Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 176, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1918 — WHOSE BOOTS DO YOU BLACK? [ARTICLE]

WHOSE BOOTS DO YOU BLACK?

By HARRISON RHODES

of the Vigilantes. The bootblack is one of our greatest national Institutions. In Europe he is both rare and incompetent upon the public streets. Here, to sit in a comfortably padded chair on a sunny corner and watch the world go by while a strong and willing toller polishes your foot coverings till they reflect your handsome face in them Is one of the American experiences which makes the average citizen feel, temporarily at least, like a god, at ease with the world and superior to It But what about it now? Just how are these strong and willing toilers, the bootblacks, helping to win the war against Germany? Isn’t their job unnecessary? Wouldn’t they, fighting in the front line, or working in the factories or toiling in the wheat fields, be helping America more than by polishing your shoes and mine? Couldn’t we, in fact, polish our own? People used to. There were things covered over with a square of gaudily colored Brussels carpet, which were called boot blacking boxes, usually in every home. And pater familias and the boys at least shined" their own shoes. When they went on trips there was a compact traveling kit which they put into their bag. Perhaps the boots weren’t done quite so well, perhaps they didn’t reflect your handsome face. But which, to put it briefly, is more important, to have your boots polished for you or to whip the Germans? Does this sound ludicrously trivial to you? It is true that all the bootblacks in the country released for the real services of war time would be but a little part of our military or civilian army. But it cannot be said too often that nothing is too trivial nowadays to be worth paying attention to. Think it over! Would you rather polish your own boots, or lick the Kaiser’s when he gets here?