Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 January 1919 — Shoe Manufacture in China Is Conducted by the Women [ARTICLE]

Shoe Manufacture in China Is Conducted by the Women

All China stays home on wet days. Why? Because Chinese shoes are made wholly of cloth, through which the water readily runs; hence, to keep dry feet, the Chinese stay indoors when it rains. Chinese ■ shoes are made by women. Early in childhoodthey learn the work, and husband and father and sons are all shod by the work of the women of the household. If the women can make more shoes than their own men require, then they still make shoes —to be . sold in the shops. The tiny shoes of the housewife are made in the privacy of her own bedroom, not even the husband watching her work. The sides of the shoes are made of new cloth, anything from cheapest cotton to richest velvet. Soles are made of several thicknesses of cloth or paper put together with paste, with new cloth on the outside.. The soles are from a half inch to two inched thick. The thickness of the sole is an evidence of the financial standing of the wearer.