THE FATE OF ICIODORUM. IQI 



made boots, you must furnish them for us. You 

 ought to do it anyhow. This city owes us a living, 

 and we came over here from Clermont to get it. 

 We were told that the workingman in Issoire would 

 have the octroi on his side, and would not have to 

 work like a slave to keep soul and body together, 

 as we had to do at Clermont. But it is the same 

 old story here. We do all the work, and some- 

 body else gets all the profits. Now we have to 

 buy and pay for the boots we make ourselves. 

 The cowhide in a pair of boots costs the capitalists 

 but a franc, and we, the boot-makers, pay twenty 

 francs for the boots when we have made them. 

 The other nineteen francs are the product of labor, 

 and ought to belong to us. Our boots should be 

 furnished at a franc a pair." 



So they held a mass-meeting in the cafe of the 

 Lion d'Or, and resolved that the rights of man 

 were not respected in Issoire. They sent a delega- 

 tion to the mayor, asking that boots for the work- 

 ingman be furnished at the expense of the town. 

 This would be but justice, and moreover it was 

 the only way to start anew the wheels of industry. 

 Money should not be locked up in the city treas- 

 ury. It should go from man to man, and this 

 action was sure to set it going. 



Then the schoolmaster wrote a long letter to the 

 Issoire " Gazette," and showed very clearly that 

 this claim was on the whole a just one. Nobody 

 understood the argument, but all applauded it 

 because it looked very learned ; and, moreover, its 

 conclusions were in harmony with their previous 

 opinions. The schoolmaster showed that, as boots 



