SHOES (AS. scCo, Goth. skohs, OTIG. scoop, Ger- Schuh, shoe) AND SHOE MANUFAC TURE. The shoe in its simplest form was un doubtedly a sandal o• sole with straps attached to it by means of which it might he fastened on to the foot. Such a shoe was designed simply to protect the bottom of the foot from the rough surface of the ground and from the extremes of temperature.
Another primitive form of shoe is the Indian moccasin. It differs from the sandal in that it extends over the top of the foot, but, the shoe, the sole and main part of the upper are in one piece. The moccasin is made of buckskin, is soft, flexible. and durable: in fact, one of the 'best coverings that could be made for the foot. The peasants of several European nations wear a wooden shoe called a subot, which is shaped out Of a single piece of wood. The primitive foot gear of Great Britain and Ireland resembled the brogue still worn by the Irish peasants. The brogue is made of a heavy leather, very simply put together, and much larger than the foot, the space between foot and shoe being filled with hay.
The clog or potten is a shoe with a wooden sole and leather upper, which is fastened to the sole with nails.
In the 'United States the art of shoemaking was one of the first to be established, for we are told that Thomas Beard, with hides, both upper and bottom, came in the Mayflower, on its third voyage. Massachusetts has continued to lead in the industry thus early established within her borders. For two centuries the shoemaker was often an itinerant workman, who, journeying from one farmer's family to another, tarried in each of the households long enough to convert the farmer's supply of home-tanned leather into a stock of shoes sufficient to meet the needs of the family till his next annual visit. His last was roughly whittled out of a piece of wood to suit the largest boot in the family, and then pared down for successive sizes.
The American shoemaker sat on a low bench, one end of which was divided up into compart ments where his knives, awls, hammers, and rasps were kept and there was also room for his pots of paste and of blacking, his 'shoulder sticks' for 'setting the edges' of heel and sole, and 'rub sticks' for finishing the bottom; his tacks, pegs, nails, thread, and was, buttons, and linings. Close by he kept a dish called a
'higgin' in which was placed the water to wet the soles; a pair of clamps to hold the uppers supported between his knees, while he seamed or bound them, and also the strap which, pass ing under his foot, held the sole upon the last and both on his knee while he stitched on the welt or sewed the upper to it.
Until the beginning of the nineteenth century all shoes were made by sewing them together by hand, but they were cut and put together in much the same manner as now, except that the operations have been shortened and also multi plied by the introduction of machinery. In or der, therefore, that the uses of the various ma chines may better be understood, the general process of making a shoe will be explained. A shoe consists of two parts: the sole, which is made of very heavy leather, and the upper, which is made of lighter leather, or of cloth. The up per, in turn, consists of various parts, according to the pattern by which it is cut, but in general the upper front part is the ramp, while the back is called the quarters. The upper may be sewed on to the sole on the wrong side and turned, or on the right side, usually by means of a welt. The first method was formerly employed for all the lighter. finer grades of shoes, but is now chiefly confined to slippers. Shoes made in this way are called turns. A lc en is a narrow strip of leather, sewed on to the lower edge of the upper. with the seam inside, and then turned and sewed tlat on to the outer edge of the sole. It is now the almost universal for sewing shoes together. The last is a wooden form, mod eled after the general shape of the human foot, on which the parts are placed in putting to gether the upper and sole, and finishing the shoe. Last-making was at one time a part of the shoe maker's trade, hut is now a separate industry.