[Illustration: _Shoe Maker_
_Published Feb^y 1, 1815, by J. Harris, corner of S^t. Pauls._]
where a genteel looking woman was trying on a pair of shoes for
her little baby. "Shoes," said Mr. Durnford, "are made of various
materials, such as satin, silk, stuff, kid, Spanish leather, seal
skin, and morocco. The latter comes from a place in Africa of that
name, but we imitate it ourselves, and not badly. The hide of cattle
serves for the soles. The silk you know is the produce of the
Southern climates, and comes from the silk worm. Vast quantities of
raw silk are imported here from Italy and different parts, as well
as velvet, of which again we have an imitation. You understand,
my children, that our imitations of foreign manufactures come
considerably lower than those which we import. Shoe making has also
become one of the amusements of the fashionable world, but it gives
me infinite pleasure to know that your mother has never adopted this
fashion, which, like many others must tend to injure the interests of
the industrious tradesman."
Their attention was now awakened by a violent scream, which proceeded
from a young lady, who, with her brother, was standing at the counter
of a