However, throughout Europe and America, the machine-made boot and shoe have sup planted all others, with a resulting standardi zation of styles, a reduction in prices and a comfortable and relatively durable product.
Shoemaking has been called g the gentle craft.' Its patron saint is Saint Crispin, one of the early Christian martyrs, whose day on the Church calendar is 25 October, the anni versary of his excommunication. Crispin and his brother Crispianus were of noble Roman lineage. Due to persecutions during the reign of Diocletian they fled into Gaul, settling at Augusta Suessionum (now Soissons, France), where they followed the trade of shoemaking, at the same time spreading word of Christian ity and doing deeds of benevolence. It is said that these brothers stole leather to make shoes for the poor. About the year 300 A.D., they were martyred by being beheaded. In the processions of the mediaeval guilds, the shoe makers' patron — master of ceremonies — was known as King Crispin. From this word comes the adjective ccrispin,* as applied to the shoemaking trade.
In America the introduction of shoemaking was coincident with the earliest settlement of the colonies. Among the party that came to Plymouth on the Mayflower was a shoemaker — Thomas Beard — provided with supplies and materials for supplying the little band of Pil grims with shoes. Accredited to the governor of the colony, he was allowed a salary of $50 per annum and given 50 acres of land. A few years later — in 1636—Philip Kerkland began the manufacture of shoes and boots at Lynn, which city has since been interested largely in the industry—at first supplying the needs of Boston and neighboring towns and later those of the entire colony. Other colonies each had their individual shoemaking industries, but from the start New England led. During the Revolutionary War Massachusetts manufac tured the greater proportion of all ready-made shoes for the 13 colonies and those used by the Continental army, it being recorded that these latter were afor quality and price . . . quite as good as those imported from England.' Following the Revolution there were heavy im portations from England, which hurt the do mestic industry. The increasing de mand, however, soon overcame this and the ry indust, already established, proved its right to continue and grow. In 1795, 300,000 pairs of women's shoes— the labor of 200 master workmen and 600journeymen—were manu factured in Lynn. So rapid was the growth at this period that certain makers, particularly in Lynn, Braintree and Reading—all in the State of Massachusetts — supplied only the wholesale trade. Boots and shoes were shipped to Bos ton, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston and Savannah and even to the West Indies. An important branch of the trade was the making of heavy °brogans"— a specialty at Milford and other Worcester County towns — for the use of the slaves of the Southern States. The
supremacy. of the New England product was unquestioned. There was very little variety in the leathers used — all being subjected to the slow tanning process. For uppers, pebble-fin ished goat leather was the most popular, later developed into the °brush kid" finish, the fore runner of the finish of to-day. Shoes intended for hard service were always pegged or nailed and frequently hobnailed. Those intended for the better trade were hand welted and shoes for women and children were mostly "turned' bottom. The straight, "rocker-bot tom)) last — ensuring at that time the maximum of comfort — was the prevailing style, the only concession to fashion (in women's shoes) seemingly being the variety of materials used for tops, comprising serges, plain and bro caded, and other cloths.
Machines.— Despite the successful attempt to establish the ready-made shoe and boot trade, it is well within the memory of those living that the village or itinerant shoemaker — mak ing the shoes of entire families—was an im portant factor in the production of footwear. Except the making of high grade custom work, or in the repair (cobbling) of boots and shoes, the shoemaker is today supplanted by machine methods. The earliest machine-made shoe was that made on the machine invented in England in 1810 by Isambard M. Brunel. It mechanically nailed or tacked the sole to the upper fitted over a last, the nails being clinched. By this method 100 pairs of "strong and well-finished)) shoes at a contract price of 6s. 6d. ($1.56)— were made per day. At the time great hopes were entertained at the success of this process, but in shoes made by it for the English soldiers it was found that the nails penetrated through the sole into the foot. In 1818 Joseph Walker of Massachusetts invented the wooden shoe peg machine, where individual pegs of wood were substituted for the metal nails used previously. From this has been developed a variety of pegging machines— some using the individual wooden pegs, and others using long strips of wood or metal, cutting the same into suitable lengths and driving them into the sole automatically. Two forms of these —"pegged) and "screwed" are used to-day for heavy, cheap boots and shoes. These improvements developed one at a time — made it possible for one or several of the operations to be completed quicker than the others, resulting in a division of labor. It was at first the custom to send out the various parts to be cut and joined and later assembled at a factory on the automatic machines. With the growth of manufacturing plants, it was found more expedient to have all operations finished at the factory, which system has, in turn, again changed somewhat in the direction of specialty houses producing the in dividual parts of a shoe, the ultimate manufac turer merely assembling them in the finished product.