The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-03-13
Comfortable Chairs in CHEEKY
Easements Kill the Business.
DRIVEN FROM THE STREETS
Origin of the Scheme and Rapid Adj
vance of the Industry-An Idea of
Skinner" Which Worked
Like a Charm
From the Chicago Chronicle.

| The bootblack with his kit" has been
| swept away by the march of progress.
! In his place has come the shining par
| lor." equipped with marble stands.
| comfortable chairs, newspapers and all
| the comforts of a barber shop. The
boy who was wont to shine EN- up"
for a nickel has been driven into other
lines of employment Some of them
have found places in the shining par
! lors; others have drifted into newspa-
! per vending. But the bootblack as a
| feature of metropolitan life is gone.
| 1t is not so many years since the boy
with the little box slung from his
shoulder was a familiar sight on every
downtown corner. Usually the box was
decorated with big brass lacks in fam
| ciful designs, sometimes marking the
initials of the owner or inclosing a bit
| of mirror to add finish to the kit
| In the box were a few brushes, a box
of backing. The strap by which il
| hung also held "a piece of carpet on
which the artist knelt as ne worked.
His CHEEKY Shine EN- up" was heard
| constantly as he darted in and out in
the hurrying crowds, looking for man
whose shoes needed attention. Him he
followed persistently with his appeals
until he got job or was sternly re-
pulsed Men stood on corners or leaned
against store fronts at all hours of the
day, while the boys knelt before them
and put a polish on their shoes, which
lasted sometimes half an hour.
Then came the change. Frank Solick
was the originator of the innovation.
He had been a bootblack and he real
lied that the stands in the barber shops
We're getting more patronage than the
sidewalk merchants because customers
preferred to sit at ease in a chair in
stead of posing on the sidewalk for the
delectaton of passersby while aequir
ing a shine. But as the average barber
shop has but one chair, trade was
necessarily slow. Solick conceived the
idea of renting a basement, fitting it
up for an exclusive shining parlor and
hiring a score of experts.
The idea worked to a charm. The
ten or twelve chairs he put in We're oc-
cupied almost steadily all day and
money flowed into his Golfers. Men
who went without a shine for a week
at time or laboriously tried to polish
their own shoes found it 50 easy and
comfortable to drop into the basement
and sit in big chair reading a comic
paper while the shine was being put
on that they got in the habit of get
ting a shine every morning, and bust
ness doomed. Soon the enterprising
manager found it necessary to estab
lish branches in various places and
then competitors, seeing that he had a
good thing" opened rival establish
ments. Then the doom of the street
corner bootblack was sounded.
Gradually the sinners began to dis
appear until now they are an unknown
and almost forgotten quantity. The lit
tie box which was once part of the
complement Of nearly every newsboy
was thrown away, since it had no fur
Their use in life. The boys sought EN-
ployment in the 'parlors" which have
become so numerous. A variation of
the parlor scheme is the shining stands
which are seen in the summer in vari-
GUS alleys and courts-generally pre-
sided over by young colored men-a
wooden platform with two or three
chairs and the necessary outfit for pro-
ducing brilliancy on dim and dirty
shoes
The prevalence of the tan shoe the
last few years has led to a boom in the
shining business, since tan shoe looks
very pretty when it is freshly polished
and very bad when it is neglected. Dap
per young men. who take pride in their
personal appearance found is easy 10
jump on a shining stand at convenient
corner and have their shoes rubbed up
once or twice a day, although IL does
cost a dime every time. The polishing
of a tan shoe is something of an art
and requires much more paraphernalia
than the ordinary brushes and backing
required for the black shoe. This too,
initiated against the existence of the
boys with the kits since they found
| it difficult to carry I'm the little box all
| the bottles and cloths necessary to do
the work.
A year or two ago some of the leading
shoe stores inaugurated system of free
shines. issuing cards to their customers
good for 10 shines on the shoes pur-
chased in their stores. This was a great
! blow at the industry built up by Solick
! and his confreres in the business, since
! hundreds of men in the aggregate mad
their shoes shined daily for nothing in
the shoe stores. Then the sinners or
ganized a union and began working
among the shoe dealers to wipe out the
free shine system. All that was neces-
sary was to secure unanimity among
the houses, since the dealers We're will
ing to do away with the extra expense.
But as long as any one dealer persisted
in giving away shines the other could
not afford to refuse the same gift. Final
ly a few months ago, after much work,
the bootblacks secured the signatures
of all the big shoe houses 10 an agree
ment to abolish free shines and the boys
celebrated the occasion with a big
parade through the downtown streets,
which gave the first indication of the
size to which the business had grown.
The marble stands and mahogany
chairs of the bootbIacks are found in
the Mushrooms of all the big hotels,
where cash registers Of the style seen In
the street cars are used TO keep tab on
the receipts. This Is long advance
over the small boy on the corner hunt
ing for the nimble nickel and Emporium
ing pedestrians TO lean up against
brick wall and have their shoes cleaned
up But il is in line with the times and
the bootblack. as he was. proved too
slight a barrier 10 stop the march Of
progress.