The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-28

liar shoes. I priced a pair Of man s clogs which had padded leather insteps They were offered for g cents. and tried them on. They were not uncoal- forta ole. and I bought them. Indeed. clogs are not bad to wear, after all. They are much lighter than hob-nail boots or even than heavy leather shoes. They are impervious to water and more dur able than leather. Both men and women we3- them. and save for the chatter they make they do very well. The childre' have no trouble in getting about in them. 1 sec them running and jumping and climbing trees with clogs on, and as far as I can see succeed quite as well as our American children shod with leather. It must make difference with the family expenses of the miner who makes perhaps 40 to 50 cents a day, and who. therefore. cannot afford to pay from 50 cents to sl to have his own or his children's shoes half soled every few weeks.
 American Shoes in England.
 have been much interested in the Eu- ropean invasion of the American shoe. It Is an article that has walked into the hearts of the people, notwithstanding the anger of the snoeTnakers and shoe deai- CTS of France, Germany, Switzerland and Engiad.
 found large American shoe stores in al the CltIeS. 1ncle are scores of them in London, and their bus mess is enormous. The English shoe manufacturers have been importing American leather and American machin- cry, but nevertheless they are not able to make shoes equal to ours. There are towns in England. like Leicester, which a-e almost given uo to the making of boots and shoes. Leicester having HOO members in it's Boot and Shoe Associe- uoa. Suca tcT-s Seriously fe.l the effect Of ATle-icaa competition, for 1t was only eow years ago tha. Leicester was sh4p- ping saoes to America. Now that town has American shoe-5ewiRg machines and other machinery from Boston and else where. It Is using American leather, copying American styles and 1t has, am tod Q ;.yr;bcr cf American workmen to teacn the English hands how to make the genuine American article. Its shoes a:e Gf-el $ d as American shoes.
 A11:e..can sAoe5 are sold in Holland side by side with clogs, and some of the local factories there have imported American machinery. l found American shoes in Switzerland and it is no trouble to buy them in . aris.
 American Leather in Europe.
 One Of the mes: interesting men | have me. in connection with tniS shoe business is MT. W. S. Greaves, an English leather expert, who Is connected with one of the biggest tanneries of Europe. situated at lyons, France. Mr. Greaves has been making and selling leather all his lIte and his father was a tanning expert. Said he:
 The leather business is rapidly chang ing in all parts Of Europe. Cnti lately everything was done by individuals or in small factories. We had aa lndnty of
 
 This was 30 to scns extent in Amar.ca, but the --mericsns were the first to grasp l the idea of the big tlnnery and the bS factory 1ncy had plenty of hides and also tco heTnlcek forests which fur nish the bark. so that they could pro- | duce leather in quantity at q cheap rate. Their labor. however. was poor. and the | first leather sent to Liverpool was so ugly and stin that tho English would not have l 1t. Now leather of that quality, better l finished. Is shipped over In vast quanti- ties. It furnishes the soles of our boots, and we buy 1t for Bristol. Leicester and Leeds.
 Later on." continued MT. Greaves. the Americans invented machinery to finish their leather. They took French inven- | ton for splitting leather and improved upon 1t and out of that grew the great split leather trade of today. You Amer 1 jeans call 1t satin hide and split leather. You finished 1t artishcally and sent if over here In such quantities that it injured our trade with England and elsewhere"
 The French and Our American Kid How about France?" 1 asked. France does not use much American split leather" said MT. Greeves Tt Is too hard and greasy for this market. II | your people would modify 1t in these re- spects, which they could easily do you could sell 1t for Is per cent. more than you are now getting in England and Ger many. Your manufacturers, however don't seem to know it."
 But the French have the reputation of making excellent leather" said l.
 'So they do. They make the French kid and the French calf which is tanned with the bark of the evergreen oak. Our kid was once exported to America and all parts of the world but the Americans applied the chrome process to the kid and made the vici or glazed kid, which is superior to French kld. With this leather you have driven out our calf and our kid, and you now send kid here to France"
 The chrome process vas an American invention. was 1t not?'
 No" said MT. Greaves. "The process was invented by German. but the Amer
 
 was in 1854 that a German named Knapp. found that pelt could be turned into leather by bichromlde of potash and acid. He did nothing with the discovery hut l German-American. named Schultz used It 10 make covers for corset ribs Then Boston firm put forth a chromed-tanned leather and called it box calf and willow calf They made Knapp's discovery commercial success and the!r work has been used in all parts of Europe. The Germans have taken 1t up and they bid fair to monopolize the European trade in such leather"
 Europeans Fattening on American
 Brains.
 Just here" said MT. Greeves. "I want to say that you Americans make a great mistake in giving away your ideas and experience. You sell your leather making machines to us, and we are now making American split leather in all parts of Flu rope. The American brain is now going all over the world and the Americans are getting nothing out Of it. Europe is fattening upon IL and if will be more so in the future. You even send your ex- perts here to show the people how to use your machinery. You give away your trade secrets and upon the basis of these the Enrnnsans are esta abishing factories