h
combined the offices of dauber and shiner, so that one never knew how to
put it away right side up. This tool still exists, an honest, good-sized
brush carrying a round baby brush pickaback; and I dare say an
occasional old-fashioned gentleman shines his shoes with it; but in the
broader sense of that pernicious and descriptive phrase it is no longer
used 'by the best people.' Of late, I am told by shopkeepers, the tin
box with the pervicacious cover is becoming popular; but I remain true
to my sponge in a bottle: for, unlike the leopard, I am able to change
my spots.

Looking along the ages from the vantage of a throne in the shoe-blacking
parlor, it is a matter of pleased wonder to observe what the mind has
found to do with the feet; nor is the late invention of shoe-polish
(hardly earlier than the Declaration of Independence) the least
surprising item. For the greater part of his journey man has gone about
his businesses in unshined footwear, beginning, it would appear, with a
pair of foot-bags, or foot-purses, each containing a valuable foot, and
tied round the ankle. Thus we see him, far down the vista of time, a
tiny figure stopping on his way to tie up his shoe-strings. Captivated
with form and color, he exhausted his invention in shapes and materials
before ever he thought of polish: he cut his toes square; he cut his
toes so long and pointed that he must needs tie them to his knee to keep
from falling over them; he wore soles without uppers,--alas! poor devil,
how often in all ages has he approximated wearing uppers without
soles!--and he went in for top-boots splendidly belegged and
coquettishly beautified with what, had he been a lady, he might have
described as an insertion of lace. At last came the boot-blacking
parlor, late nineteenth century, commercial, practical, convenient, and
an important factor in civic aesthetics. Not that the parlor is
beautiful in itself. It is a cave without architectural pretensions, but
it accomplishes unwittingly an important mission: it removes from public
view the man who is having his shoes shined.

You know him, as the advertisement says of the live, virile humans who
_must_ have the live, virile pipe-smoke; but happily you know him
nowadays chiefly by effort of memory. Yet only a little while ago
kindly, well-intentioned men thought nothing of having their shoes
shined in the full glare of the sun. The man having his shoes shined was
a common spectacle. He sat or sto