The Portland daily press., 1882-11-13
WHITNEY CATER SHOE.
ONE OF PoRTLAND's LATEST IN
DUSTRIES.
A Visit to Their Factory.

| little or nothing of how they are made, the
capital invested in the business, the various
processes required before the hide of the an
NAL is transformed into modern, fashionable
finely fitting boot or shoe.
| HOW THEY MADE SHOES IN THE oLDEN TIMES
Our grandfather's madeishoes by hand power
laboriously, slowly, one-by-one. In this State
not a great many years ago, the shoemaker was
a peripetetic. Many farmer in those good
| old days was butcher and tanner The wan
dering member of soles would set up his bench
in the farmers kitchen, the farmer would fur
nish the leather of his own tanning and soor
the entire family would be stamping and puff
ing in the pain and pride of "trying on" new
shoes. Folks then could set their own fash.
ions, and "breaking i'm was not an idle form
nor an empty phrase.
sHoEs-GooD AND BAD.
The manufacturing of shoes nowadays, re-
quires large bushes experience, an ample
capital for the buying of the most improved
machinery and the employment of skilled
workmen practIced judgment in estimating
and catering to the public taste.
Manufacturers of shoes may be divided into
| two classes. Those who make shoes to sell
| and no thing more; and secondly, those who
make shoe that will sell and make it SO good
that people will come back and buy another
| pair
M oney has been made by making and selling
poor shoes. More permanent success has been
won by making and selling good shoes. The
success of Burt and of others who could be
mentioned are illustrations of the money value
of good name.
Immense quantities of shoes are made that
are entirely innocent Of any leather at all.
These bogus shoes are made principally OF
leather board, composed of the odds and ends
from curriers' shops and shoe factories
where they use leather. They are sold
to the remote western and southern trade
and to operatives in factory towns who are paid
once month and expect to buy pair of shoes
just as often.
The tendency today among manufacturers of
high grade shoes is towards specialization. A
firm will make, perhaps, but one style of shoe
and aim to make that better and cheaper than
can any other firm.
HOW SHOE is MADE AT THE WHITNEY FACTORY.
For the making of fine grade ladies' shoes
the Whitney Cater Shoe Company of this
city are ranked among the first Their reputa-
tion for the making Of a fine well fitting shoe
is such that they have. more orders than tt ey
can fill visit to their busy factory is of in
terest We begin down below, in the base
ment Here we see coarse-looking shapes of
red leather that look as if some prentice hand
had been burlesq ueing the human foot. These
are soles, or will be. They are first tempered
that is put in water till brought to the right
fexibillty; then they are died, or cut out I'M
der form; then channelled, or groove cut
for the thread; then mol ded, or rolled and
pressed into proper shape. Then properly
marked, they are put into the vault and allow
ed TO remain till called for.
We can let the soles take care of themselves
for a little while and will see how the uppers
ara made.
THE CUTTING ROOM.
We go first into the cutting room, Here
are cut out all the upper parts of shoe-in-
Guiding the linirgs, the vamps, the quarters.
Many manufacturers buy their patterns ready
made (the making of patterns being distinct
business.) These ready made patterns are
usually of card board edged with brass. Work
can n OF be done to the best advantage with
these thick brass edged patterns; for slight
inclination of the cutters knife will make a
large variation in the upper. The
Whitney Cater Shoe Company cut their own
patterns from zinc. A set of patterns for
single style of lady's shoe contains over
one hundred pieces or patterns of zinc and
costs $25. The very best stock is selected in
the first place and it is of equal importance
that 1t be properly handled in the cutting
room. IL taxes from one to three years to be-
come good cntter. Besides the manual dex
terity and quickness required the cutter must
detect all flaws and imperfections which may
have been covered up in currying; and it takes
long practice and trained judgment to Gu
stock economically and to the best advantage
certain parts of the skin being the most desir-
able for the yamp and others for the. quarter.
When the Innings, yamps and quarters have
been cut, numbered and lettered according to
size, they are ready for the stitching room.
STITCHING THE SHOE.
In this room the different pa rts of the upper
pass through twenty different processes, and
the greatest care and most fautless accuracy Is
imperative in every detail. Each girl-tor
girls are employed in the stitching room-does
but little but that little must be done with
out flaw. The slightest carelessness in stitch
ing seam, in cutting a. button hole, folding
an edge, spoils the shoe.
The work is divided and sub-divided by the
use of machinery SO that each girl does but
small part of the aggregate, but repeats her
part an indefinite number of times. One girl
merely sews together the two parts of the lin
ing; the next girl closes the seams and another
girl rnbs them, The process of making but
ton-hole and. sewing on a button takes four
girls and two machines Each lot from the
cutting room is accompanied by tag of print
ed coupons with blanks opposite the name of
each process to be done in the stitching room.
Each girl as she finishes her lot cuts off the
coupon for the same and presents it at the
office Saturday night for pay.
The upper part of the shoe is finished in the
stitching room, girl Number Twenty closing
the toes.
PUTTING THE sHcE TOGETHER.
The shoe is now ready to be finished and put
together in the bottomng room. The men in
the bottoming room work in teams of FIVE.
The foreman brings from the stitching room a
certain lot of uppers, looks at their numbers
and brings from the vault the soles correspond.
ing. In fine work, such as is done at the fac
tory of the Whitney Company, the foreman
has the soles tempered and put in the vault a
week before they are wanted by the bottomers;
where work is done with more haste and less
care the sole are hurriedly dried by artificial
heat
Let US watch one of the teams NAL No 1
pounces upon an upper and deity and swiftly
"lasts' it or fastens the upper to the sole. No.
catches up what we can now call a shoe and
in less time than it takes to write this, beats it
ont, as the phrase s, which being put in Ian
guage that ordinary people can understand,
means that he tacks on rude soft of heel
and beats down the groove in which the thread
is sewed. No. 8 is called trimmer He i'm
proves little on the heel, which, when it
comes to him, looks like three crackers nut one
on top of the other; he takes this square,
country-looking heel and pares, shaves and
trims till it is one of these pert small-waisted
French affairs. No. also changes the com
plexion of the heel from red to black; the
edges are darkened and No. 4 tries his hand at
rubbing and polishing with a hot iron No. 5
finishes the sole ITSELF He takes away the tan
bark color by holding the sole on roller GOV.
cred with sand paper and brushes it perfectly