The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-28

sell anything from a shoe peg up to the equipment for big factory. After getting control of the business here ft organized the shoe machinery manu- facturers of Englaind. and sent their wares into Germany. The German government thought to thwart them by prohibitive tarin, but they got around that by convenient subterfuge. Thus fankee genius has become the shoe maker of the world.
 Tn the ordinary pair Of shoes there are rorty-four parts. Not long ago an exhibition was given showing how rapidly shoes could be turned ont. A pair was made which required fifty. seven operations. on fcrty-two ma chimes. They required twenty six pieces of leather, fourteen pieces of cloth, twenty-four buttons, twenty eight nails, eighty taclxs two tips, two heels two box toes. two stee. snanks and twenty yards of thread. From the oegihning of the first operation until the pair was pronounced finished had taken only thirteen minutes.
 It is estimated by students of foot ailments that seventy-nve out of ey- cry hundred people in the United States wear iH-ftting shoes and that deform- ca Feet are characteristic af Avervbody that persists in wearing such shoes long enough. During the past season pumps have been the vogue, especially among the women of the United statea Yet those who have studied the mat. ter declare that no woman can wear pumps whole summer without injur- ing the bones of her instep. There ere twenty-six bones In the human foot. and the pressure of one into an abnor- nal position means the injury of the whole foot. Especially is this true of children. Their bones are soft and pli- able, and readily yield to any undue pressure. thus being easily deformed. sell proper fitting shoes for the chil- dren. that 1t is even more difficult than selling to the grownups.
 Men are fully as fastidious as women in matters of footwear. Students of the footwear question say that while broad toes are an essential of proper footwear, yet not all broad-toed shoes are correct. some of them being as harmful to foot-health as those made over narrow lasts. The dealer who pushes properly-made shoes finds many discouragements. He finds 1t hard to win cstomer, and even when he has succeeded, that customer expects one pair of properly made shoes to remedy the evil that twelve pairs of improp- eriy made pnes have done. There is no more occasion for people to have corns' and bunions on their feet than on their hands; today's indiscretions in the seelction of footwear make to- morrow's regret The American sore foot may be laid at the door of the de- signer who sacrifices health for looks.
 The shoe-making industry began in America when Thomas Beard came to Massachusetts in 1929, with a supply of leather. and began shoe making for the Pilgrim colonists. Seven years later the big shoe industry at Lynn had It's beginning. Lynn held first rank in the production of shoes until 1900. when Brocton took the lead. Leather making is said to have had its beginning on this side of the sea in 1888 in Virginia The wooden peg was invented in 1911. Shoe machin. cry did not have it's beginning until 1S45. In that year the leather rolling machine was invented. doing in a min ute what had hitherto required a half hour. Then came the wax thread sew ing machine. the peg making machine and a hundred other labor saving mechanical shoemakers. Sandals were the earliest form of footwear. As a small foot is today regarded as an evidence of refined lineage. so once the big foot was the favored kind That was in the fourteenth century. when prince was not esteemed suen If his boots were not thirty inches long. A baron wore twenty-four inch shoe and an ordinary courier was ex- pected to present himself dressed fin a regulation eighteen-inch shoe.
 There are approximately I50. 900 hoot and shoe workers in the United States They turn out about 25O,000. 900 pairs of boots. shoes and slippers. having an aggregate factory value of s35o' 100000. The people of the United States wear about 234, 900, 900 pairs of baots. shoes and slippers every year or nearly three pairs for each In dividual. The men lead in the mum her of boots and shoes worn They require S3, 400 900 pairs a year. Boys come in for 21.700. 900 pairs. and women for 69. 400 900 pairs. Misses and child ren claim S1.4Oo.0o0 pairs. When it goes to slippers, the women have the advantage. perhaps partially because they wear so many of them out on the rising generation of men. Men, boys and youths wear 4.5o0 900 pairs of slippers, while women and girls speak up for f3,000.0o0 pairs. There are B. 600,0o0 pairs which are not included in either of the above designations.
 Copyright, 1908, by Frederick Has kim
 Tomorrow-Reciaimin the Desert.