Document text
Jane K. Seary, Field Worker
rage 1.
re.
Living Lore
The Irish Shoemaker of Lynn
Sixty years is a long time ta have a cuttin' knife
in your hand, but ya linow, I'd like ta have one there stile
Duch as I like the time to be sittinl here readin' all the
PC6 things I dint have time ta read then.la
lot of things happened in them year often times I
kinda imagine myself feelinl a piece of ,leather to see which
part ta cut the toe or the shank from. A man thinks somehow
while he's feelinl leather. There's somethin about, _it Za,ta_ejLA
j.AN-4-44-
-I-makes a man curious about what's goin, on in the world is
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made of. Anyways, the kind a' men you used ta find in the
shoe shops wuz always curious about everything wider the sun.
"And that kind a man is there yet taday. All this talk
about machinery machinery makinl machines a m#n has been overworked
some. Leastways, most of a the best cutters still cuts by
hand and a good share of 'em still have thoughts that whirl
round in their heads as fast as the whirl of the noisy mach-
ines in the room.
"And there's been a lotta good things hatched from
thoughts of the men in the shops. Them fellas that had a
mechanical brain used ta invent new machine4p1 make short
cuts for themselves. And some a them same short cuts w4.
the thing that put 'em out a work later on.
Page 2. .6
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*But it din't put the sho# worker of Lynn out a
work as much as it did fellas in other lines a work, that
is, it din't then. For till the time of the war, Lynn was
the biggest shoe city in the world. Shucks, it wa,a—livey
easy for a good shoe worker to get a job. If we list work
in one shop, if we just din't like the way a boss would
talk to us all we had ta do was pick up our kit and go down-
stairs to another shop --or maybe upstairs, for there wuz
shops on all floors of them big buildings down on lower
Washington St., and Broad St.
*YA know them buildings often look, ta me taday
like they wuz gettin' ready ta tobble over. Not because
they are not „milt right for there's not a brick outa any
of them, far as I kin see.
*But I remember when the whir of machines on every
floor made a real reason for them bein' there. Taday a lotta
of tem are empty, and the men who stood at the bench are gone,
and the machinery's been yanked out. The places look like a
man's home just after a wake when the undertaker had took his
chairs out, leavin, the home awful empty.
*For the shops wuz kinds like our homes, in the old
days, We spent half the hours a the 24 hours of the day there
A.4r.
leastways. When my children wuz little, I hardly ever saX
tem44"ecept on Sunday, for I left for the shop, -"fore they g;t
out a bed in the mornini and when I got home at night, they
was under covers for the night.
l'age 3.
*At noon and on Saturday afternoons, we'd stay
there andnther read or play cards.
*But as I said before, them days are gone and them
shops are empty, and we old timers sit at home now with noth-
inl ta do but play cards, read, or think back at what happened.
Many things that went on clme back little by little and fit
together, like one of them picture puzzles.
Page 4.
1 wuz born in Ireland, in County Cork, jest a year
before the Civil War begun in America. My father came ta Amer-
ica before I wuz born for there Osn't much work in Ireland
on account a the bad results a the potato crop failin' some
years before.
There wasn't much work in America either though,/
fur there wuz war talk and that made business bad. I guess
he musta been homesick too for he cane back home, but he died
when I Qrthirteen months.
_,-"When I wuz born, that made six of.us children. when
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my oldest brother an sister gkt up in their teens though, they
came ta America and went ta Lynn ta live with my father's sis-
ter. They At work in the shoe shops.
"They wuz makinl shoes for southern niggers then.
They wuz rough things. They wasn't even put together in pairs.
The right was jest like the left. "Stead of beinI packed like
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tpday, they wuz jest tied tagether with a string and dumped
tagether in big boxes.
wuz seven years old when my mother brought lake rka-
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rest a us that wasn't here, over ta America. We gilt on a
steamboat at Cork and thought we'd get ta Boston in about ten
days. But half way across, the boat broke down and we hada
get towed back ta Cork. We all lived on the boat in dry dock
there for about a week while they wuz gettinf it fixed. This
time we come straight ta New York fur there wuz no time ta
stop at Boston.
Page 5.
