THE FATE OF 1C I O DO RUM. 1 8? 



yield. Employment was given to more workmen, 

 who came over from Clermont ; the hum of machin- 

 ery took the place of the creaking of farm-wagons, 

 the rich began to grow richer, the poor went bare- 

 footed, and the people of moderate means felt able 

 to run into debt because they lived in a progressive 

 town. The wives of the members of the Common 

 Council bought diamonds, and the members pre- 

 sented the mayor with a gold-headed cane. Soon 

 other boot-factories were started, and still others, 

 though, strangely enough, the more boots were 

 produced, the more barefooted children were seen 

 in the streets. 



By and by the tanners decided that they too 

 must ask for help from the octroi. It was as bad, 

 they said, for the factories to send to Clermont for 

 leather as for the merchants to send for boots. In 

 either case the money went out of the town, and 

 was gone forever. So the octroi was levied on 

 leather as well as on boots. Then the guild of 

 butchers put in similar claims. To buy raw hides 

 of the herdsmen out on the Puy-de-D6me was a 

 part of the same suicidal policy. The octroi was 

 therefore assessed on all imported skins. The 

 butchers established their own stock-yards within 

 the city walls, and were saved from the pauper 

 competition of the mountain cattle. Then the 

 mountain herdsmen drove the cattle on to Clermont, 

 and Issoire was left in peace. 



But some of the boot-makers complained that 

 this policy was injuring their business by greatly 

 raising the price of hides, whether produced in 

 Issoire or at Clermont. So the mayor sent a letter 



