BLACKING. The manufacture of blacking, a compound used in the polishing of old-fashioned coarse leathers, is a very ancient one, and was at one time a large and flourishing industry. Black ing is composed of charcoal black, lamp-black, sugar, oil, and fat in varying proportions, and is prepared either as a paste packed in tins or as a liquid put up in bottles. The blacking is spread upon the leather and then polished to give a brilliant "shine," as the boot-black calls it. The "cleaning" of leather boots by this process thus amounts to the application to footwear of an exceedingly dirty substance. While boots were made of the old-fashioned coarse leathers, blacking was largely called for; but the modern introduction of willow-calf and other fancy leathers and the gen eral substitution of light for heavy footwear have made it unneces sary to use blacking. Willow-calf, whether finished black or brown or any other colour, can with ease and comparative cleanliness be polished with a preparation of wax and turpentine, and many forms of such "boot-polish" are made and sold.
The turnover from blacking to boot-polish, although a small detail of trade, is significant of the general change of fashion from the heavy to the light, from the shapeless to the graceful, from the dull to the bright, which has characterized the beginning of the twentieth century.