Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-03-20
GREAT SHOEMAKERS.
MErHoDIsrs AND THE coBB1ERs.
Examples of Useful and Successful
Craftsmen Who Have Distinguished
Themselves in Theology, Politics, Edu-
cation and Poetry.

From the ranks of the shoemakers more
than from any other class OF tradespeopIe
have sprung men of great power and in
tiuence. The great Wesleyan Methodist
denomination owes more to the cobbiers
of England than to any other class. The
Evolutionary stories that have clustered
round the lives of St. Crispin and St.
Anianus are known to all the world, and
the genial picture of the old-fashioned
shoemaker, with his leather apron and
hands redolent with wax, is one familiar to
all memories. The days OF machinery are
upon us, and the shoemaker has disap-
peared, and the history of the kings of the
craft should be told while yet the world
| remembers them. The old cobbler.
sitting at his stall and working
with aEl and hammer and last, will
never again be the conspicuous figure in
social life that he was wont to be in times
gone by. The Brooklyn Eagle, referring
to the Lives of Illustrious Shoe-Makers,"
by William Winks, says that the author in
| rescuing from threatened oblivion the
more illustrious members of the ord@,
| deserves the thanks of the public. In his
interesting book he gives examples from
all countries, emitting, with few exceptions,
living men. One of the most noted in the
world is om1tted-that of Thomas Edward,
the shoemaker of Bauff, and one of the
best self taught naturalists of our time and
| a member of the famous Linnean society.
FOL
Hans Sachs, "The Nightingale of the
Reformation" and Jacob Boehman, the
| mystic. Italy furnishes two conspicuous
examples, Holland two, one of them being
Ludolph de Jonge, the portrait painter
The majority of shoe-makers whose names
appear in this galaxy are English, Scotch,
or Welsh, and the most noted Sir
Cloudesley Shovel, the cobbler's boy who
became an admiral; James Lackington.
the shoemaker and bookseller; Samuel
Bradburn, the shoemaker who became
president of the Wesleyan conference; Will
liam Clifford, who went from the shoemak-
er's stool to the editor chair; Robert
Bloomfield, the shoemaker who wrote 'The
Farmers Boy" Samuel Drew, the meta
physical shoemaker; William Carey, the
shoemaker who translated the Bible into
Bengal and Hindostan; John Pounds, the
philanthropic shoemaker, and Thomas
! Cooper, the self-educated shoemaker, who
reared his own monument" The poets
| of the cobbler state we're many, and of one
of them, Richard Savage, the friend of
Pope. the following interesting data are
given:
far better poet, but less worthy man,
than Bennett, of Woodstock, or Woodhouse,
of Rowley, was Richard Savage, the friend
of Pope. From beginning to end the story
of his life, as told by DR.. johnson in his
''Lives of the Poets," is one of the most
romantic and melancholy biographies in
existence. 1t only concerns US here to say
| that Richard Savage, the reputed son of
Earl Rivers and the countess of Maccle
| field, was, on leaving school, apprenticed
to shoemaker, and remained in this hum
BILE position ''longer than he was willing to
confess; nor was it, perhaps, any great ad-
vantage to him that an unexpected discov-
cry determined him to quit his occupa-
| tion." DR.. Johnson thus speaks of this
discovery and its immediate results: "About
this time his nurse, who had always treated
| him as her own son, died, and it was natural
for him to take of those effects
| which had by her death, as he imagined,
become his own. He therefore went to ner
| house, opened her boxes, and examined her
papers, among which he found some let
tiers written to her by Lady Mason, which
| informed him of his birth and the reason
for which it was concealed. Dissatisfied
with his employment, but unable to obtain
| either pity or help from his mother, to
| whom he made many tender appeals, he
| resolved to devote himself to literature
His first attempt in this line was a short
poem called The Battle of the Pamphlets
| written anent the Bangorian controversy,
| and his second comedy under the title
'Woman's Riddle Two years after appear
ed another comedy, Love in a Veil In
1928 he wrote drama, having for its sub
| ject certain events in the life of Sir Thorn
as Overbury. Previous to the publication
of small volume entitled "A Miscellany
of Poems,' Savage wrote the story of his
life in political paper called the Plain
Dealer. His best poem, The Wanderer,'
in which are some pathetic passages refer
| ring to himself, was published in 1929"
For the story of this unhappy man the
| reader must be referred to Johnson's
Lives" Savage died i2sthe debtors prison,
Bristol, Aug. 1, 1743.
James Woodhouse, the friend of Shen-
tone, stands first on our list in point of
time, but not in regard to ability. He ev-
identity owed his little brief popularity to
| the friendship of William Shenstone, au-
| thor of THE Schoolmistress." Shenstone
lived at Leasowes, seven miles from Bir-
mingham, in charming country house
surrounded by gardens artistically laid out
and cultivated with the utmost care by the
| eccentric, fantastic poet. Woodhouse, who
was born about 1913, was a village shoe
maker and exc a schoOlmaster at RoWley,
two miles OFF. Shenstone had been obliged
| to exclude the public from his gardens and
gounds at Leasowes on account of the
wanton damage done to flowers and shrubs.
Whereupon the village shoemaker ad-
dressed the poet in poetical terms, asking
to be excluded from the prohibition. In
reply Shenstone admitted him not only to
| wander through his grounds, but to make
a free use of his library. Shenstone found,
says Southey, that the poor applicant used
to work with pen and ink at his side
| while the last was in his lap-the head at
one employ, the hands at another, and
when he had composed a couplet or
stanza, he wrote it on his knee. Woodhouse
was then twenty six years of age. His lot
must have been rather hard at that time,
for, speaking of his wife's work and his
L