St. Landry democrat., 1884-10-18

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 u very few small
tacks. These people all work like
lightning, but they are slow beside the
machinery.
The soles and uppers are firmly joined
in several ways. One machine puts in
brass screws and bites them off exactly
at the right distance between the upper
and 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
another initiates hand sewing with yell
low thread, leaving an extended sole,
which is afterward beveled 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 it's work in eleven seconds.
The heels are made separately, and
when finished have all the nails pro-
jecting half an inch below the bottom of
the lower sheet of leather. A convict
puts one of these heels into a metal cup
in press of great power, and over that
he rests shoe in the right position.
Then comes down a great bar and
squeezes the heel and shoe together,
driving every other nail all the way in,
and leaving every other nail sticking a
little way out. He takes the shoe ont,
puts pretty heel tap in, puts the shoe
back, submits it to the pressure, and
then withdraws it and finds the tap
firmly nailed, with the nails not quite
through the tap, which presents a
smooth, unbroken surface. The heel
shaving machines present to the heel
set of rapidly revolving knives, shaped
to make a straight heel or guttered
one, or even lady's French heel. An
other machine cuts the front of the
heel square, and another trims and
smooths the edge of the cole. The edge
of the sole and the sides of the heel are
blackened, and the edge is put under
hot iron about the size of a fat chestnut.
The iron moves to and fro with incredi-
BILE rapidity, in imitation of the motion
of the cobblers, who used to do the work
by hand. A large iron, also heated by
a gas jet, does the same thing for the
heel, and does it under such pressure
that cracks and unevennesses in the
heel are smoothed over, filled up and
concealed.
Some shoe uppers have eye1et holes
instead of button holes. There is a ma.
chine in the prison for doing this work.
1t has two steel rods close to one an
other, and while one punches the holes
the other inserts the eyelets, which run
down little gutter. right side up, ex-
actly into place to fix the punctures in
the leather, and to have the edges
squeezed over by the other rod and the
piece that fits upon it. Twenty years
ago shoemaking machinery performed
only one-half this work, and did that
roughly. Now the shoes made in Crow
Hill prison are such as most persons
wear, and are in all respects shapelY,
presentable and well finished. Some of
them retail at four or five dollars pair.
A OAAo pL4SOb13 o1ItC NY SIu0 WIFI LlG
scum of humanity, reputable men and
girls are employed. There are proba-
bly, two hundred girls in the female
prison, who live in Brooklyn, come
every morning, and are free to go home
whenever they present certain ticket |
at the prison door. The Warden, who
is. in all probability, not consulted,
since these persons work for the CON
tractors, was asked what he thought |
was the effect of such surroundings upon
the youths of good morals. He replied |
that there used to be general feeling
that the arrangement was improper and |
dangerous, but it has not proved so.
Outside free labor has been employed in
Crow Hill eleven or twelve years, and |
of all the hundreds who have thus come
daily to the prison, not one has ever
been sent there as a prisoner. The |
outsiders do not have anything to do
with the prisoners. They sit apart, and |
never, under any circumstances, speak
. word to the conyicts. american Cul-
ttvator.