counter had been sewed in by hand and the sole was hand-pegged, with diminutive wooden pegs. In order to insure smoothness inside, an extra insole had been inserted and was held in place by a few pegs driven at intervals. The shoe was made on a straight last and had a broad bottom and spring heel.

Little tots now have moccasins, soft-soles and miniature bed-room slippers, exact counterparts of those worn by their elders. Little quilted velvet or silk "bootees" bound with fur or swan's down, "just like mama's" are decidedly cunning.

Taken all in all, the latest American shoe, whether it be for man, woman or child, is a masterpiece of shoemaking art and is rightfully ingratiating itself in the minds of the shoe-wearing population of the world. Civilization is traveling around the world in Americanmade shoes. The high character of the stock used, combined with the artistic finish and exhibition of taste in the American product, makes our footwear acceptable to all civilized peoples. Clearly in the contest for supremacy along these lines it is American ingenuity and skill against the world.

It is interesting to note just here that the increase in the output of boots and shoes in this country during the ten years ending in June, 1900, was $39,450,130, with a total product for the year of $260,189,488. This amount represents the product of factories and does not include custom work, which would increase the total to somewhere near the sum of three hundred millions of dollars.

The aggregate floor space occupied by the shoe factories of this country is practically 24,000,000 square feet, or about 550 acres. The total number of pairs of boots, shoes and slippers of all kinds produced in the factories of the country during the year amounted to 218,529,886 pairs, and after deducting something over 3,000,000 pairs which were exported, and basing the population of the country at 76,000,000, we get an average of a fraction less than three pairs consumed by each person.

The annual capacity of the combined factories of the United States, on a basis of 300 working days, is slightly under 4,000,000 pairs, showing that with all factories running at full capacity 300 days in the year, it would require not exceeding seven months to produce all shoes consumed in the country, including the exports for the year ending June, 1900.

It is gratifying to note that the export of shoes and leather, as shown by Government reports, is increasing rapidly. Figures showing the export of shoes since 1897 are as follows:

While these figures showing increase in export business are very gratifying, yet the fact remains that had factories run full every day they could have produced in seventh months' time all the shoes consumed in this country, together with those exported for a whole year. But as the reports for the year 1901, without the final month, show that the exports during that year were greater than ever before, and as the domestic consumption has also increased to a great extent, it is reasonable to suppose that the trade is in a fairly prosperous condition, and that the progress made during the past decade will be equalled in the next ten years and the magnitude and importance of the industry greatly increased.

American shoe salesmen are now sent to the most remote parts of the world. India, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa are some of the countries being cultivated by direct solicitation and the increase in exports of boots and shoes to almost double during the past two years, gives unmistakable evidence that their labors are productive of good.

The Manufacture of Leather.

But how is the leather obtained, from which all this footwear is made, and from whence do the hides and skins come that are tanned into leather.

The art of tanning hides and converting them into leather by the use of tanning is as old as history, but the greatest progress in the are has been made during recent years. Leather is the oldest manufactured article mentioned in history, and, indeed, it antedates all records and traditions. Really, there seems to be no time in the history of this world when leather was not made.

Coming down the ages, it has always played an important part in the commerce of the world.

The first authentic record in human history regarding hides and leather dates back four thousand years. A mass of papyri was discovered near the pyramid of Usertesen 2d, at Illahun, about fifty miles above Cairo and one hundred and seventy-five miles above the mouth of the Nile. In these papyri among a series of temple archives and records of temple administration of the Twelfth Dynasty, about two thousand years before Christ, reference is made to leather and shoemaking.

The earliest mention of leather made in the Bible is 2d Kings, 1:8, "Girt with a girdle of leather about his loins."

In the most ancient ruins of Thebes, which were ruins in prehistoric times, pictures and inscriptions have been unearthed which prove that the ancient Egyptians tanned with the bark and pods

and processes of making leather, as well as leather ropes, water sacks, shields, harps, etc., in use centuries before the Pharaohs ruled. Leather was also tanned by the early Aztecs.

