The Topeka state journal., 1905-10-22

used now. but sufficient to be called "a
/ fortune" by the newspapers of that
day.
The World Wagged Differently Then,
! Everyone wore handmade boots and
{ shoes when Kahler made his first pair
Z Of fine" boots for the president. The
sewing machine had been Invented and
a number Of ingenious chaps were try
/ ing with all their might to adapt it to
the manufacture of shoes, but COM
/ plete success did not come TO them
for years after 1850
In those old days the expert jour
Z neyman shoemaker was very Well-pa1d
I for his work. and his trade was looked
one combining something Of the ar
/ lists power, along with high-grade
/ knowledge Of leather, and unusually
expert manual skill.
In those old days no skilled journey
man shoemaker need be out Of work,
no matter where he happened to be
Everybody except the boys and girls
at least in the north and northwest.
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 some
thing 10 the shoemaker, as 1t still did
with the printers. Nobody thought of
calling them tramp printer or
tramp shOemakers' then, and as
shOemakers were needed in much
smaller places than printers, the for
mer rather had the better of their
typographical brethren in being able
TO subsist themselves practically any
where and everywhere.
Sometimes a journeyman shoe
maker would travel about with such
stock Of leather as he could carry on
his back, q selection Of avis, a few
balls of wax and of shoe-thread, a
shoe-hammer and a laD-stone in his
KIT, prepared to stop anywhere and
stay awhile where new shoes were
needed or old ones wanted repairs
though that good old custom was fast
going out forty years ago
The Village shop.
Most of the real journeymen shoe
makers of the SOS and the SOS went
from shop to shop in the city, country
town and village. The village shoe
shop was one Of the Institutions Of
the times.
Unless the village was very small in
deed, il bOasted either several small
shops with one or two shOemakers be
sides the owner, or one or two big
ones with from four to a dozen en-
ployes. They did mending as Well as
making. the cObbler in each shop be
ing generally either an apprentice or
an old shoemaker who was no longer
up TO the difficulties Of real shoemaAg-
ing Inasmuch as men with boots to
be mended often waited in their stock
ing feet while the cObbler's job was
LE4AlA 0OlEs the EAOD was &GllEEalIl
furnished with few chairs and stools
ana these gave the excuse for q regular
body Of -shoeshop sitters.
The boss shoemaker rather enc0ur-
aged this; it made his day pass more
quickly TO have the company OF the
sitters. and as, curiously enough, the
expert shoemaker can work and talk
too, their presence in no wise lessened
the shops output.
Naturally, the shoe shop discussion
took wide range. When the squire.
as the local justice OF the peace was
called. happened in the latest local
lawsuits were apt TO be the subjects Of
the talk; religion perhaps. ruled the
confab when the minister was the chief
guest; crops were uppermOst when the
gathering was sprinkled with farm
ers- There were times. too, when good
stories were told. some Of them more
pointed than polite and. of course. Do
htcs were likely to come up whoever
made I'D the shoe shop audience.
A Shoemaker Who Became Vfce-Presi-
dent.
Naturally the boss shoemaker, and
his men. too for that matter. grew to
oe pretty well informed, in a super
heial way, at least. on all sorts of top
les; and 1t may easily be imagined that
eIIective words on Linc0ln's behalf in
1850 to the voters who sat around in
his shop
Only one shoemaker. however, SO far
as the records go ever became prorni-