Document text
ORIGINAL MSC OR FIELD NOTES (Cheek one)
pm Living Lore in
New England
TITLE sh9olastac of zaw.ii%
IR/TER 41inejLoAigy
DATE 3/109 *004 pp. 6
CHECKER DAIS
SOURCES. GDU ,Interriew P. Re13,1z....,
COMILENTS
Name-- Jane K. Leary Page 1
Informant --Patrick Reilly, 165 Fayette St., Lynn SectionI
Assignment --The Shoe Laster
"I been a laster fur morein fifty years. I wuz
a hand laster."
This informant has lived in Lynn for more than
fifty years. Questioning will print, forth the information
that ne no longer resents the fact that the lasting machine
usurped many hand lasters wabout twenty—five year ago" out
that he resents the fact "there ain't no more white men a-
workin, in the shops a LynAn\and "only two-er three white
shops in the town now."
All incoming groups from southern Europe that
came into Lynn as the result of the morocco strike of the
'80s, and the shoe strikes ensuing from the installation
of the lasting machines, were included in those groups that
were not "white." Deduction brings the conclusion that
those who are "white" were either "Yankee, Irish or Irish
American. Questioning him a bit further, exudes the avowal
that those who spoke English at that period, namely some of
those of French descent, also might enjoy that classifica-
tion.
He is particularly 41ciferous in his denuncia-
tion of the Jews and those shoe shops managed by Jews and
backed by Jewish interests.
"They don't eyen use their own names. Ya can't
tell wholse runnin' two er three shops in Lynn taday. I
Page 2
been a shoe laster mosta my life, but I don't know the names
a more two er three shops taday. Guess they're ashamed ta
put their names to the shops they run. Here taday and gone
tomorra.
"And taint only the shoe shops they've ruint.
They got mosta the money in this country taday. There's 135
million people in this country taday and the Jews has got
80% a all the dough. That's a lotta dough. They oughta get
taxed and give some one else a chance to earn a little. All
millionaires oughta be taxed. That's socialism maybe, but
if it is, I'm fur it."
He denounced too the high rentals asked for shoe
shop space in Lynn, and the tendency to tear down buildings
rather than rent for low prices. "That's what chasint the
shops down east, and some a
down at Auburn, ya can't go
see some one ya'd know from
the shoe makers with 'em. Why
out in the street but what yald
Lynn, fur they moved up there
with their families. An! not only the workers but the man-
agers a shops moved up there with the plants. An' them
manufacturers 'Quid rather be in Lynn, here where they ought
ta be. Why if a part of a machine broke down there, it takes
two er three days ta get it. An here ya could get it in no
time, and put it in the machine in five minutes. But up in
Maine they give tem rent free and power fur a certain time,
and that's what draws tem."
Page 3
He cited large bridk buildings that have been torn
down to illustrate his point. One, until a year ago, stood
opposite the Lynn station of the Narrow Guage depot, Another
was the Lennox building on Blake Street.
"Will they all come down eventually?" I asked
him and he responded, "You tell me."
Those hugh square brick structures, now empty,
that housed shoe shops in decades past, date from the after-
math of the Lynn fire of 1889. "Before that the shops wuz
all made a wood. Brick come in right after the fire. But
A,
there's been cobwebs in thm brick buildings fur moreln
twenty year now."
Page 4
We discussed living conditions in Maine as com-
pared with here. "Here ya can't rent four er five rooms
that's fit ta live in less'n nine ten dollars a week, and
there ya kin get a whole house fur 04 a month." He wouldn't
admit though that a worker would be just as well off with
a low wage where expenses were low, as he was with high pay
and high rates for food and rent, etc. "Why should a man
work fur half when he kin get double fur the same time?"
The actual money passing through his hands seemed highly im-
portant to him.
Mrs. Reilly took a highly different view of mat-
ters. She claimed that some years ago "when a shoe worker
wuz makin' sixty'er seventy dollars a week, he shoulda been
satisfied ta take a cent er so less a case when the boss
would ask him. They could afford ta take less." She pointed
out that the manufacturer had a right to make a substantial
profit on his investment. Mr. Reilly agreed with this but
still he said, "the worker oughta make a good wage because
it wuz his skill that made the manufacturer rich."
lie cited the case of a couple of erstwhile Lynn
manufacturers. One in particular "I worked at the bench
with, before he started in makin' shoes. Well he got up,
and he made a lotta money, and then he went down east so
he could get cheap labor. Well he come back here broke,
and it wuz good fur him. Hefs dead now an' I'm glad of it.
Page 5
He had no business desertint the skilled workers that made
him rich.
"An' the same thing happened to a lotta others."
This informant also deplored the method used in
tanning leather today as compared with the old "morocco"
tanned in Lynn and Peabody for the Lynn shops.
"Years ago it took three months ta season a skin;
now it only takes a day, 'cause it's done with acids.
That's what makes the people's feet burn. Ya notice how the
,^r=
linin' a the shoe gets stained after ya wetA 'ism a while.
That's from the acid in the leather. An' it goes right
through the shoe lininl ta the foot."
When asked about the comparative merits of hand
lasting with machine lasting, he said, "In hand lastint ya
kin stretch the skin down with the pincers so as it will
wear better an' fit better than ya kin with a machine."
We spoke a bit a,,out the different kinds of skin.
"Different skins are as different as paper on the wall.
"Kangaroo skin is the best leather made because
it is soft and easy on the foot ant it wears good. 6ut it's
hard work fur the laster cause it's hard ta stretch.
"Kid is a nice soft skin. But most shoes that's
sold fur kid skin is jest goat. Snake skin wears good,
but that's cracky hard stuff ta work on."
Page 6
Allh.en asked where the skins came from he res-
ponded "No we don't get 'em from out West. They come from
across the Pond."
Forty-five year ago when the first lastint machine
wuz tried out in the shop of Mark Worthly, there wuz 1700
hand lasters in Lynn. "Taint moreln a third a that many
lasters taday,
hand lasters.
In a
of the shoe is
fur a machine kin easy do the work a three
Ant there's no hand lastin' done taday.4
number of the shops of Lynn today, a section
lasted by nand lasting method before it is
tacked to the innersole by the niggerhead. The informant
undoubtedly meant that no shoe is entirely lasted by hand
today.
"There wuz a laster's union when that first machine
wuz put in. An' if the lasters wanted to then. They coulda
voted in favor Of the machines and so have been the ones to
run tem. But they thought they wun't work, ant so they
voted against them ant hada strike. An that brought the
foreigners in ta run the machines.
"The men that got out, at that strike, either hada
go back at what ever jobs they could get, or they went to the
G. E. If it wan't fur the G. E., Lynn would be nothint ta-
day. If that ever closes up er moves away from Lynn, this
town 'ould be bankrupt over night. Might jest as well go
down ta Lynn beach an' throw the key a the city in the tide.
Fur the shoe shops is dead.