The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-01-05

those who keep the secondhand shoe shops,
and that from that source alone he derives
his supply.
Nothing of the kind, sir; nothing Of the
kind The few people in my line OF ousi-
nesS-for. thank goodness, our trade is not
as yet quite as overcrowded as most o, hers
furnish vast ma ority of the second hand
shoe stores with their G. DDS The headquarters
of my firm is in New York, and as we are
the biggest people in our line, nearly all the
collectors in that city aud for miles
around bring the best of the contents OF
their daily bags to us. It's no use bring
ing the rubbish, as they know we don't
handle it. We keep bred 'examiners-men
who know all about shoes worth showing
and they earn every dollar we pay them IN
examining shoes and boots from O'Clock
a. m. to oc ock p. III. every day Of the
week except Saturday.
I'm this way we buy from 1000 to $500
pairs a day. The best of these, say about
one-half, are cleaned, paired and go into
stock, classified in qualities and as nearly
as possible in sizes. The remainder 60 into
our repairing department, where they are
resoled and heeled and subsequently nearly
all exported. We have also collecting
agents, not buyers of private people. but
agents who purchase on our account from
the collectors here in Philadelphia, Boston,
Baltimore, Chicago and a few other cities.
From these sources we gather about as
many SIS we do in New YORK. All the
country stuff is treated the same as that
which comes to us direct from the collector.
Altogether we do a pretty extensive
business, sending out daily more boots and
shoes than most of the manufacturers, but
then, you see, there are not a dozen people
in our business all told, and shoemakers,
wholesale and retail, are numbered by the
thousand. We never buy shoe that has
the slightest cut or crack in the uppers, as
this would necesstate patching, and the
sort Of people who buy hIgh-priced second
hand shoes would not look at distigu ed
pair. Still, these have a marketable value, and
the collector can give quarter for slightly
cracked pair and resell to tho 'restorer' or
dealer in much worn secondhand shoes at
a profit, and he will retail them for from rs
cents to 81 so after ne has fixed them up.
OF course this sort of stuff is only patched
up; it don't pay for residing and heeling.
We only deal in mems shoes. There is o
market for second hand woHleas footwear
of good quality. Your cannot get the ladies
to wear left-otf shoes. anyhow. You might
as well ask them to were secondhand
| gloves or discarded bangs
In this city the retail trade in second hand
shoes of fin grade and good in condition
does not flourish to any great extent. Worn
footgear Of this character, however, is to be
found in a few dingy looking shops in tho
| neighborhood Of Sixth and Spruce streets
and along South street by those who have
| no prejudice against wearing dead mems
Shoes" or encaSing their pedal extremities
in the cast off soles and uppers of fashion
able folk. In one Of these Establishments an
| ostensible purchaser was shown secondhand
shoes of all styles and sizes, ranging in price
from 81 so to So a pair. All these goods
were evidently of line make. The leathei
was soft and pliable, the stitching close and
fine, and although the ''uppers" bad
evidently already done good service,
no cracks were observable. But
all the style and & ish was
| confined to the uppers, for in every instance
| the shoes had been resoled and aeeled in a
rough and ready fashion Several pairs
still bore the names Of well-1nown New
York and London makers, while between
| the heel and toe of one sho the name of
''Helberstern, Paris" was still clearly to be
made out.
One dealer said that high-priced second
| hand shoes actually lasted longer than new
ones sold at about the same price. The best
secondhand goods, he claimed, were the cast
offs of wealthy people who would not wear
shoe an hour after it had lost its shape,
and consequently the upperS were in many
cases really as good as new.
Another class Of people, ne said, were reg
ular customers at his shop whose feet were
| SO IeUu6T JAdb LueS COlIu uOU H6ai a new
shoe under any circumstances. So ne of
these unfortunate folks would spend an
hour at a time in trying on forty or
| fifty pairs of shoes, until at last they
fou one exactly suited to the unhappy
diosyncrasies of their poor feet" This
particular dealer in discarded understand
ings" does not handle any of the much
worn and common lines of second-ha nd
goods He buys the shoes just as they are
purchased by the wholesale dealer in New
| York, and keeps two men constantly en-
ployed in residing and heeling his pu' chases
before retailing them to that eccentric por-
ton Of the community whose patronage he
enjoys.
On Bainbridge, between Fifth and Eighth
streets, as also on South and Lombard,
dingy-looking stores abound where the low
est grades of secondhand shoes are dis
played in profusion and find ready sale
Here the prices range from about Is cents
to SO. The principal patrons of thee
stores appear to bs very poor, vino,
while having no prediction for "cast-offs,"
are only too often face to face with tine un-
pleasant alternative Of walking wet footed
or of travelling around in cheap pair of
restored understandings.