Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-09-24
9aily y eagle
WOMAN AND HOME.
ONE DAUGHTER OF ST. CRISPiN
WORKING AT THE BENCH.

Why Women Are Not Familiar with
Money Matters-A Young Lady Book
Canvasser's Experience - Hints on the
Care of Children and Housekeeping.
ssCan YOU tell me where Mrs. Gill lives,
little girlg' was the question reporter aske.
of faxen haired urchin in Mulberry street,
after he had spent fruitlesS hour in a search
for that lady.
"You mean Mrs Gill, the shoemaker, do
YOUR replied the urchin, and when the re-
porter said that was the very parsonage be
was looking for, the child pointed down the
street, indicating where the only woman
shoemaker in New York was to be found.
The reporter had little difficulty in reach
ing Mrs ellis little cobblers shop at 275
Mulberry street in one of the tenements in
the rear of old St. Patrick's cathedral. There
was little to distinguish it from the ordinary
cobbler's stall. except, perhaps an unwonted
tidiness and pretty ornament here and there
that at once bespoke womans taste. Mrs.
Gill herself rose from her cobbler's bench,
where she was busily engaged in mending a
pair of child's shoes, to greet the reporter,
and when he said he only dropped in to have
quiet chat with her she wiped stool with
the corner Of her apron and asked him to be
seated
He saw in this one brief moment that Mrs
Gill was a woman that might be possibly 50
years of age, gray haired and pleasant faced.
She was evidently quite ready for chat and
began by saying that she bad been told she
was the only woman shoemaker of the old
school in New York or, perhaps, the whole
no CHI JDtt
for this being absolutely true, but however,
she had never heard of any other woman fol-
lowing the trade at the bench.
"Of course" she glibly talked on, with very
little prompting, there are hundreds of wo-
men working in the modern shoe factories,
but any Of them would be insulted if they
were called shoemakers. Now, | glory in
being member of ST. Crispin's gentle
craft and, though the shoemaker of the
olden time has long since been pushed to the
wall by modern inventions, l propose to
stick TO the bench to the end"
Were you regularly apprenticed to the
trader" ventured the reporter.
II was born to it" proudly replied the old
woman. MY father was a shoemaker Of
Northampton, England, when it was the
great shoe emporium Of the old country, and
l learned the trade as naturally as a duck
takes to the water. | watched my father by
the hour, and when he saw what taste
had for leather he fostered it more to humor
me than in any hope that l would ever mas
ter the craft. But did, and before | was
IA years of age | made pair of shoes for
my mother that don't think | could better
now. When l was old enough / went to work
in a factory in Northampton at shoe fitting,
and worked in Massachusetts factories after
my father came to this country in 1868
have been working here nearly ten years and
have all that l can do, as you may see,n and
the old woman swept the little shop with a
wave Of her sturdy arm:
'How did you come to go into the bust
ness on your own accountp was the next
question.
well, / really don't know" she replied
81 worked on a machine years ago, sewing
uppers for Mr.. E. B. Simpson, the Spruce
street pattern maker. l worked for him,
maybe, two or three years. and then l did
the same kind Of work for Arthur & Dinon
in Ferry street, and the last place l worked
was for Mr.. Greed in Gold street But all
this while l was heart and soul shoemaker,
and l always intended to have shop of my
own when had money enough saved to give
up the shaving of a factory 1t was then 1
started this little shop. prospered from the
beginning. / had good deal of custom
work, and 1 took pride in doing it well. OF
late years, however, l have had SO much
mending TO do, and it can be done so much
quicker and pays so much better that it's a
long time since made pair of shoes.
my work is the ordinary run of work
done in any cobbler's shop. l repair mems,
women's and children's shoes, and may say
have the entire mending of the neigh Dor hood
to do. Sometimes, perhaps from curiosity.
! have a call from a fine lady to mend her
own or her childrens fine shoes, and have
never had any one to find fault with my
work"
Everybody in the neighborhood seemed to
know Mrs. Gill and to have a good word TO
say for her. She has the reputation Of being
a kindly, industrious woman and a good
neighbor. Many acts of unobtrusive charity
are recorded of her. and the children seem to
be particularly attached to her.-New York
Press.