NEW YORK:
FUNK & WAGNALLS, Publishers,
10 and 12 Dey Street.
Time out of mind The Gentle Craft has been invested with an air ofromance. This honorable title, given to no other occupation but that ofshoemakers, is an indication of the high esteem in which the Craft isheld. It is by no means an easy thing to account for a sentiment of thiskind, or to trace such a title to its original source. Whether thetraditionary stories which have clustered round the lives of SaintsAnianus, Crispin and Crispianus, or Hugh and Winifred, gave rise to thesentiment, or the sentiment itself is to be regarded as accounting forthe traditions, one cannot tell. Probably there is some truth in boththeories, for sentiment and tradition act and react on each other.
Certain it is, that among all our craftsmen none appear to enjoy apopularity comparable with that of “the old Cobbler” or “Shoemaker.”Most men have a good word to say for him, a joke to crack about him, ora story to tell of his ability and “learning,” his skill in argument, orhis prominence and influence in political or religious affairs. Both inancient times and in modern, in the Old World and in the New, a rareinterest has been felt in Shoemakers, as a class, on account of theirremarkable intelligence and the large number of eminent men who haverisen from their ranks.
These facts, and especially the last—which has been the subject offrequent remark—may be deemed sufficient justification for theexistence of such a work as this.
Another reason might be given for the issue of such a book as this justnow. A change has come over the craft of boot[iv] and shoe making. The useof machinery has effected nothing short of a revolution in the trade.The old-fashioned Shoemaker, with his leathern apron and hands redolentof wax, has almost disappeared from the workrooms and streets of suchtowns as Northampton and Stafford in Old England, or Lynn in NewEngland. His place and function are now, for the most part, occupied bythe “cutter” and the “clicker,” the “riveter” and the “machine-girl.”The old Cobbler, like the ancient spinster and handloom weaver, isretiring into the shade of the boot and shoe factory. Whether or no hewill disappear entirely may be questionable; but there can be no doubtthat the Cobbler, sitting at his stall and working with awl and hammerand last, will never again be the conspicuous figure in social life thathe was wont to be in times gone by. Before we bid him a final farewell,and forget the traditions of his humble yet honorable craft, it may beof some service to bring under one review the names and histories ofsome of the more illustrious members of his order.
Long as is the list of these worthy “Sons of Crispin,” it cannot be saidto be complete. Only a few examples are taken from Germany, France, andthe United States, where, in all probability, as many illustriousShoemakers might have been met with as in Great Britain itself. And eventhe British muster-roll is not fully made up. With only a fewexceptions, living men are not included in the list. Very gladly wouldthe writer have added to these exceptions so remarkable a man as ThomasEdward, the shoemaker of Banff, one of the best self-taught naturalistsof our time, and, for the last sixteen years, an Associate of theLinnæan Society. But for the Life of this eminent Scotchman the readermust be referred to the interest