he poor, and the sewing machine agent, with a
machine or two on his wagon, drove through every small town and country
district, demonstrating and selling. Meanwhile the price of the machines
steadily fell, until it seemed that Singer's slogan, "A machine in every
home!" was in a fair way to be realized, had not another development of
the sewing machine intervened.

This was the development of the ready-made clothing industry. In the
earlier days of the nation, though nearly all the clothing was of
domestic manufacture, there were tailors and seamstresses in all the
towns and many of the villages, who made clothing to order. Sailors
coming ashore sometimes needed clothes at once, and apparently a
merchant of New Bedford was the first to keep a stock on hand. About
1831, George Opdyke, later Mayor of New York, began the manufacture of
clothing on Hudson Street, which he sold largely through a store in New
Orleans. Other firms began to reach out for this Southern trade, and it
became important. Southern planters bought clothes not only for their
slaves but for their families. The development of California furnished
another large market. A shirt factory was established, in 1832, on
Cherry and Market Streets, New York. But not until the coming of the
power-driven sewing machine could there be any factory production of
clothes on a large scale. Since then the clothing industry has become
one of the most important in the country. The factories have steadily
improved their models and materials, and at the present day only a
negligible fraction of the people of the United States wear clothes made
to their order.

The sewing machine today does many things besides sewing a seam. There
are attachments which make buttonholes, darn, embroider, make ruffles or
hems, and dozens of other things. There are special machines for every
trade, some of which deal successfully with refractory materials.

The Singer machine of 1851 was strong enough to sew leather and was
almost at once adopted by the shoemakers. These craftsmen flourished
chiefly in Massachusetts, and they had traditions reaching back at
least to Philip Kertland, who came to Lynn in 1636 and taught many
apprentices. Even in the early days before machinery, division of labor
was the rule in the shops of Massachusetts. One workman cut the leather,
often tanned on the premises; another sewed the uppers together, while
another sewed on the soles. Wooden pegs were invented in 181