The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1883-09-13
SUNNY SIDE, SHOES.
TRICKS By WHICH THE POOR ARE
neutrality-suspicious. IN FOOT
WEAR.

:
your whack at great many frauds
of the day, but you have thus far
overlooked the commonest and in
some respects the meanest of all
frauds, that in shoes. Why don't
you expose itP The speaker was a
middle-aged man Of natty dress,
evidently member of the craft
known as commercial travellers, and
one addressed a reporter for the
Commercial. The latter, overlook
ing the fippancy with which jour
nalists had been classed as fellows"
asked for plans and specifications
as to frauds in shoes, and was en-
lightened in this wise:
ut would take too much Of
your space to go into minute de-
tails as to how frauds are perpe-
trated on the purchaser of shoes, so
numerous and ingenious are they.
l will therefore merely tell you
about some of the ordinary ways of
getting up cheap shoes Of deceptive
appearance. Good leather of all
kinds, as you are aware, costs
money, and a great deal of it, in
comparison with prices twenty-five
years ago, and a great deal of in
genuity has been expended in de-
vising methods for making little
of the tanners product 60 q great
way. Sole leather is the most cost
ly of all, and naturally there is
more fraud in the soles Of shoes
than in the uppers. In a great
many ofthe cheaper grades of shoes
now sold the soles consists of a
very thin sheet of leather for the
bottom, just enough to hold it to-
gether, and the space between it
and the so-called insole, which
Usually consists Of a strip Of mus
lin, is filled either with leather
shavings pressed together or with
common straw board. The wearers
of this kind of leather goods should
always be careful to. avoid the sha-
dy side of the street, as dampness
is ruinous to this sort of shoe, caus-
ing the biggest part of the sole to
crumble to pieces.
"The uppers, which the seller
always assures the purchaser are
genuine calf.skin, or split cow-hide,
and wear little if any better than
the soles. The heels are in strict
keeping with the other parts, con-
sisting of a thin outer rim of leath-
er and slender bottom of the
same material, the remainder being
made up of scrap leather. Half
the ready.made shoes worn in Pitts.
burg, don't hesitate to assert, are
shams of one sort or another, in
part or in whole.
"The Justification is not confined
to mems shoes; oh, no. There is
fully as much or more fraud in
women's footgear. There is 'peb.
BILE goat made out of blackened
muslin, with soles of plated hash,'
as pressed scraps are termed.
'Sheepskin is skillfully dressed
to initiate kid, and many Of the
shoes made of it and sold for sewed
work are merely pasted together
and dissolve, SO to speak, the fret
time they are wet. This sort Of
fraud sets hardest on the poor, and
especially the unreasoning poor,
who must econonise from force of
necessity, and always bay things
that are cheap without much refer
ence to their quality or durability.
Shoes at half price are always a
temptation to the poor, but if they
would give the matter a little study
they would soon discover that one
pair of honest shoes, sold at a fair
price, would outlast three or four
pairs of the other kind, though
when first put on the latter look
Just as nice or nicer than the bet
ter kind ."-PHsburg (Pa.) Com.
aaercial.