Document text
ORIGINAL MS. OR FIELD EOM (Cheek one)
PUB. Living Ifs* in
Newikutiand
TITLE Irish Shoe Lairter of Lynn .543
WRITER Jane I. Leary
DATE 6/Y39 EDS. PP. 9
CHECKER DATE
SOURCES. rilat "Mat•rri, '4 Wes Ettgboc
COMMENTS
Section gr
Page 1
Name: Jane K. Leary
Informant: James Hughes, 51 Johnson St.
Subject: The Shoe Laster of Lynn
"In Ireland ya owned a firm an yet ya dinft, 'cause
ya always heda pay rint ta the gentleman that wuz over
thet piarta the land ya wuz alivint on. Still it wuz
better ta live in 01Marge then it wuz ta live in some
other piarts a Ireland, cause thier, if ya ,hed
it
intintions ta come ta America, ya could setlit ani come.
Some piarts a Ireland, ya jest heda lave (leave) the
land behind ya if ya come.
"So whin ml (my) uncle disIed, (died) the land wuz
sold ant I got roan' $209 outa it.
"Laike I told ya bafore, there wuz a tame, about
thirty years ago whin I coulda one back ta it, but
my wife dinft want ta go, an' basiadee (besides), I
remimbered how ya heda pay taxes on it, the poor rates,
fir the asylums, ant the school taxes, ant basiades
(besides) ta help build the roads, ant I figured I wuz
better off here beint a shoe laster. Basiades that too,
if the gentleman that wuz over ya could disposses ya at
my tame ya dintt kap(keep) the_rint up ta him.
ya could Miake (make) a good livint. on a
thirty acre firm. Thirty acres wuz considered a good
(-7
2.
sized first thiere.
"Thiey raised wheat an' flax, an horses too.
Miny's the inns horse they sold ta Ingland (England).
Ya wouldn't get a horse fir no thin' in thim diays. A
good horse would breng $250 er $300, spacially a race
horse. Thiey had quite a course thiere in 01Marge, An'
a fiane pair a ciart.horse would breng pratty near $500,
ya know. Thiere wuz good money in raisin' good horses.
"Fir tin years after I come back from 'Ireland after
ma visit thiere fieve years after I COMA here the first
tame, I followed up the horses. I din't stop until I
got married. I wish I hod the half a what I dropped
thin now though, ant I wun't hafta worry none about
money.
"Thiere's no money ralioly in pliayinl the horses.
I lost all thet money I coulda saved thim tin years.
"The first tame I pliayed this, I won an' thet got
me stiarted raight. So.I kep on an' somettmes I'd wtn,
and thin sometames I'd loselkTowards the last a it, I
dropped aroun' thirty dollars one morninl and thet wuz
the ind fir its. I got married soon afterwards and thin
I niver pliayed agin.
"I've often thought what a eity (pity) it wuz thet
some a us young fellaz a thet diay din't talks (take)
some a the good money we wuz gamin' alastinl shoes ta
3.
buy telephone stock. Jest thenk, it could be got thin
fir tin cints a share. Jest thenk a thet. If ya had put
$100 in thin, yald. be rich tadiay.
"But hake most young felias, wuznit thenkini much
a savinl money before I got married. Thet first flays
years, I did stave (says) up $500, but thin I got a
thankinl a goinl home on a visit so I took $400 outa the
benk (bank) an' wint, an' lIft jest the $100 thiere.
An' I spint the whole $400 on the trip.
"Whin I come over the first tame, I coma from
Belfast fir thet wuz jest fifty males (miles) from
Monohan. Whin 1 wint back fir a visit, I landed at
Cork an' wint from thiere ta Dublin on the train. One
hundred and sixty males it wuz.
But the train trips wuzuft ithytheng laike they
woulda bin in America. Thiey wuz box ciars (cars) ant
ya wuz boxed in laike ya cun't get from one ciar ta the
next while the ciar wuz moving, ,laike ya could& here.!;
"Wkin I come back from tnet visit, T brought one
sister with me ant she lived in Lynn fir a whale (whileil.
The other two sisters come over a little later but mur
A
mother niver come. She wuz too old an' I thoughtn he
wun't be happy hiere. (here).
Tack Feeding From the Mouth
I asked r. Hughes to tell me something about the
requisite custom of the old hand laster, of feeding
himself tacks from his mouth with his tongue.
"Ohl they," he said, "It gets ta bi second nature
laike. Ya jest sorta throw a ciartain (certain) number
inta your mouth from the tack box an0 hold tem taere
betwan (between) the jaw ant the lip on one siade a
the mouth. Thin the tongue kinda turns em" around so
as ta *IT feed 'em ta you head first. Ya don't know
you're adoinoit after a tame.
"No I don't thank I iver swallowed one. But I
knowed a fella once that did. Thim wuz throe fourth
inch tacks and whin he throwed 'em in lila mouth one
wint back an' got stuck in his throat. That made him
throw his head back an' the first thong ya know he had
the whole business in his throat. Well, they had to
taike him ta the hospital an' they give him cotton
battin' ta eat and took xrays a him an4 iverytheng.:
,Whin it happined, he fainted raight off laike a
man achokin He din't know what wuz happinin4 tathim
atall. But he come outa it all raight fir I seen
him afterwards an' he wuzn't the worse fir it atall.
An' thets the onIy.tame in all my years a baba' a hand
laster thet I iver heard a the laike a thet.
