Crofut & Knapp mischief

[Mario]

Don't know if this has been posted before, but I just found this article in the New York Times from January 18, 1885 (!) about a dynamite (!!) explosion in the Crofut & Knapp hat factory.

Look here:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F06E2DF1138E033A2575BC1A9679C94649FD7CF

BTW: Did you know that, as of now, there are at least two of those rare C&K Fedoras up for sale on you-know-where? Not my size (or color), though...

 

[feltfan]

BTW: Did you know that, as of now, there are at least two of those rare C&K Fedoras up for sale on you-know-where? Not my size (or color), though...

Relatively late and not terribly classic examples.
But I'm sure anyone hoping to bid low and late
is cursing you now!

 

[Michaelshane]

Yea thanks for that.....:eusa_doh:

 

[Mario]

Well, yes, you're probably right, sorry about that...

Frankly, I really thought that virtually anybody here must have found them instantly, given the fact that most loungers seem to have hat sizes over 7, where I'm usually only looking in the 6" 7/8 - 7" range (and rarely ever on others than the German and UK sites) - and even I bumped into them first time around. It just seemed to fit in with the NYT article. Sorry again...would love to have that undo button here...

 

[Lefty]

The explosion is just a tiny part of what you'll find to be a huge, long-lasting, and very important labor dispute.

 

[Mario]

The explosion is just a tiny part of what you'll find to be a huge, long-lasting, and very important labor dispute.

Yes. It's hard to imagine that the 'bosses' (that word, in the given context, evokes some strong images, don't you think?) had so much power back at that time - and obviously so little sympathy and understanding for the needs of their workers and the conditions in which they had to live. There is a whole lot more on that particular subject (C&K vs. Workers Union) in the NYT archives.

 

[Brad Bowers]

Relatively late and not terribly classic examples.
But I'm sure anyone hoping to bid low and late
is cursing you now!

Good thing they weren't early hats, or I'd be cursing, for sure!

The most important outcome of the strike for the unions was the alliance between the Finishers' union and the Makers' union, with the issuance of a joint union label, paving the way for the eventual amalgamation of the two into the United Hatters of North America in 1896.

Brad