"I remember askint my mother fur a drink a water when
we got ta New York. A big nigger brought it.
"Ohl Ohl Mall' screamed. It wuz the first time I
ever saw Ate nigger and I thought he wuz the devil.
JIY"It wuz in a vacation time, about five years after
I come ta Lynn, that I first started ta work in the shop. We
wuz livin' in a house belongint ta Mr. Phelan --y *Aff he wuz
Irish, an a smart one, too, for he had got up ta the place
where he owned some houses and he run a shoe shop.
"S-wuz-out-Ia-tile-yard-WrIlttItn+-st some wood Mr
4E-dile-Lt-have much ta do with-mr-ttme-ilr them days.
*Want ta put that boy ta work0) Mr. Phelan asked
my mother.
took me right inta the cuttin' room. In my
day that wuz the white collar room in the shop, for often the
boss, the bodes son and his relatives worked there. We usta
go in through the front door, not the back door like all the
other help
And the other workers wuz always jealous of the
cutters. Thought we thought we wuz moreln them.
,---C*When there wuz any gangin' up ta do, like fur a
union, we always ganged up with the stitchers, next to us,
they wuz considered the most skilled. If ya don't have a
good cutter and a good stitcher in the shops, ya can't make
gery good shoes.
Page 6.
__-hen I went inta the cuttinl room, I started at
the beginnin'. First I learned how ta dink out pieces of
waste leather for the trimmins. To dink out leather, ya have
a piece a cast iron or -"steel shaped like the pattern ya want
ta make. Ya put this on the leather like ya put a cookie cut-
ter on dough. Ya pound it then Ndth a hammer.
-C-'11I did the best work I could fur I wanted t -e- be a
journeyman cutter. The usual time ta get to be that wuz three
years. So I made a bargain ta work fur a low pay during that
time so I could learn. It was sorta like ydt wuz under con-
tract.
„eul wuz goin' to keep my bargain all right but they
din't keep they'rn. There come a slack time and the boss said
to met, "Sorry Jackie, but I guess you'll havta lay off for
two three weeks."/
'414111 my pay go on jest the same?4"—rasked him.
alen he told meilno,fl L-said,11ThaIla-not ir
fur 1:been-workin, fur low p1d I thought it would be re-
flr
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'We!'' said my boss,' I can't help that. You'll
fta lay the same
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I was sorsI wasn't,journeyman and %Alit be
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for another three quarter years, so I coulcCilt expect tt get
a journeymln's job in another shop. But I thought Id try.
,And b7 dang, I gpt that job* and the pay that went
with it.
Page 7.
the time come when the slack time in that
other shop was over and they came after me to learn the rest
a my trade.
V.
"'Oh, I guess notO I said.
",/But you ain't finished your time learning your
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trade'' You see he wanted me for that extra year, because he
was only payin' me learner's wages.
7p guess the man I'm cuttinf.fur is satisfied,OI
told him. I'Leastways he'll givin, me 4ourneyvnan's pay.
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bq Luring theP)years I been in the -Lynn shops, I
guess I worked in morinshops.
I was never outs work much. The seasons aorta joined together
in them days, and if a fella kept on his toes he could most always
work all the year round.
r-
1 r
„Z_Lke.
Page 8.
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"Cuttint wuz always skilled work but 'specially
so after tan shoes come
fi-fella could be a dang good cutter fur black
shoes but wun't be worth a durn cuttin, colored shoes. Most
shops had ta keep the sign, 'Colored Cutters Wanted' on the
shop door most a' the time.
wYa see, a cutter al tan leather din't have ta only
know the leather so he could put the strong part in the part
a the shoe that would need it most/, but he had ta know how
ta match the color exact. The two toes of a'pair of shoes
ha d ta look jest alike. An sometimes, there'd be three or
four shades on the same piece a leather.
ItYald be surprised how many men can't put colors
tagether the way they'd dughta. .-.11fereff5r2libre'tntriv-tykinei-,,
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people-in,the world than folksmost- -ever stop ta think about.
