River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-06-12

SECONDHAND SHOES.
A Chicago Industry which supports More
Than Forty Families

Few people are aware of the extent to
which the buying and selling of second
hand shoes is carried on in Chicago.
There are about forty shops in the city,
most of them located on South Clark
and West Madison streets, where this
class of goods is handled. There is
one shop on State street where women's
secondhand boots and shoes are bought
and sold With this one exception all
deal in mems wear. Most of the shops
are in easements, reached from the
sidewalk by narrow stairways. III you
crowd your way through the shoes and
boots which cover the sides and descend
one of these stairways you will very
likely find yourself in a room of consid-
cradle dimensions. In one corner of
the room from one to three or four cob
blers are pegging away at their trade,
making over old shoes, some of them
into better secondhand ones and somd
probably into brand-new ones. All the
available space on walls and benches is
crowded with shoes infinite in variety
and of various degrees of antiquity.
The proprietor can talk glibly if not
very commercially about shoes and soles,
and uppers, and says Every sheap" with
fiuency and frequency; but if you wan
der from the subject of shoes you will
not get much knowledge from him unless
you can command the patois of several
languages mixed in a Babel of confu-
sion. Most of the men in the business
are foreigners, who care more about
picking up pennies than learning gram
mar.
Who are the patrons of these places?
A considerable portion of their patron
age comes from CANDLES and others
who are subject to constant ups and
downs financially. Men of this class
have little appreciation of the value of
money, and when they are flush they
spend it freely. The gambler who has
been on his uppers for weeks makes
lucky strike. Then he orders or buys
costly pair of shoes. But his money is
soon gone again. He can't put up his
shoes at pawnbroker's, for he would
have to go barefooted; so he goes to the
second -hand man and trades his expen-
sive shoes for cheap pair, and gets
one or two or perhaps three or four dol
lars ito boot" Some well-to-do and
even some wealthy people who are too
proud to be seen with mended footgear,
but who think that charity begins at
home, sell their discarded shoes instead
of giving them to the poor. Peddlers
pick up most of these shoes and sell
them to the secondhand dealers. Be
sides these two classes from whom the
stock in the shops comes there are a
considerable number of people who,
having purchased new shoes, find them
selves unable to wear them and are
glad enough to realize whatever they
can from them. These give the second
hand man bonanza. They are bought
short and sold long.
Those who buy and wear secondhand
shoes comprise three classes. Those
who buy the more expensive shoes and
those least worn are people who resort
TO this plan TO escape the discomfort OF
breaking in new ones. They go to the
secondhand man, and if they can find in
his stock pair which fits them they
prefer to buy them rather than new
ones, because they are as easy as an
old shoe" from the time they are first
put on. Then there are those who buy
them because they think they can save
a little money in that way. A good
shoe that has been worn perhaps only a
week or two is practically almost as
good as one which has never covered a
foot; but the fact that it is second
hand knocks off considerable margin
from the price. The other class OF
purchasers are the poor who buy mended
shoes for the sake of economy.
1t is a rather remarkable fact that nc
one has yet devised any means of utiliz
ing the leather of shoes which are worn
out and past repair. Discarded cloth
ing is used in the manufacture of paper,
bones are converted into phosphate for
the use of farmers, and even discarded
cigar-stubs are manufactured into cigar
cites to poison dudes, but American
genius seems not to have discovered
any profitable use for discarded shoes.
The uppers 90 with the soles to perdi-
tion.-Chicago Tri bune.