The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1906-11-18


IF the gintlemin who ride about in
authormobiles TO rahabilitate the refu-
gees were doin' half as much as Pat
Corley thered be less kickin'. Pat
Corley's put shoes on our feet. That's
what Pat Corley has done. And whin
ve've had the money we've paid for
him. and whin VIC haven't it's not
word Pat Corley has said. but minded
The shoes just the same, God bless
him
Such is one honest woman's opinion
Of Pat Corley, and such is the opinion
Of every man. woman and child camped
IN Alamo square. Pat Corley has from
his savings bought stock and mended
the shoes of the refugees Tor pay when
they could pay him. without price when
they could not. And Pat corley, as
some know and many suspect, is him
self the poorest Of the poor.
The Little Shop on Franklin.
For years before the fire Pat Corley
kept a little cobblers shop on Franklin
street Il was mean enough little
place, scarcely SxlO. But there. day
after day. year after year, Pat Corley
SAT at his bench. laboriously mending
the few broken shoes that were brought
him. Laboriously well describes the
method of his mending. for the world
has swung clear away for Pat Corley.
A half century ago there was plenty of
room in the world for the cobbler who
used hand-awI and hammer. But
scarcely a block away from the old
cobbIer's shop was an establishment
where a machine run by electricity
sewed soles on shoes faster than the
d-time cobbler could place shoes on
his last It was hand-and a poor age
enfeebled hand at that-against cleo
tricity. and slowly and surely electric
ity was winning the day. Poor old
Pat Corley could not understand why
any more than he could understand the
new-fangled machines in the modern
shop. but as the years passed he saw
one-timc customers pass his door 10
the shop where they mended shoes in a
twinkling. almost by magic. 1t is safe
10 say that there were times when the
next meal was to come from. But
never was he heard to complain, never
did his cheerful smile fail to greet the
customer or chance visitor to his shop.
never did he refuse credit when it
was asked. aIthough too often such
credit presented hard financial
problem for the old man to solve. and
meant gratuitous services for one
probably ten times better able TO pay
than was the lonely old shoemaker to
give.
And then came the April fire. The
gentle old man watched it sweep out
over the hills. unrontrollable, an-Taas-
tering.
They VIII stop it at Van Ness ave-
nue." said one.
They viii never stop it so long as
there is a house to burn" said another.
Pat Corley had no opinion of his own.
He took the FIRE as he took the electric
shoe machine IN the shop round the
corner as something that he could not
understand or successfully combat. He
stuck TO his shop, drifting during the
first two days of the fire as he had
drifted during the long years that he
had worked there. allowing himself to
lie governed by conditions as they came
10 him, without resistance and with
out complaint. He was not burned out.
but he was scOrched out. and fed from
the place when it was impossible to re-
main there longer. After the fire he
crept back to his shop, for he knew no
place else, and took up his anvil and
his poor, old-fashioned tools as though
nothing had happened. And there was
G. deal Of work for Pat Corley to do
Around the corner the labor-saving
machinery Of the rival shop stood silenS
and still. The experts who had oper-
eted il had fed and were swelling the
bread line. The mysterious power that
had driven the stitcher and the polisher
was gone; the motor stood inactive.
without electric power all the expen-
Give machinery was as useless as old
Junk. Pat Corley did not realize II. but
The fire, the great Ieveler had reduced
tine people Of San Francisco in a twink
ling to primitive conditions. The man
with The strongest arm saved more
from the IRE than the quick Drained
but physically weak: the carpenter
could find better shelter for his family
chan could the millionaire. the cobbler
who could employ awl and hand-last
Nas for the moment king of his craft.
such was Pat Corley In the latter days
Of April and in the early weeks of May.
Customers hocked to his shop Those
we're Inc days Of his greatest pros
Oerfty. Pat Corley had all the advan-
tages Of a monOpolist-he was one of
me rev men in San Francisco prepared
10 mend shoes-shoes that had been
ground to pieces in the nervc-racking
Sight Before the fire
But Pat Corley lacked the instincts
Of the monopclist-he old not raise
prices. Such an idea never entered his
bead. He worked at his bench earning
rents where he might have gouged
dollars out OF the almost sbarefooted
men and women who fiocked to his
shop.
But there were newly created mon
opolists IN san Francisco besides Pat
corley, and among them was his land
ford. The IRE had stopped just short
Of Franklin street. and for the moment
property Owners along that street
thought that Franklin was to be what
Fillmore within ten days had become.
FOR years Corley had paid from his
scant earnings IS month for the poor.
title shop in which he worked. ate and
rlanf When his nnnfb was nm early