge boot made of planks strapped together with iron bands. Down the leg of the boot on each side were the words, "Buy Your Boots At", and then along the length of the foot on either side, "Small- wood's". I remember seeing that boot many times. J. D. A. WIDDOWSON PRINTED ITEM DNE-cit JH G. M. Story APR 1974 JH APR 1974 Used I and Sup Used I and Sup Used I TONGUE BOOT, [see also 'Waddens'] Reverse of card at S_17859; citation is only partially used in the DNE