"The number a tacks ya hold in your mouth is
accordinl ta the size of thim. Ordinary, ;trtiake
.about fifteen or sixteen in your mouth of a tame. Yi
cut a hole in the pack and thin jest aorta throw er drank
'am in. Some goes ta the siade a your mouth an' some
undernith the tongue. An' thin the tongue tirns 'em
fir ya aal feeds Ism ta ya as ya need 'am.
a>,
An' the tongue had ta wirk prcptty (pretty) fast
laike a machine too, in order ta titan tem headfirst
fast enough fir ta give 'am ta you as fast as.ya could
use tom.
low
"Most lasters lould chew tobacco on the other siade
a the mouth the same tame the raight siade an' the tongue
lould ba feedin4' ya the tacks ta nail in the shoe. At
a good laster could spit the tobacco outa one siado
a the mouth while the tacks viuzacoming outa the other.
Fact is thtt lasters an' most all the other kands a
shoe i.irkers chewed tobacco in the old diays.
"Thiere usta be sawdust all over the place sols it
could ba swept up after the shop wuz closed of a naight.
In other shops thltAre'd be spitoons in the rank. (rink).
"B. L. usta ba (be) a great tobacco fir,chewint
"After chewint kinda lost out, a lotta the min took
ta pipes_, an in late years a lotta i Ds wuz smoked (clay
Pipes). 1.1ite a few a this come across the water from
Scotland an' Ireland. The city a Derry, Scotland, wuz
a good place ta get a clay pipe from.
"The soft clay pipe wuz always the best, but ya
hoda ba (be) very careful a that fir it would break ;ay
(easy). I usta laike a clay pipe massif. It wuz a good
smokin pipe.
"I niver like a corn cob pipe. Din't laike the
feel an' the shank a thim. Wooden pipes aire faire enough
though. Of thim, I laiked the Calabash from. Scotland.
Thet had a long windin!, stem laike the root of a squash.
"I've hed a Mirsham pipe too. Thetla supposed ta
ba (be) wide from sea foam. met wuylegant pipe fal
iaight, but ya.heda bi (be) careful a it or it !ould
break. it wuz colored nice.
"la could pLay pretty high fir thim. SOON rich
fellas plid as high as twinty er thirty dollars fir Ion.
r'
"But it ould always tiake a while ta sason
(season) thim up. An' I knowed rich fellas thet lould.
hire some one else ta do_thet fir film. But I would niver
a done that. I'd not laike ta smoke a pipe that some
one else had, stsoned (seasoned) up. I thank I'da done
that ma7self iven if I wuz.rich.
-0
"Most a the good pies cost aroun' fieveer sivtn,
er tin dollars.
7
"After pipes come cigars an' cigarettes. Hardly
OW
nobody tidiay smokes pipes nomore. Tidliy. ya kin get
as good a cigar fir fieve cints as ya usta git fir tin
cints.
"Ant t'adfiTY almost iverybody smokes cigarettes,
aven the womin. In the old diaysiwomin thet ould
smoke a ciErettes would almost cartain ba biad
But thet ain't true tidiii. A lotta womin smoke, the
same as the min.
"Years ago a man could smoke in most my a the
shops but tadiay he cain't bacause if he goes ta the
washroom ta do it, he loses a lotta tame, and the
insurance a the big shpps won't let him smoke in the
rink (rink). In some a the small shops ya kin still
smoke, but aven a lotta thim ya cain't. on account& _
the insurance laws."
Drinking
"In the old rays thier wuz a lotta drenking in the
Ja-
shops. Not at wirk rally, but on a piay diay thier4 uould
be cartain min lould get enough so as he maight be out
sick from it. I knowed SOMA out fir a wake (week) er
two on account a thst.
"But drenking beer wuz another theng. Most iverybody
drank some a thet. Ya could get a pfla a tt fir tin
cints an! good beer too. Papple !ould buy, it ta drenk
bafore a male (meal) fir it dinft make ya drunk an! why
drank water whin ya fould get six, sivin er eight glasses
fir tin cints. Womin, children, why thieyld give it to.
'em sure.
"Thie hod both ale an! beer in Lyrui. tour er
flews glasses a thet !ould jest about maike ya falo
(feel) fiane all raight.
More About the Lynn of Yesterday.
"Iverythang in Lynn wuz diffrunt thin (then) it is
now, laike I said baforo. Thiere wuzn't.the big mairkats
laike thiere is tadiay. Thiere wuz a big .grocery store
right across from whiere Blood's big mairkot is on
summer strite...ip_tree.64/A„ol
It lould sine (seem) small and quare (queer) tadiay.
Thiey sold flour by the barrel thin, and molasses wuz
J2.0
bought in a jug an' sugitr by the barrel tad'.
"Iverybody hed a bag garden and thley raised a lotta
onions ant corn an' thongs. Thiere wuznt miny fruit
stands in town but thiere wuz one big one down, at
Central Square run by Mr. Maloney, a brg fa man. Ant
an Italian did an awful business a sel1inn Munroe
StAte (Street).
"But mosta the paople dinit same (seem) ta care fir
fruit the wiay paople do tidily. But the Italians laiked
raw vegetables, The wiay tniey usta eat raw cucumbers.
"But iverybody laiked a lotta mate. (meat). But
mite wuz chaper (cheaper) in thim diays an' pioplo could
afford ta buy it.