The Globe-republican., 1890-06-11
HOW sAsoIs ARE MADE.
A Peep Into an Odd Little Shop In New
York's French Quarter.

HOW SABOTS ARE MADE.
A Peep Into an Odd Little Shop In New
York's French Quarter.
But the old man can make wooden
shoes. It is worth any mans while to
watch him at work. He seizes block
of yellow poplar about a foot long.
four inches wide and an inch and half
thick, rests one end on chopping
block, and with sharp Ratchet deity
fashions the wood into sole, with rude
heel, a hollow where the ball OF the
foot goes and another at the shank. He
can fashion a pair of these rough soles
in less than ten minutes, and he doesn't
seem to hurry, either. They must be
trimmed and smoothed before the
uppers are put on. The uppers that go
On the wooden soles are of two sorts.
Some are cut high, like laced shoes,
and, indeed, are laced. They are, of
course, rudely tanned leather, and are
nailed on to the soles with strong tacks.
On the bottom of the soles are nailed
strips of leather studded with bob nails.
The soles are also bob-nailed. These
shoes are ugly and ungainly, but light,
and, to the accustomed wearer, not I'M
comfortable. They fetch 50 pair, and
are sold in considerable quantities.
A simpler and lighter shoe is made
by mailing on to the wooden sole low up
pers that come just about to the instep
in the front and little above the heel
behind. The leather for these is
stamped by placing it while wet upon a
last marked with the figures that are to
simple design, being scarcely more than
half dozen ridges just below the in
step. These are the cheapest sabots.
They bring only S1.25 a pair, and at
times perhaps less.
The sabot most familiar in pictures Of
peasant life is that all of wood. 1t looks
like little canoe. You may see them
by the score in Millet's pictures. They
are made from great blocks of yellow
poplar. The block is first trimmed into
rude semblance of shoe, and then
scooped out with odd, long-handled in
struments whose blades are sharp and
crooked, after acrescent-shaped cushion
of stamped leather is formed across the
instep. These shoes are sometimes
worn with wisp of straw at the heel
to protect the foot. They are exceed
ingly light and warm, but somewhat try
ing on long journeys. They make a
great clatter on bare floors. They fetch
50 pair.
Sabots for women and children are
sometimes finished with bright-colored
leather. Such are trimmed down so as
to be very light and comfortable. They
fetch higher prices than the everyday
sabots for men. Quite as carefully
made are the wooden shoes used ON the
stage by clog dancers.
There are only few sabot-makers in
New York; and nearly all of them are
Frenchmen almost unacquainted with
English. There may be few German sa-
bot-makcrs on the East Side. The wearers
of sabots are mostly French people and
Germans, and those of the sort who re-
fuse to aSsimilate with the native popu-
lation. A few ice-cream makers and
other persons whose work requires them
to stand in damp places wear sabOts, be-
cause the water does not soak through
the thick wooden soles. They are much
lighter, too, than equally stout shoes
or boots of leather. Sabots are seldom
exposed for sale outside the French
quarter or the German tenement-house
region, and even there they are little
worn on the street.
Now and then one sees an old woman
with all-wooden sabots Gathering along
Wooster or Blocker streets, but the
younger people, who know more about
the customs of the country and care less
for the Old World, would not be seen in
public with sabots. Perhaps there are as
many wearers of sabots in New York
now as there were one hundred and fifty
years ago, but they form much smaller
percentage of the population. and are
much less familiar to the general pub
lie. The business of sabot making was
once quite matter Of course, and sabots
were for sale everywhere. Now not one
man in a thousand has ever seen O sabot
or the shop of systematically. Y.
Star.