The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-27
HOW MOCCASINS ARE MADE.
BUSINESS OF WHICH MAINE HAS
 NEARLY 4 MONOPOLY,

Since Moosehide Became Too Scarce
 What Shoapacks and Larrigans Are.
 When the silent Indian ranged the
 forests in New England in quest of the game that was his source of sustenance,
 he wore a foot covering which made his
 tread as soft as a wildcats-a shoe
 called moccasin, shaped to his foot
 from a single piece of green moosehide,
 sewn to a smaller piece at the top of the
 foot with the sinews of deer.
 Centuries have passed since the sav-
 age first fashioned this shoe but to this
 day better foot covering for the hun
 ter has never been devised. Hunters
 boots of various kinds are made and
 sold to city men who go into the woods
 after big game, but none of them equal
 for Softness of tread to the moccasin,
 which to-day is made in just the same
 style as in the days when the savage
 reigned supreme throughout the land
 Men have devised machinery for mak-
 ing shoes, but the machine has never
 been made that can fashion a moccasin as well as it can be shaped by hand.
 In only a few places in this country are moccasins now made, and most of these places are in New England. The art of making good moccasins has been preserved by the Indian tribe at Old town, Me-, and from their progenitors and other Indians, who came from Can- ada into Maine to hunt, the art of mak
 ing a really good hunting moccasin was first caught by white men. So well are n1occasins made in Maine that those supplied the western Indians by the government are made in the city of
 Bangor. The red man of the plains does not have the Skins to make moe casins as his fathers made them and If he had them 1t is doubtful if a proper supply for themselves could be fur nished for the agency Indians. In these days when the noble savage has de generated to the agency Indian, receiv- ing the bounty of the government in red drill overalls and plug tobacco, his traditional footwear comes to him from the factory of a moccasin maker who learned his business in Maine from the wood lore handed down by woodsmen and Indian hunters. Not only are moc- casins sent from Maine to the west for the Indians, but Uncle Sam's scouts in the west and in Alaska, where moccas- ins are needed in the service, for use on snow, with snowshoes, get their foot wear from Bangor. The contracts are made for several thousand pairs at a time.
 None of these moccasins are made of moose hide nowadays, the material be- ing chiefly oil tanned meats hide" which is cowhide. This turns the water as we'll as moosehide, and wears almost as we'll The leather is well saturated i, with fish oil, which gives it a strong smell, but imparts virtues that assist in repelling snow water, which will pen citrate ordinary leather very quickly.
 The tannage is known as Indian Tam Not only are moccasns made from this oiled tanned leather. but oth- CT articles of footwear that may prop | erly be called offsprings of the moccas ins such as the shoepack and the larri gar.
 The shoepack is moccasin with a | shoetop made of the same sort of ma terial as the. button, and laced. The ori- | gin of the word is not clear, though it | is aScribed to the vernacular of lumber | men in upper Canada, around. Lake Su- | perior. It was brought into Maine by the Canadians, and has become part of the local vocabulary in the northern part of the state A city shoedealer would be at loss to know what a cus- toner wanted should he demand to be shown a shoepack. In northern Maine these useful articles of footwear, based | on the Indians moccasin, are displayed | outside every store where Inducements or hunters supplies are sold.
 The larrigan is a moccasin with boot top, and for wear in the deep snow is highly esteemed by many. It is Cana dian article of footwear, and the name seems to have become as much a part of the local Maine vocabulary as shoe pack. Its origin, however, is not so cleaf.
 While native hunters in Maine wear all three of the foot coverings described they prefer the moccasin for all-round wear. It is light, noiseless, easy to the foot and wears well. In winter it is worn over three or four pairs of stock ings and a pair of leggings, also knit. This makes a bundle of woolen stuff covering the foot, and maintains warmth even in the coldest weather
 Not lumberman or guide in Maine is to be seen in winter without his leggns. They are as much a part of his ward robe as his hat. They are thick and warm, and when strapped around the leg below the knee with piece of tape are snow proof These leggins are knit ted by the women in the French settle ments in northern Maine in great num- bers, and retail in the stores at seven ty-five cents a pair. If the amount of wolves yarn in them were employed in making factory-knt stockings such as are sold in the cities, the quantity in each leggin would make a dozen pair. With his leggins on, and his moccasins, or larrigans over them, the Woodman cares not how deep the snow may be. When it gets too deep for walking he gets out his snowshoe, and on these skins the surface of the white covering of earth as easily as rabbit. Owing to the restrictions that have . been placed on the hunting of moose, 1 there are not so many moosehide moe casins to be seen in Maine now as in , years past when moose were hunted bv the Oldtown Indians and others for i their hides. All the moosehides secured now in a season in Maine would not cut two thousand paids of moccasins if | each was used. As most of the hides