The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-11-12
BLACKING.
An Important Industry-Interesting
Facts.



One curions fact about backing is.
that business it is, perhaps, affected
less than anything else by bad times.
Men must black their boots. We may
diminish soap, the toothbrush may not
be used, but the Hacking brush must be
piled; in fact, shining pair of boots is
a necessity of modern civilization.
Would you sue for place or favor, your
shabby hat may be hidden as you hum
bly, bow before the dispenser of gifts,
your dingy linen may not be seen. but
yonr shoes must be Iustrous-there Is
no concealment of them. Well blacked
boots proPitiate, in fact.
Backing making considered as a fine
art has its difficulties The very best
Hacking has one sunreme judge, and
that is the street bootblack AZ worked
for years." said the leading backing
manufacturer to the writer, "befnre my
backing would snit him. l listened to
him as would to an oracle, for knew
that his word was law. If only I was
able 10 satisfy him. / knew that my
goods were right. He was dreadfnlly
hard to please. might say faStidious.
I took to him (the ideal boothlack.
about whom my informant spoke with
reverence.) dozens Of boxes of blacking
without my name on them, each made
differently, and he never made a mistake
as to which was the hest. What he
wanted was not only color, but color and
brilliancy-tone without too much la
bor, and then the black had TO be last
ing At last the bootblack gave me nv
diploma, if may call it so. and his ap-
proval was public approval, and since
that time all the American world have
bought our blacking"
The blacking business is an amazing
one, amounting to a production of 15,-
600, 900 of boxes per annum, of which
about 5000, 900 of boxes are reported,
the public paying for it every year, in
five and ten cents, rs much as S. 600, 600
Thirty years ago Philadelphia had al
most the monopoly of the business, but
during the last year New York has
built up a very large trade of her own.
There are about six leading manufac-
tn-ers in the United States, with a capt.
tai of a million dollars, who control the
business. We differ from England in
using paste backing, whereas in Great
Britain liquid backing is almost entire
ly employed. 1t was the war which
gave the great development to the use
of backing in the United States. "Be-
fore the civil war;" said our informant,
"blacking, of course, was largely used
in the cities, but not by the general pop
ulation. Military duties, the necessity
of the soldier being clean, with coat well
brushed, and boots well blacked, taught
the general rural class to use it. The
war popularized and developed black
ing, and laid the foundation of the
present heavy consumption.
The formulas of blacking are pretty
nearly all the same; ivory black, or
lamp-black, an acid, and an oil, with
sugar or molasses. being the ingredients.
II is in the preparation, or thorough
minglIng of these Substances that the
great secret of the art lies. In the price
paid for the article it is the box which
enters fully into the cost, representing
as mnch as one-third the whole value.
Boot varnishes, with the lacquer used
for ladies' shoes, are not true blackings,
but simple varnIshes, and are foreign to
our subject. OF those famous blacking
manufactures of England, whose pro-
ducts, with Worcestershire sauce and
Crosse & Blackwell's pickles, encircle
the Globe, American blacking makers
speak with the profoundest reverence.
"There is nothing equal to the best liq
uid blacking. as fluid blacking-only
it does not suit our country or climate"
This was said with that deep feeling of
respect which might be supposed to
emanate from the principal of small
exchange Office when speaking of those
princes of finance, the Barings or the
Rothschilds.
"We had" says an Arctic explorer,
"after incredible toll, at last got on terra
frmd, and believed We were the discov-
rrers of some bleak, God forsaken land.
No traces that any human being, at
least oc our race, had ever been there
before us could he found. There was
scarce sound to be heard, in this DESC
lation, save in the far distance the BOOM
ing of the clashing icebergs. We look
ed carefully for a cairn, or any frag-
ments of meat cans, which the bears
could not destroy. but nothing could be
found At last somebody lit on frag-
ment of pottery, of familiar color and
form-a mere potsherd an inch or so
square. 1t was all that was left OF pot
of Day & Martins backing. There
was no mistaking it, for the next day we
found the rest of it. Some Englishman
something civilized-had been at this
dreary spot, the end of the world, be
fore u.s."
Charrv TraQo