New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1861-04-18
FROM LOUISIANA.
SOUTHERN MANUFAC rURES-TEXAs-
TENNESSEE--ARKANS

manufactures Thus far are very documentary.
s.ores If furniture-dealers throughout the South
make pretense of manufacturing their own
stock, and are always very particular TO show
their customers through their workshops; but re-
eeiye seyen.eighths of their furniture from the
N"rth-in some cases having it delivered at
night, through back doors, that it may not at
tract attention. " Sewing.Macbines made on
Southern Soil " is the sign in front of sewing-ma
chine depot on Canal street; bet we are little
skeptical upon that point. As.an Offset to th's'
the. agent Of rival machine, well Known
throughout the North adyertses that hull
of the patent which he represents is orHtd
in New. Orleans, aud that his machines are
therefore par excellence worthy Of Southern pat
ronage. A little pasteboard box upon my mantle
is labeled " Superior Southern Matches" and
the papers announce that we are soon to have
q manufactory of confectionery among US. But
ne establishment upon which the most stress is
laid is the Southern Shoe Factory on st. Ferdi-
nand street-a joint-stock concern, recently in-
augurated, with capital of q hundred thousand
dollars Its work is IN great demand, aud II Is
pointed out as triumphant yindication Of the
feasibility Of domestic ma uiacturiDg. | have
just returned from visit 10 il, and am COM
peeled to report that it is not so essentially
Southern institution as one might infer.
The superintendent Of the fsctory-whose cour-
tesy TO a stranger beg leave 10 ackno" ledge
was an officer Of note in the Nicaraguan army OF
Gen. William Walker and halls from Philadc-
pha. The basement story Of the building 10 de-
voted to cut ng out and pressing the sole leather
This work is done entirely by machinery, run by
steam and every machine bears the label of
Boston manufacturer. Ascending TO the second
story, I found the sewing, pegging, &c, going
On brisky. With the exception of machine
from Paris, for finishing, smoothing, and polish
ing the soles, all the machinery here, including
four sewng-macbines run by steam, and two
pegsinq-machnes of wonderful Ingenuity, which
cut out the pegs insert the awl and peg
two rows around the sole OF large
shoe in less than twenty-five seconds, was also
from Massachusetts,. In the third story, where
the " fitting" of tue sOles--the only work done
BY hand-and some other finishing processes are
carried on, still fouRd nothing but New-En-
gland machinery.
In another apartment three men were engaged
in making boxes for packing the shoes when they
are ready for the market.
"Where do you get the lumber for these
cases /" l asked
/" From st. Louis" replied the superintendent.
ave find it cheaper to have it planed and cut
out there, and shipped to Us ready for mailing to-
getber, labor is 80 high here"
"Where DO you procure you birch for pegs1"
% .ha IN ma
10 strips, for the peggiDg-machne."
"Where are your wOrkmen frOm4"
"The leading men in oil the departments are
from New-Engiand. We are compelled to pay
them high salarics-siAty, seventy, eighty. end
IN one case three hundred dollars q month. The
.,,bordiuate workmen who are learning tie busi.
ness we procured here. We employ forfy-seyen
In all. including women and boys, and equal to
about thirty men, and turn out from two humid
red and fifty 10 three hundred pairs Of brogans
per day."
"Wbere do you get Jour leather"
"WeIl Sir Il also comes from the North at
present; but We hope to have tanneries estab-
iisbed here in a short time. Southern hides
now sent North to be tanned and curried, aud
then brought back in the form of leather"
exclusively to strong, eoarse plantation bregans,
which are sold at from $l3 TO $40 per case.
The demand thus far is much greater
than the supply, and the superintendent hopes
within the next six weeks 10 be turning cat six
hundred pairs per day. The import duty on
Northern shoes, if l am informed correctly by a
dealer, is "A per cent AS the mandatory has
only been in progress about two months, it can
Only be deemed an experiment as yet. Of
course the same quality OF shoes can be manu-
featured much cheaper in New England; but tie
Southern shoe factory, you perceive, is admir-.
ably calculated TO appeal to local patriotism. L
offers to the market (ready packed, in cases Of
Northern lumber), brogans made Of Northern
leather and pegs, with Northern machinery, iuD by
Northern workmeD, under a Northern superntcnd-
ent. Ii this does not demonstrate TIE adoptabiity
OF the South 10 manufactures, We may as Wen
have logic abolished at once.
read letter last hight from an GhGehe of
the Confederate army at Pensacola, ia which the
writer stated that if was designed to attack Fort
Pickens ct az early day; and was angdne that
o force sufficient to capture it without serious
difficulty could be thrown in by scaling-ladder5.
Meanwhile, tho great question of the day here
is, whether the fort has or has NOT been reen-
forced. Ia spite of the bounty offered, and the
large number Of men out Of employ here, il has
been found impossible, thus far, TO make up sin.
gle regiment OF recruits. According 10 the papers,
H..