"I was never outa work much. I looked ahead, ya see
-fur I had a family. When one factory got through makint shoes
fur say, the New England Trade, and wuz in fur a dull season,
I would switch over to another shop that wuz beginning a sea-
son of makinl shoes for the New York/trade, the Western trade)
or the southern trade.- The seasons sorta joined tagether in
them days, and if a fella kept on Mis toes he could most al-
ways work all the year round.
But none of us wanted the job of boil° a colored cutter, even though
we got more pay fur it. It wus less pay in the end fur it took too much
outa ya.
The guys that went ta see their best girls in yella shoes long about
twenty five years ago, din't have no idea how hard it wuz fur the fellas
in the cuttin' room ta match the parts in them shoes perfet. It sure
took good nerves and brains an' eye that wan't color blind ta do it.
Its a lot easier ta cut colored shoes taday because the pieces a
leather ELl comes one shade. That's cause Ws tanned with chemicals. Usta
That's what
be all vegetable tannin'./lie called the old bark tanninl.xm Some a the
skins we cut had veen in them tanner's vats fur weeks and had had beef
blood rubbed kits inta the pores a the skin. If ye had gone ta see the
tannery in my day ya mighta seen the skin a yong calf er goat all
sewed tagether and floatint arounl in them vats like they wuz the dead
body a the animals. Took time ta tan skins the old vegetable tannin'
way. But it sure made good leather. We cutters could always tell the kinda
skin we wuz outtin jest from the feel a it.
Page 9.
"I remember once though, during the 'Ws, how it
wuz a lot like it is Aday, though not so long. MOst a' the
shops had 'No help Wanted( on their doors.
"That's an awful sign fur a worker ta read, !No help
Wanted.'
Page 1C11).
"After that time (the 1830s), that is after the
strikes about that time, the foreigners started ta get inta
the shops.
was never one to say 444# was a bad lot, but
a lot a the fellas in the shop hated tem, Ya see we was get
tin' good pay and they'd work fa less money, It made it bad
for all a us.
tAr-
Aknother reason zao.s.t.-41€4.eil--Lem-ma because some a
them fellas got in bad and blamed the whole lot of 'em for
i\
what trouble two or threeld make. I remmmber one time when4AwN
a_
A,."ftgot shot in the head. ,He was one a the owners a the
shop I was cuttinl in then. It:WSaturday, near noon and we
way ta get our week's pay. He wuz bringinf it from the bank.
,fril7r7-17-!R,411Down Ibnroe St. came three foreign fellas and they
shot him right through the head in front of the shop. We
heard the shot. They grabbed the money and tried to make a
getaway.
They captured them guys before night and shot one
of 'em, while they mey gettinl taken. He:Wdumped inta the
plice wagon and brought down to plice headquarters. I remem-
ber how they yanked him outa the wagon feet first and his head
bumped the street. But he couldn't feel it cause he was as
dead as a door knob. Died on the way ta headquarters.
-"4"/"That whole business din't make Lynn feel any too
good towards foreigners. They wasn't trusted and folks was
afraid of tem.
From Section 11 page 5
lotto, folks
Lh.e strikes brought in a imimmxpmmplm from the provinces
Canada and a lot from down Maine. Later the Greeks come, and
the Italians, the Germans, the Polish and a lotta others. When I
first went in, there was jest Yankees and Irish and Irish -Americans.
Today the shops has all kinds a people workint in 'gm.
Page 11.
---But they g#t in the shops just the same and every
year morein more squeezed in, startin' at the jobs the rest of
us din't want and workin' themselves up. There wasn't many
that at in the cuttin room though, and they din't get in the
welters union for a good while.
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---vs-41It was a good while later fore the Jews g,t in.
That was in the 1900s. Most always they started in the junk
business and after a while they picked up scrap leather an
sold it. They got in the business that way and after a while
started their own shops.
\PPYa hear a lot about how they are crooked, and I
guess some of 'em are, But there's honest Jews same as any
other class a people.
II remember when one Jew shop I was cuttin' in closed
down because the mortgage eoreclosed.
„„-e1617117;t of the workers put in a legal claim for their
last week's pay no sooner'n they left the shop. Advised me ta
do the same.
But I thought I'd give that Jew a chance. He'd al-
ways treated me fair, far as I could see, Well, I wasn't wrong
for when the next Saturday come, sure, my pay come. I didn't
lose nothinl by trustinl him.
