Evening star., 1905-10-22

an unqualified success. and the writer of
the letter expressed his sincere thanks at
its close.
Naturally Kahler showed the letter, and
naturally 1t got into the papers. Naturally,
too. this caused Kahler's business to i'm
prove markedly and at once. Nor was the
growth of his reputation limited to Scran-
ton. Newspapers outside that hard coal
city copied the story of his making the
boots. and Mr.. Lincoln's satisfaction with
them. Orders for boots and shoes were re-
cefved from places remote from Scranton.
In time his fame was waited as far as New
York, and later he followed his fame. There
he set up as q high grade boot and shoe
maker. not doubling in the least his power
tn At the feet of the Gothamites as well as
he had fitted Lincoln's.
From the very first Kahler's success in
New York was noteworthy. He had enough
money with him when he arrived to Mt up
and establish a prosperous looking place.
but in very short time he had to enlarge
1t and hire more shoemakers. He made his
prices high, he saw to it that his work was
talked about and, better than all the rest.
he was careful to keep its grade up to the
best. 1t wasn't long before practically all
the notabilities In New York were having
their boots and shoes made at Kahler' {" :"
To wear Kahler footgear, in fact. was to
proclaim yourself of the real elect: not to
do so was to admit yourself either person
of poor taste or a slim purse.
When Kahler died he left pot of money
not enough, perhaps. to entitle him to be
termed flc1, as lHc ttfuf lS uSeO lO"s Dut
sufficient to be called "a fortune by the
newspapers of that day.
Everyone wore handmade boots and
shoes when Kahler made his first pair of
fine" boots for the President. The sewing
machine had been invented and number of
ingenious chaps were trying with all their
might to adapt 1t to the manufacture of
shoes, but complete success did not come
to them for years after 1860.
In those old days the expert journeyman
shoemaker was very well paid for his work,
and his trade was looked up to-b by workmen
or other trades as one combining something
Of the artists power. along with high
grade knowledge of leather, and usually ex-
pert manual skill.
In those old days no skilled journeyman
shoemaker need be out of work. no matter
where he happened to be. Everybody ex-
cept the boys and girls. at least In the north
and northeast, wore boots or shoes. the
same as now, and the man who could make
them was always In demand. The original
term ''journeyman still meant something
to the shoemaker, as 1t still did with the
printers. Nobody thought of calling them
tramp printers or tramp shoemakers'
then. and as shoemakers were needed In
much smaller places than printers the for
mer had rather the better of their typo
graphical brethren in being able to subsist
themselves practically anywhere and every
where.
Sometimes a journeyman shoemaker would
travel about with such stock of leather as
he could carry his back, a selection of
avis, few balls of wax and of shoe thread
a shoe-hammer and a lapstone In his kit
prepared to stop anywhere and stay a while
where new shoes were needed or old ones
wanted repairs. though that good old GUS
tom was fast going out forty years ago.
/ Most of the real journeymen shoemakers
of the sos and COS went from shop to shop
In CITY, country, town and village. The viii
lage shoe shop was one of the institutions
of the times.
Unless the village was very small indeed
1t boasted either of several small shops
with one or two shoemakers besides the
owner, or one or two big ones, with from
four to dozen employees. They did mend
ing as well as making, the cobbler in each
shop being generally an apprentice or an
old shoemaker who was no longer up to the