Shakespeare says "A tanner will last for nine years his hide is so tanned with his trade that he will keep out water a great while." Tanning is the treatment of hides and skins with tannin or tannic acid, converting them into leather; in other words, the manufacture of leather In tanning proper, raw, salted and dried hides of cattle are treated with some form of tannin, either by itself or in connection with other agents. The product is called leather to distinguish it from white alum leather, kid, lambskin, etc., produced from the hides of goats, sheep and other small animals.

The treatment of hides is essentially a steeping or soaking in baths formed of extract or tannin. Some twenty or thirty species of bark, pods and berries are known to the craft as containing sufficient tannin for the purpose, and different nations use one or another of them. While a great number of plants yield tanning, the chief sources are the barks of green and white oak or pine; hemlock, birch and beech bark; the wood of Quebracho, Colorado; the powdered leaves and young shoots of the sumac. Nutgalls are also used, as they carry gallic acid with the tannic acid. In addition to the vegetable matters, various chemicals are also used in some tanneries. These include chestnut extracts, extracts of hemlock barks and myrabolams. Canaigre extract is being employed with much advantage in finishing hemlock sole leather. Most vegetable matters contain tannin in greater or less degree, and part with it readily. In Chili an extract of the bark of the "linge," a tree which resembles the oak is used. A new tanning material is taken from the roots of bushes called "tarra," found in Burmah and Assam. It ordinarily yields 33 per cent. of tanning matter. In recent experiments carried on in British India from 50 to 60 per cent. of tannin was extracted. It is claimed this new material is cheaper and better than Quebracho wood. Almost every country supplies some species of tanning extract. Wherever extensive forests cover the land, special industries are growing at their expense. Immense forests of sweet chestnut trees grow in Corsica and probably the most flourishing industry of the island is the extracting of tannic acid from these trees, about 20,000 tons of the wood being now required annually for the 4,000 tons of liquid extract sent away.

Quebracho, which is fast winning favor among American tanners, grows in the greatest abundance in the Argentine and in Paraguay. As an article of export it increases in importance yearly, because its value as an ingredient to mix with other tanning solutions is being more and more recognized. This wood is one of the hardest

special quality are necessary, and a considerable outlay for labor is entailed in its handling. Quebracho never rots; it can be used with equal success under water or in the ground, and the older it becomes the harder it gets. When needed for tanning purposes, it is cut in blocks five or six feet long and then sliced by a circular saw, into pieces three inches in thickness. These sections are placed in a machine wherein a steel plate studded with numerous teeth revolves with great rapidity, cutting up the Quebracho into a coarse saw dust, when it is then ready for the tanner's use. The use of bark in tanning is as ancient as the art itself. Tanners' bark is the bark of trees containing tannic acid, stripped and prepared for use. The bark is first rossed, which removes the outside shell. It is then ground fine in a bark grinder. The first mill for grinding bark for use in tanning was made in 1689. Tannic acid, or tannin, is a white substance, having a most astringent taste, without bitterness, and is very soluble in water.

It has been proven cheaper to transport hides to the bark region and locate tanneries there in the forest districts than to convey bark to the hide centers.

As is natural, the processes in tanning vary greatly among different nations and in different climates. Some methods are very crude, other comprise the highest uses of machinery, the more extended use of which early in the nineteenth century marks an epoch in the tanning industry. The old-time Saraceus used alum in tanning; the American Indians used the brains of animals, preferably deer.

The Clamuck Tartars tan a waterproof leather from the skin of a sea carp, using sour milk and finishing in a dense smoke.

The Russians produce their peculiar yellow by the use of willow bark, finishing with birch-bark tan, and every Russian tanner has a close communion tannery whose secrets are jealously guarded.

The Laplander converts hides into leather by burying them in a corner of his tent or cabin until the hair becomes loose enough to remove. The unhaired hides are then soaked in a liquor made by boiling for half an hour small pieces of birch bark. On the second or third day the hides are placed in a fresh liquor, similarly prepared and then dried in the open air in the shade.

The preparation of hides and skins and their manufacture into leather is one of the oldest and most important branches of industry in Austria, and large tanneries are scattered throughout the empire, producing sole leather in great quantities.

Horse hide, especially, is tanned in Germany, as well as in Sweden, and heavy greased water proof leather for top boots, etc., is very skilfully tanned in Norway.

Although the tanning of a raw hide is a stictly chemical process,