The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1884-07-19

and women start with the raw material
and turn out $500 pairs of shoes in ten
hours, or more than six pairs OF shoes
q minute. The men and women have
little to do with it. Machines do the
work, and need only to be fed. started,
and stopped: all the fine and ingenious
work of building beautiful shoe they
do. one part at time and one ma
chine to each part. For instance. the
first machine cuts the soles out OF the /
leather. 1t is nothing but punch
fitted with knife the shape OF shoe |
sole. Different sized knives cut out
ANYTHING, from baby's to plantation |
darkey's size. Cutting out the soles !
leaves the sheets of leather in tatters. |
The biggest tatters are used for heels; |
the smallest make fuel. Leather scraps |
make as good furnace fire as coal
does. The next machine splits thin
slice of the upper surface of the sole
little way from the edge all around, SO
that it looks as if thin sheet had been
pasted on to the sole, leaving the edges
unpasted. Under this loose edge .
machine presses little gutter or chan
mel in which the mailing or sewing
is done, and afterward hidden by
FASTING the loose edge over it when the
upper is attached.
At the same moment other convicts
are cutting uppers out OF sheets OF
dressed calfskin. They lay patterns on
the skins and thus cut the needed sizes.
This is done by hand. but the Innings
are sewed to the uppers, and the button
holes are put through both leather and
lining by machinery. The buttonholes
are stitched by automatic machines,
consisting of sewing machine having
under the needle q little plate which
turns exactly in accordance with the
outlines of the buttonhole, and stops
when the buttonhole is finished. One
man feeds several machines, starts
them, and does not touch them while
they Are at work. After this the soles
and uppers come into the hands OF one
set of convicts, the lasters and tackers
on, who put the two together with
very few small tacks. These people all
work like lightning, but are slow be-
side the machinery.
The soles and uppers are firmly joined
in several ways. One machine puts in
brass screws and bites them of exactly
at the right distance between the upper
and the under surface of the leather;
another drives in an iron screw with
the same nicely; another sews the parts
together with wax thread, the thread
passing through heated metal horn.
which keeps it soft and warm; yet an
other initiates hand sewing with yellow
thread, leaving an extended sole, which
is afterward bevelled to look pretty.
The merit of this machine is that the
shoes it sews are pliable and easy to
the foot, and bring good price. This
does its work in eleven seconds.
The heels are made separately. and
when finished have all the nails pro-
iecting half an inch below the bottom
| of the lower sheet of leather. Aeon
yict puts one of these heels into metal
cup in press of great power, and over
that he rests q shoe in the right posi-
ton. Then down comes great bar
and squeezes the heel and shoe together,
driving every other nail all the way IN
and leaving every other nail sticking q
little way out. He takes the shoe out,
puts a pretty heel tap in, puts the shoe
: back, submits it to the pressure. and
: then withdraws it, and finds the tar
firmly nailed, with the nails not quite
through the tap, which presents
smooth, unbroken under service. Tit
{ heel-shaving machine presents to thu
, heel a set Of rapidly revolving knives
q shaped to make straight heel or :
$ guttered one, or even lady's French
, heel. Another machine cuts the from
/. of the heel square, and another trim
: and smooths the edge of the sole. tn
o edge of the sole and the sides OF tn
: heel are blackened and the edge is pu
q under a hot iron about the size of ia
8 chestnut. This iron moves to and FIR
: with incredible rapidity, in imitation Q
g the motions of the cobblers who use
/ to do the work by hand. A large iron
!. also heated by gas jet. does the sam
Q thing for the heel, and does it unde
u such pressure that cracks and uneven
e nesses in the heel are smoothed ovel
a filled up and concealed.
u Some shoe uppers have eyelet hole
Q instead of buttonholes. There is
q machine in the prison for doing thi
y work. 1t has two steel rods close to on
* another, and while one punches tn
holes the other inserts the eyelet'
70 which run down little gutter, rigf
sr side up, exactly in place to fix int
is the punctures in the leather. and
5 have their edges squeezed over by II
N other rod and the piece thatfits upon !
m Twenty years ago shoemaking mi
A. chinery performed only one-half tn
lie work and did that roughly. Now II
D. shoes made in Crow Hill prison are sue
IN as most persons wear. and are in 9
y respects shapely, presentable and we
re finished. Some of them retail for fo'
~ dollars or FIVE dollars par.
ne In this prison, side by side with tt
st scum of humanity. reputable men al
ut girls are employed. There are pro
ly ably two hundred girls iii the fema
Of prison who live in Brooklyn. con
of every morning, and are free to
IN home whenever they present ticket
r. the prison DOOR The Warden, who
x in all probability, not consulted, sin
We thoso nersons work for the contractor