To Our Friends

The Butte Miner, Butte, 1924-01-13, p.16

Summary

Murphy-Softley quarter-page advertisement. Left side: line drawing of an "eastern mink cape, elaborately trimmed in tails with unusually large sweep. Specially priced at $475.00." All other garments proportionately priced. Centre-right text block: **"To Our Friends. To set at rest a rumor which has been persistently going the rounds for sometime, we will state positively that the firm of Murphy-Softley has no intention of discontinuing. On the contrary, our business for the past year has been the best in its history, and our faith in Butte remains unshaken. It will be our aim in future as in the past to give the ladies of Butte the greatest measure of satisfactory quality for the least possible price."** Bottom: Murphy-Softley logo banner. "MURPHY — WOMEN'S APPAREL SHOP — SOFTLEY / 22 West Park Street." The logo retains both partners' names even though Softley by this date has likely exited the day-to-day operation (cf. 1924-03-19 four-year anniversary clipping that mentions only JJM). ARCHIVE SIGNIFICANCE. **The closure-rumor advertisement** — by January 1924, Butte was talking about Murphy-Softley closing, and the partnership felt strongly enough about it to take out a quarter-page ad denying the rumor. Two months later (March 1924) the fourth-anniversary sale runs in the same paper. Establishes that the store's 1924 business was perceived by the community as shaky, even as the firm publicly insists "our business for the past year has been the best in its history." Tension between public framing and private rumour is itself a useful book-chapter detail. Eastern mink cape at $475 in January 1924 dollars = approx. $8,500 in 2026 dollars (rough conversion) — confirms the upper-end market position the store had carved out.

People

James Joseph "James J." Murphy (b. 1883 Ardgroom; d. 1938 LA)(as printed: Murphy-Softley)
role: store proprietor signatory · family confidence: 10 flag

Places

Butte, Montana (primary)

Themes

butte_economic_life

Story threads

Source type

Related sources

Transcription

transcription: complete · confidence high

# To Our Friends *The Butte Miner, Sunday, January 13, 1924, p. 16. Display advertisement. Left side: line drawing of a woman in long-skirt dress beside a hanging cape. Centre-right: framed text block. Bottom: store logo banner.* [*Left side line drawing with price callout:*] **ONE only, magnificent eastern mink cape, elaborately trimmed in tails with unusually large sweep. Specially priced at $475.00** [*Adjacent column:*] **All Other Garments Proportionately Priced** [*Centre framed message:*] ## To Our Friends To set at rest a rumor which has been persistently going the rounds for sometime, we will state positively that the firm of Murphy-Softley has no intention of discontinuing. On the contrary, our business for the past year has been the best in its history, and our faith in Butte remains unshaken. It will be our aim in future as in the past to give the ladies of Butte the greatest measure of satisfactory quality for the least possible price. [*Bottom logo banner, with "MURPHY" on the left and "SOFTLEY" on the right of a centered "WOMEN'S APPAREL SHOP" cartouche; "22 West Park Street" repeated under both:*] **MURPHY** — *WOMEN'S APPAREL SHOP* — **SOFTLEY** *22 West Park Street*

Open questions

What triggered the closure rumor? Possible — Softley's departure (his name is still on the storefront sign in Jan 1924 but he no longer appears in the news copy by March 1924). Worth following up via the Softley_left_the_partnership inbox PDF and the going_out_of_business.jpg (which might be late-1920s actual closure).