News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-09-12
A WOMAN CoBBLER.
A Daughter of St. crispin Working
at the Bench.

tAA A1S oNAiNhs
Can you tell me where Mrs Gill lives,
lit girl = was the question a New
York Press reporter asked yesterday Of q
flaxen-haircd urchin i'll Mulberry street,
after he had spent a frnitless hour in
search for that lady.
" You mean Mrs. Gill, the shoemaker,
do you p replied the urclin, and when
the reporter said that was the very por-
sonago he WAS looking for, the child
pointed down the street, indicating
where the only woman shoemaker i'll
New York was To be found.
The reporter had little difficulty III
reaching Mrs. Gili's little cobbler's shop
in one of the tcnements i'll the rcav OF
old st. Patrick S Cathedral. There WAS
little to distinguish il from the ordinary
cobb.er's stall, except, perhaps, an un-
wOnted tldlncss and Il pretty ornament
here and there that at once bespoke Il
woman's taste. Mrs. Gill herself rose
from her cobblcrs bench, where she was
busily engaged in mcnding pair oL
childs shoes, TO greet the reporter, and
when he said he only dropped in to have
a quiet chat with her she wiped n stool
with the corner of her apron and asked
him to be seated.
He saw III this one brief moment that
Mrs. Glll WIS IL woman that might be
possibly 80 years ofage, gray haired and
pleasant-faced. She was evidently quite
ready for a chat, and began by say
ing that she had been tod she was the
only woman shoemaker of the old school
in New York, OF perhaps, the whole
United States. She said she wouldn I
vouch for this being absolutely true, but,
however, she had never heard of any
other woman following the trade at the
bench.
"Of course, she glibly taxed on, with
very little prompting, "there are hum
dreds OF women working in tho modern
shoe factories, but any of them would
be insulted ii they were called shoe
makers. Now, ] glory in being Il mem
ber of st. Crispiu's gentle craft, and,
though the shoemaker of tho olden time
has long since been pushed to the wall
by modern inventions, ] propose to stick
to the bench to the end.
"Were you regularly apprenticed to
the trader" ventnI cl the reporter.
81 was born to il, ,'-orolIllai=seRlie
bHo otA WOLn'h' 4h tittilci WIS IL HiIoS'
maker of Northampton, England, when
it was the great shoe emporium of the
old country, and learned the trade as
naturally as duck takes to the water.
| watched my father by tho hour, aud
when he saw what n taste [ had Tor
leather he fostcred it more to humor mo
than in any nope that would ever mas
ter the craft. But did. and before
was IA years of age | made n pair Of
shoes for my mother that don't think |
could better now. When L Was cd
enough / went to work in n factory in
Northampton at shoe lifting, and
worked in Massachusetts, factories after
my father came to this country in 1868.
/ have been working here nearly ten
years and have all thatI can do, as you
may see, ;" and the old woman swept
the little shop with Il wave Of. her sturdy
arm.
"My work is the ordinary run OF work
done in any cobbler's shop. / repair
mems women's and children 8 shoes,
and may say have the entire mending
of the ncighborhood to do. Sometimes,
perhaps from curiousity, | have o call
from a fine lady to mCnl her own or heI
children's fine shoes, and | have never
had any one TO find fault with my work. y