Uncle Louis said that they once failed to stop a jewel robbery because the jeweller neglected to wipe his shoes on the shop doormat, as Mr Carrados had told him to do.
"Max Carrados"
Ernest Bramah
Once, in Pompeii, Daniel blundered suddenly on that mosaic doormat which bears the warning, "Cave canem"; and before he thought, he glanced anxiously around, half expecting a dog that could have barked at Saint Peter himself.
"The Missourian"
Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle
The world is against you-it's making a doormat of you.
"Under the Skylights"
Henry Blake Fuller