Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1901-12-28
FEW MEN NOW WEAR BOOTS,
MANY FARMERS OF THIS GENERA.
TON NEVER OWNED A PAIR.
Now Worn by Older and MiddIs.Aeed
Msn-The Passing Of the Little Red
Tops-Ths Rubber Boot Still Extsn.
sjvejv Used,

wow WORN py OIoop ana WtuoIesHgeu
Men-The Passing OF the Little Red
Tops--Ths Rubber Boot still Exten.
siveiy Used.
Boots, once commonly worn by men
and boys, are now," said man acquaint-
ed with the shoe trade. worn only by
old and middle-aged men. and by only
comparatively limited number of them,
though it is fact that the sale of fine
boots in this city has slightly increased
within the past two or three years. The
men who wear boots are men who have
worn them all their lives and they cling
to them from habit. or they prefer them,
anyway.
Sometimes men have changed from
boots to shoes, and then changed back /;
tile shoes didn't seem natural or COM
Portable to them. Oftencr. however,
when the older man changes to shoes
he sticks to them. and by far the greater
number, indeed, of middle-agcd and old,
as well as young men. wear nowadays
what, so to. speak, everybody wears,
namely. shoes.
Still. III so great a city as this.
among so many people. the number in
the aggregate Of those who wear boots
is quite considerable. and in some of the
very largest of the shoe stores you would
find, quite unknown as boots are now to
the great majority mems boots in some
variety; perhaps as many as a dozen
styles of boots, in stock. They range
i'll price from SIS to Sig a pair. You see
they cost more than shoes and as mat
ter Of fact they are worn for the most
part by men of means or in comfortable
or easy circumstances
And contrary to what might be ex-
pectcd of those still wearing boots, the
greater number. proportionately, would
be found in the city and not in the
country. where. il anything. the boot has
been even more generally superseded by
the shoe, in some form. | am speaking
now, you understand, of boots and shoes
as worn by the great majority of men
everywhere for the ordinary purposes
OF shoe There are. of course. reg
ularly made and constantly sold and
worn. for older men and young. riding
boots and hunting and fishing boots.
There are still made and sold to some
extent kip boots, coarse, cheaper boot.
selling at about $3.50 a pair, worn by
some people in out-of-door occupations.
as by street sweepers in cities and by
farmers in the country. 1t used to be
thought that following the plow and all
that, tie farmer must have boots, but
mighty few farmers anywhere in the
country wear boots to-day. Some do,
to be sure, and there are older and mid
dle-agcd farmers who wear fine boots
on Sundays and other occasions from,
old-tinie habit, or because, like the city
man, they like them. But the great ma
jority Of them wear, like almost every
body else In these days. shoes Of some
sort. very probably high-cut bluchcr,
which serves its purpose well.
Besides the riding boots worn by
men riding for pleasure or recreation,
there are some boots worn by horsemen
in general, but still practically the only
men who as body wear boots as they
60 about their daily work are miners,
and one reason why they wear boots is
because more or less of their work, in
some mining they do on their knees.
"They will tell you at q big whole
sale shoe concern with a trade reaching
in all directions and extending through
the country from ocean to ocean that
they don't sell now one pair where twen-
ty-fivc years ago they sold hundred
/ cases.
snow. all that have said to you ap-
plies to leather boots, to boots worn, as
l said, for the ordinary purposes OF a
boot or shoe. But there Is boot now
made that is extensively worn by men
in various special callings and more or
less by all sorts of men in wet weather,
namely, the rubber boot. Since its intro
duction the sale of the rubber boot has
increased, and more rubber boots are
sold now than ever.
"Thc farmer of the present genera
ton who never owned pair OF leather
boots and never thought of buying any,
does own, very likely, pair of rubber
boots, and when it comes wet day and
he needs such protection, he gets out his
rubber boots and puts them OH and stalks
abroad in the wet. dry shod.
In some mines the miners wear rub
Der boots. Fishermen wear rubber boots,
and so on; and then there are many peo-
pie in out-of-door occupations who wear
then when they need them, and rubber
boots are worn by children. And speak
ing of children reminds me of the boots
once universally worn by the small boy,
written about in innumerable stories,
pictured in many pictures, the little red
tops commonly described as Johnny's
first boots
"Why, fifty years ago, every father
gave his son at that Christmas time or
birthday, when he had become old
enough to wear them, a pair of red-top
boots, which little Johnny put on and
wore about with joyous, youthful pride.
No small boys happiness would have
been considered complete unless he
owned pair OF rcd-top boots; and the
red-tops were as staple goods in the
shoe stores as drums and sleds were
where they sold toys.
But you would have to look to find
them, to get pair of red"tops now, for
what once no boy thought he could do
without has now long been practically
out OF use; the vast majority Of the
small boys Of the present day never even
heard OF red-top boots. They are still
made, few, or they might be found in