The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-10-16
EARLIEST RUBBER SHOES.

CFrom the Philadelphia Record.1
India rubber shoes were first manu-
featured in Roxbury, Mass, in 1888, and
verify they were ''fearfully and won
derfully made They really bore no
resemblance whatever to a shoe. They
had the appearance of having been
run into nolds or blown, the same as
glass bottles are made. They were made
of pure rubber gum. No attempt was
made to initiate the shape of the shoe
or foot they were intended to cover. In
shape there were hollow tubes, tapering
toward the toe. At the place where the
opening to pull them over the shoe
should he was an irregular hole, with
out shape, just as they came from the
mold. The hole was enlarged with a
sharp pair of shears to fit the instep, or
cut high or low to suit the taste or
caprice of the customer. The work was
done by the salesman after the buyer
had selected, according to his require
ments, heavy or light, thick OF thin.
Mems sizes were very heavy, the SoleS
being frequently from one-fourth to an
inch in thickness. They were tied in
pairs and stuffed with straw or hay to
keep them in shape for shipment. A
1ady's foot, incased in such a huge ill
shaped mass of India rubber gum,
weighing at least a pound, presented a
clumsy appearance, indeed, particularly
when compared with the light and true
~ artistic appearance of the present
styles.
The first attempt at making overshoes
of India rubber did not prove a sue
cess, a, large amount of capital being
sunk in the experiment, as well as all
the unsold stock. They answered the
purpose in cold weather, but would not
stand the heat, melting into a disgust
ing mass.
Experiments to remedy this difficulty
resulted in reaching the opposite ex-
IRENE. the cold weather freezing them
so hard as to make them brittle, so
they could not be drawn over the shoe
Iv r
and this obstacle to success was not
overcome until Charles Goodyear dis
covered his process of Yulcanizing rub
Der, which has rendered his name i'm
mortal.
Rapidly following this era of i'm
provements, the India rubber shoe be-
gan to assume beauty of proportion and
practical utility. They were lasted, and
the shoe merchant threw aside his
shears. One particularly popular style
that had a great run for a couple of
years was trimmed with fur around the
tops and came we'll up on the ankles.
Dickens has immortalized this particu-
lar style by placing them on the feet
of the pretty Arabella that Mr.. Wrinkle
met and fell in love with while visiting
with Mr.. Pickwick at Old Ward1e's.
All rubber shoes were made from the
solid gum at that time, and we are safe
in saying that a single pair would out
weigh six pairs of those now in the
market. Besides being heavy and ugly
they were often painful from being so
tightly stretched over the foot They
made the wearer look club-footed, and
any attempt at establishment was
failure and made them appear clum-
sier still But this condition of things
was not to last. In 1874 Goodyear per
fected his vulcanizing process and his
method of spreading the pure gum upon
elastic textile fabrics, and the manu-
facture of rubber shoes has since i'm
proved from year to year, until they
have become thing of beauty.