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 still sent to the houses of the farmers to be finished, and some of the shops turned out work enough to entitle them to the more ambitious name which is attached to such establishments at the present day. Other towns about Lynn followed its lead; and Marblehead, Danvers, and Haverhill soon became actively engaged in the industry. Women's shoes were then—as they have ever continued— the staple article of manufacture at Lynn. These were made largely of stuff, the finer qualities with white and russet rands, stitched firmly with white waxed thread, pointed at the toes, and adorned with wooden heels covered with leather.

That England felt this growing industry of the colonies is shown by the fact that a commission was appointed to inquire into the reason why no more boots and shoes were exported to America. It was with astonishment that the gentlemen composing the commission reported to their colleagues that the colonists were supplying their own foot-wear, and apparently, too, with satisfaction to those concerned. Then came England's desperate efforts to force the trade of the colonies into British channels and the consequent resistance of the latter to such coercion. Under the influence of the import duties, the shoe industry flourished especially, and at the time of the Revolution the manufacturers were unable to meet the demands which were made upon them for boots for the Continental army. But following that came a serious check. The American markets were flooded with English goods, and trade was paralyzed. A demand was then made on the part of the shoe manufacturers for some kind of protection, with the result that, in the first Congress, in 1789, a tariff was arranged so as to check importations. Hon. John B. Alley, of Lynn, at a leather-trade dinner in New York in 1859, gave somewhat of a romantic version to that portion of the tariff affecting boots and shoes—a version which possibly is not to be accepted in detail as history, but which is, nevertheless, of interest. He said that this early duty on imported boots and shoes was due largely to the efforts of Ebenezer Breed, a young Lynn shoemaker, who had located in Philadelphia on account of the dull times in his own town, and of his friend Stephen Collins, a native of the same place. By their influence with members of Congress and with Dolly Payne, the young Quakeress, to whom Mr. Madison, then a rising man in public legislation, was at that time paying attention, they got this boon for their home industry. Be that as it may, with the cessation of imports the Massachusetts shoe-shops