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At this juncture both the McKay and the Goodyear welt shoes go to the heeler where heels are attached. The shoe, minus a heel, is inserted in heeling machine. One stroke of a row of pointed awls drills the holes, the second sets the nails, the third fixes the top pieces on ends of nails sticking up.

A breasting machine cuts down the breast of the heel and a heel trimmer forms the heel into proper shape to suit the prevailing fads and fancies. The sand-papering machine smooths up the heel ready for the blacking. The stitch separator makes the milling around the edge of the sole and trimmer turns up the edges, which are then blackened or put in color. An edge setter afterward sets or burnishes the edges. The heel finishing machine polishes and finishes the heel, another machine sandpapers or smooths off the surface of sole and top of heel. A final sandpapering enables bottom finisher to stain and finish the bottom in various styles and shades, as may be required.

After a final cleaning to remove all stains and finger marks, the shoe is treed and the upper treated by ironing process, which restores stock to its original lustre. Shoes are then matched up and mated, and after being finally laced or buttoned they are packed in cartoons ready for the market.

In passing, it might be interesting to note that shoe laces are made not only in enormous numbers, but also in great variety. There are factories devoted solely to their production. Laces are made principally of cotton, but also of calfskin, porpoise hide, silk and mohair. In shape shoe laces are made in a solid round braid, of cord twisted like a rope, or flat braid and of tubular braid. These are all made in various styles and lengths. In colors they are made to match the various shades of leather used in shoes. Many laces are made with the metal tips of the kind that are clamped on, others have spiral wire tips. Formerly many millions of laces annually consumed in this country were imported, chiefly from Germany; the importation of shoe strings now, however, has practically ceased.

The manufacture of paper shoe cartoons has become an important industry too, and presents a very interesting spectacle to an observer who watches the construction through the various stages, but paper box manufacturing is another story.

And thus finishes the story of the shoe, from its earliest inception to the present day. It may readily be seen that the building of a shoe entails a vast amount of detail, numerous hands and quantities of machinery. Every portion must be accurate and correct in order to insure a perfect whole, and while some branches of the manufacture are trades in themselves, every part is connected with every other part and is co-existent with it.

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-Contributed by Charles Warren Summerfield.

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