BLISS, ELMER JARED, son of Leonard C. and Eliza C. (Fisher) Bliss, was born in Wrentham, Mass., Aug. 11, 1867. He prepared for college at the Edgartown High School and at once entered the employ of the Brown-Durrell Co. of Boston, going on the road as a salesman. In 1893, Mr. Bliss with Charles J. Cross opened a retail shoe-store on Summer Street, Boston, under the name of the Regal Shoe Company. It was Mr. Bliss’s aim to do away with the independent middleman in trade and sell directly to the consumer, thus creating a business of international scope. His motto, "Sell directly from factory to foot" was applied with energy and skill. In 1894 his firm was consolidated with that of L. C. Bliss & Co., retaining the name Regal Shoe Company, and making the elder Mr. Bliss its President. The younger Mr. Bliss was known among his associates as "the human dynamo," and largely through his energy and enthusiasm the firm opened a chain of stores extending throughout the larger cities of America and other countries. This immense trade is supplied from four large factories owned and controlled by the company of which Mr. Bliss is the managing director, whose conspicuous ability is seen and felt in every branch of the vast enterprise.