_-*Course they did kinda tear up the business in Lynn,
but I don't think it was all their fault, There's a lotta
things entered inta that, and a lotta times the unions wanted
ta eat their cake and have it too.
Page 12.
*And the Jew, ya see, is a shrewd creature. And he's
no hypocrite. If he don't believe in that 'love your neighbor
business( he comes right out and says so and he acts upon it.
He believes in getting all he can an he thinks the other fella
is a fool if he don't work for the same thing.
S-44Sometimes I think he ain't so fur wrong. Now you
take a mother and a father. It ain't natural fur them ta love
the kids down the street like they love their own. That's the
way a Jew thinks and he acts on it.
tqa can lust bet he'll help his own. We'd all be a
lot better off if we quit hollerinl about them, and 'ZPfas
charitable towards our own as they are. They got their good
points aama as any other class of people.
-ftmd. its the same way with religion as it is with
races. A man's likely to be all his life what he's born inta.
All creedYgi4t good points and all the best ones are durn hard
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to live up ta. It ain't the religion that's wrong with as much
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as its his not living up ta it.
;_
he Masons, for instance, if I'd a been born
somewhere else, stead of Ireland; I'd probably be a Mason, or
at least a Protestant a some kind.
A good Mason is a good fella. And, fur as I kin
-see that lodge don't want none but the best. I remember some-
\one asked me one time about a fella that wanted to join. I
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itold him I dinit know Rothinl wrong with him.
Page 13.
"'Is he a Catholic?f they asked me.
III told them I din't know and I didn't. I never saw
him go to Mass.
"Is his wife and child Catholicsq they asked me.
"They wuz and good ones too fur I know they never
missed Mass and they lived up ta their religion in other ways
too. So I said, 'Yes, they are.'
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da ya know, that fellow never gpt in, and I
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heard afterwards that a Mason said the reason wuz,
have a lodge ta break up families. t/
we don't
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"Yes, I believe in churches. The world needs fem.
And the Catholic Church is a good church and it does a power-
ful lot of good. It ought ta. It's the strongest organization
in the world. And it claims it's right and the other churches
are wrong.
"But as fur me, I think there's so dang much that
none of us know about religion. It's the most mysterious
thing an earth.
"Take this death that is sure cominl to us all some
day. The nearer I get ta it, the more I think that none a
us knows very much about what's comm'. We might kid ourselves
to thinkint we know, but we don't. There's sometimes I think
that when we die, we're dead, eh?
"Anyway, it seems ta me that God thinks as much a the
animals as he does a us. The sparrow fur instance. He give us
reason but he give them instinct. Each shows us how ta take
care of ourself.
"The only difference is that the sparrow sometimes
uses his instinct better'n we use our reason.
"Off en times I think that man thinks too much of
hisself. He's a pretty egotistical creature ta figure that
God thinks sa much more a him than he does the wild creatures.
YA know the Bible says that God cares when a sparrow falls.
Well, I believe he does jest as much as he cares when we die.
Page
Aunt Mary presented a no less broad religious view.
'"The way I look at it is that there's many roads ta
heaven. I'm on one, or so I think. A Protestant is on another
and a Jew's on another. Well all get there if we stay on our
own road and travel it like we oughta. It's when we kick up
our heels and block the road we're on so that the others get
discouraged and turn back, that we're sinnin'. A person that
does as many good deeds along the way as she can, 'ain't so
far wrong.
"Its these pie pious ones that does the harm. They
can't see no good in any religion but their own and they take
up so much time in prayin' that they ain't got time to be
human and kind and decent. Look out fer the pie pious ones,
I don't care what church they belong ta. Theyrle dangerous,
Stay away from them.
-*The talk drifted toward the Catholic Church "sis-
ters."
"They do a w)nderi\ul work and no one could ever say
diffrunt. But there's one work greater. That is ta be a good
mother. That's God's chosen work fur a woman. Nothint comes
above that. Ta bring up your children to be useful and good.
Nothint it greater'n that, Its what makes a wood world after
we're gone. It kinda makes a woman live after she's dead;
at least what she teaches her children lives on. And then they
pass it on to theirs."