The age-herald., 1897-09-11
NEW Y0RK'S WOMAN COBBLER.
Mrs. Elizabeth Gill Mends Shoes-ln Former
 Days She Used to Make Them.
From the New York Sun.

| From the New York Sun.
 l Mrs. Elizabeth Gill is the woman cob | bier of New York City. Her little shop 1 is in the basement of 23 North Moore str5es. It was there, surrounded by tools and hammering away on. a. pair of l mems shoes that she spoke of hsr work.
 T was born and raised in Northamp- ton, England, and began to make shoes whel1 l was years old. Everybody made shoes in Northampton and chill dren began at an early age to SEW on straps. l began just as othsT children, but as 1 had a taste for che work learned sooner. When I was 13 I made a pair of shoes for my mother. They fitted well, and she wore them for more than a year. But" her= Mrs. Gill shook her head and heayed a sigh, i've used leather in those days. All shoes had good, solid, honest leather soles at the bottom. They gave satisfaction to tn . buyer ard the makers could take pride in every stitch of the making.
 About the time I was grown d friend of mine who had come over to this coun- try to work returned home on a visit and b gged me to come back wi;h her. I didn't mind, so I asked her if I could make a living if I came. She laughed and said I could make twice as good a living here as there. So I.came. We landed in New York July 4, 1868, late of an evening, about o'clock. You should hav= seen the fireworks they were send ing up down at Castle Garden. It was grand.
 When first came over I made up- pers, first by hand and later by ma chine. I earned from $10 to $20 a week in that way; then when I came home at night I often merdsd a pair of shoes. Those were the days when you got 1.50 for mending and half-soling. You see, I made a lot of extra money in the eve nings. In England I never made mors than 21 shilbngs a week, and when I made that I thought I was doing re- markedly well for those were the wages of first-class men with trades, such as carpenters. In 1878, ten wars after I came over, machinery for making shoes was so much improved that there was no demand for people to make uppers, so l hung out my sign as a repairer. My shop was on Mulberry stre:t t and I had just as much as I could do. My regular price for repairing and half sol ir,g now is $1, but everybody wants me to do it cheaper. They want to beat me down to 60 cents. l always tell them that at that price my materials cannot be good nor will my work last. hats to do ir because I have no pride in a slovenly job.
 srhen, too, the shoes you wear now are not half so good as they used to be. They have such ugly shapes Those ones with pointed toes are horrible. The idea of any one wanting a shoe that has to have two inches of the toe stuffed! While they are not nearly so good they are very much more expensive. Why, in my day a lady could buy beautiful pair of shoes for $1 and have pair made to order for $1.25 now look what they have to pay for them and see how they wear out. Why, I know woman who bought pair of shoes for her lit tls, girl the other day at 49 cents, and the first time the child wore them out she got them wet and the soles drop ped off. They were pure paper. Shoe makers didn't play such tricks as that in my day.