Evening star., 1905-10-22
IA REGULAR BODY
or SSoE SHOP sITTERs

difficulties OF real shoemaklng Inasmuch
men with boots to be mended often
waited In their stocking feet while the cob
bler's job was being done, the shop was
generally furnished with a few chairs and
stools. and these gave the excuse for a
regular body OF "shocshop sitters,"s
The boss shoemaker rather encouraged
this; it made his day pass more quickly to
have the company of the sitters. and az
cnriously enough. the expert shoemaker can
work and talk, too. their presence i'm no
wise lessencd the shops output.
Naturally, the shoe shop discussion took
a wide range. When the squire. as the To-
cal justice of the peace was called, hap
pened in. the latest local lawsuits were apt
TO be the subjects of the talk: religion. per-
haps. ruled the confab when the minister
was the chief guest. crops We're uppermost
when the gathering was sprinkled with
farmers. There were times. too, when good
stories were told. some of them more point
ed than polite. and. OF course politics was
| likely to come up. whoever made UP the
shoe shop audience.
Naturally the boss shoemaker. and his
men, too. for thai matter, grew to be pretty
| well informed. in a superficial way at
| least. on all sorts OF topics: and II may
easily be imagined that Peter Kahler was
able to say many effective words on Lin
coins behalf in 1890 to the voters who sat
around in his shop.
Only one shoemaker however. so far as
the records 60 ever became prominent in
| public life. He was Henry Wilson "the
Natick shoemaker" OF Massachusetts who
served vice president during the greater
| part OF Grants second term, dying In 1870
before its close. Grant, by the way IL will
| be remembered. was sometimes called "the
tanner. because running a tannery had
been his fathers business. Mr.. Wilson
| filed big place In the public life of the
| country before being elected Vice Pres-
dent, and wrote extensively and well on
hat xt.Tx- arr,,sG in
| his dav
Though Henry Wilson stands alone prob
ably, as the shoemaker who rose to promi-
nence in public life Aberdeen, Scotland
| has produced its shoemaker historian in
| the person of John Mcintosh. the author of
| the really profound wohk. History OF Civ
| iiizatton In Scotland" and q number of
other historical books. 1t is only fair to
| say that neither Wilson nor Macintosh
| stuck to his last much after young man.
hood. Both were the sons of farm labor
| ers. both began life themselves as farm la
borers, both took to shoemaking as a STEP
| ping stone to something better and both
| left 1t soon possible.
After leaving the shoe shop Macintosh
| opened news and stationery shop in Aber-
deem. He got -Ae idea OF his big history
| from reading the books he had for sale,
| and lie wrote his copy on the counter of
| his shop between the visits of customers.
| 1t took him nineteen years to finish 1t,
working five hours a day between March
| and October. when the days were long and
a shorter time daily in the winter when
they were shorter. He finished it In $780,
The world wags differentl- now There
are hand shoemakers. but they are few in
| number. and their work is so high priced
| that only the rich wear handmade shoes.
The first machine-nade shoes were all
| their detractors said they were-ill-shaped.
il-ftting, stiff and altogether undesirable.
But as the problem of machine shoemak-
ing was studied by able minds-and able
minds took IL up because there were evil
IDENTIFY great fortunes to be won in its So
lution-it was gradually solved; and today
the machine-made shoe is worn by the
great mass of people in all walks OF life.
Shoe manufacturers. but not shoemakers,
have made fortunes by the score fortunes
beside which the modest competency ac-
cumulated by Peter Kahler would look like
80 cents.
Meanwhile the old-time shoemaker who
could fashion any sort of footwear want
ed, from a stogey boot for farm hand
or heavy cowhide shoe for the hired girl
TO mafdens dancing slipper or a dandy's
fine boot, has been superseded by the ma
chine operative. Sometimes the operative
is woman, sometimes a man. but I'm any
case capable Of attending to one operation
only. One can run the pegging machine
in the making of brogans another looks
after the cutting another adds the heels to
the otherwise finished SHOE and so on: but
not one of them could successfully see the
leather through all the machines fiU IN
came out a perfect shoe.
The lapStone and the waXed end are still
used, but those who use them are mostly
cobblers. not shoemakers, who mend only
and do not make.
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