The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-14
M E N ;, w O M FEN
 A ND T HIN c s

can remember the time when the shoe merchant had an easy time of 1 It so far as styles were concerned, for shoes were almost as staple as demestics; but how things have changed, for today style is the thing"
 The shoe merchant who can fore see what the coming styles will be IS about as good a little provisoner ss the cotton factor who can read the signs of the time well enough to know whether the fleecy staple is go- ing to soar or fall.
 This is why bunch oflive shoe men from four southeastern states foregathered here to discuss styles and as far as possible get together on.the kind of merchandise to ;tock up with for the next 90 days. The time of going to market once a year is thing of the past, even the man who makes ~@two trips during a twelyemonth to the market is back number.
 It takes shoe prophet who is able to make monthly predictions to get by in this. whirl-a gig, ragtime. jazz band twentieth century. when the people. like the Athenians of old spend their time in telling or hearing (wearing) some new thing" Footwear is puzzle even to the oldest shoe dealers in the ever shift ing game of styles
 The snappy little paragrapbs ap- bearing under the head, DO You Re- member" are enlivening The Are- Herald, and taking my cue from them, I am going to ,ask, Do you remember when brogans made, up a large part of the stock of the aver age shoe merchant in the south. be- ing worn both by white and black for every-day work?" n'Do you re- member the, time when you wore to school a pair of black calf laced shoes with metal tipsY"
 l think the proudest hour in my boyhood was the day when I wore my first pair of boots to school, and came down College hill homeward bound with my first trousers tucked securely in them. I have never since that time been so fittingly cos- tuned To me it was the very acme of dress, and no dude of later day ever got the supreme satisfaction that l did when I realized that I was the exposure of all juvenile eyes.
 It was just a bit strange to hear several score men putting in a whole day discussing styles of footwear Tor men, women and children, with all the seriousness of an ecclesiasti cal conference, and well they might for it was matter of life and death so far as their. business was con- cerned, for woe be unto the shoe merchant who errs in selecting the iiSnt hiHu or stock.
 The style committee of the south- eastern Retail Shoe Dealers associa- tion makes two reports year to it's members. and from the talks at the dinner l gathered that the fee paid into the organization was but a trifle. when the benefits derived from being tipped off by experts as to what to buy or left 'unbought was concerned. Some said that s1oo a year for such information would be dirt cheap. s
 
 If you wish to know what you are to wear this coming season you have only to read the report of the style committee made on Monday night, and which was published in The Age Herald on Tuesday morning. You will find it in black and white and stated with great care and precision. It will in effect be the Ten Com mandments so far as the merchants are concerned and the ultimate con- sumer will have to be governed by the law of the >prophets, alias style committee.
 It was fine bunch of fellows that came here from Georgia, Florida and South Carolina to touch elbows with Alabama men, The Birmingham shoe dealers received them with true Bir- mlngham hospitality. and every wis., itor went home thinking whole lot about the Magic City and grateful to the courtesy of the men who look not only after the shoeing of the south's greatest metropolis, but after the wants of the stranger within it's gates