W. L. Mobley · Chickasha, Indian Territory · 1902

Hello! Say Boys

Chickasha, Indian Territory, March 1902. W. L. Mobley has news and can't hold it in: Hello! Say boys, the Spalding base ball goods are here, plus Reach and Schmelzer's, plus lawn tennis, plus fishing tackle till you can't rest. The border of the ad is just the word Spalding, repeated ten times, all the way around.

On March 19, 1902, W. L. Mobley took space in The Chickasha Daily Express and got straight to the point: “HELLO!”

The full pitch, addressed to exactly the right audience: “SAY BOYS, we have just received a new and complete line of Spalding Base Ball Goods, and Lawn Tennis. Also Schmelzer’s and A. J. Reach Base Ball goods. Fishing tackle till you can’t rest.” That last line may be the finest sentence a sporting goods dealer ever wrote. Fishing tackle till you can’t rest.

Look at the frame around the ad. Where another merchant would use a rule or a row of ornaments, Mobley’s border is simply the word “Spalding.” repeated around all four sides, ten appearances in all, some of them printed sideways to fit. A. G. Spalding spent decades making his name synonymous with sporting goods, and here in Indian Territory, five years before Oklahoma statehood, a Chickasha Avenue merchant literally fenced his advertisement with it. The rivals get inside the fence anyway: A. J. Reach and Schmelzer’s, the Kansas City house, both carried in stock.

Directions are simple, as they tend to be in an 1902 town: “Remember the Place and the Name. CHICKASHA AVE. PHONE 67. W. L. MOBLEY.” Chickasha’s boys evidently kept playing ball; a quarter century later the town was turning out for benefit baseball with a comedy battery.