Document text
WAZg-4,-"' 1.
Name -Jane K. Leary
Subject -The Shoemaker of Lynn
5-
Section #t0-
2/1/39
---Z-SerSedS; iv 7A l.}-9
"Not all the manufacturers had machinery in their
shops, time a the Ironclad Lockout in the 701s. Some
guld jest buy stock an' have it cut, and then send the
cut parts ta be made in some other place where they had
machinery. Them places wuz called the making shops.
There wuz a dozen gr more of gem in Lynn then.
"Sometimes them manufacturers as had their shoes
put tagether in the making shops, would give the leather
out ta cutters ta take home ta cut, and they'd give the
stitching ta the cutters' wives, ta stitch on the machines
they had ta home. Jest ordnary sewing machines like
anyone's got in their homes.
"There wuz all hand lasters at that time.
"The McKay machine, that machine that stitched
the soles ta uppers, weighed a ton then. Men made a lotta
money runnin' it. It made a lotta noise. There wuz a
lotta complications ta it. It din't run sa fast as it
does taday, and there wuz a pot a tar by the side a it
ta wax the thread. Taday the thread is waxed right in
the machine.
"There wuzn't no trimmin' machine then. The
trimmer had a knife ta cut off the waste.
"Then there wuz taps on the inside of a shoe.
"The edgesettint machine used ta be heavy too, and
it required a long reach ta run one. The part a the machine
that shines the edges gotta be heated. Years ago that
wuz done by a candle set in a can; later they used gas.
By dang, it wuz one a the edge setters candles that started
the great Lynn fire in 1887. Anyways that's what people
said.
---9Taw the edge setters light's right in the machine.
3
THE LYNN FIRE
"The Lynn Fire wuz in 1887, jest a year 'fore I
wuz married. Most people say it started from an edgesettergs
candle, in a shop down on Blake St.(, Spread all over the
down town business section in no time and it burned down
a lotta shops. It swept down as fur as the beach, and
the gas company plant and got on the whirl*.
"It burned down a lotta old ideas aliout shoe making
too, fur soon's the fire wuz over, some a the old timers
took the insurance they got on their business and retired.
If they started up again, this time most likely in one of
them temporary places put up down on Washington St., they
installed machinery. The fire done away with the small
shops that still did most of their makinl by hand, or them
shops that jest cut and had the rest a the shoes made in
the making shops. New people went in the business and
they all went in fur making shoes in the modern way.
"There sure wuz excitement. All the people that
lived down Lewis St. way and near the heart a the city,
wuz scared a being burned out and they tried ta save what
they could. One woman that lived down there throwed her
feather mattress outa the winda and then she coungt carry
it so she had ta leave it when the fire got too close.
"1 got a wheel barrow and wheeled a trunk that
my sister's husband had papers from his busixiess in.
I wheeled that wheel barrow down ta the beach fur there
is where everybody went.
"I stayed there with it, almost till night, when
it looked like it wuz safe ta take it ta my brother's house
up on Franklin St. When I got to the top a Nahant St. hill
with it, I saw a railroad express man driving home and I
got him ta deliver it. My brother give him $10, fur he
sure wuz glad ta get it.
The beach wuz full a people with their belongings
they could bring, that day a the fire. But nobody lost
nothinl. Fur there wuz a fund to give people back what
they lost and ya know there wuz some a that left over.
And the manufacturers got insurance.
Shoe business din't let up none either. Them shops
as wuz burned, had ta throw their business ta other shops
fur a time, but shoes kept right on bein, made. Not many
months after the fire yald never knowed one been here.
5-
A CRIPPLE CUTTER
"Did ya ever hear of a 'cripple' cutter?
"He's a fella that the boss picks out from the
cutters, ta cut all the extra pieces that gets damaged.
Say a stitcher ruined one part of a pair a shoes. Well,
the cripple cutter luld cut that part over ant match it
up with the rest a the shoe.
"Them shoes as is damaged when they're bein made
are called 'cripples They always go back ta the cripple
cutter, an' he looks around the cuttin' room fur some
leather ta match the leather in the cripple shoes, an'
then cuts what new parts are needed.
"Another job a the cripple cutter is ta keep a
eye on the other cutters ant kinda figure on the kinda
work they did, ya wuz jest about next ta the boss in a
way, but ya din't do no hirin' or firing.
"Once I wuz a cripple cutter an, I was watchin' a
fella out that din't know nothing about it Well, the boss
wanted him fired in the worst kinda way, but fur some
reason he din't want ta do the firinl.
"'Now you tell him ta give in his time,' he tol me.
But I tol him, 'You hired him, din't you? Well then You
fire him. That taint in my line'. I wan't goin ta fire
II
a man.