208 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



large and handsome new shop, and he had spent 

 much money in fitting it up. A gentleman, named 

 Shylock, from whom he had borrowed the money, 

 said that he had lent money for legitimate busi- 

 ness, not for speculation ; to sell shoes, not to hold 

 them for higher prices. This stock of boots was 

 thus forced on the market, to be sold for what it 

 would bring. And other dealers had to sell for 

 similar prices, or lose all chance of selling at all. 

 And so Issoire was full of notices : - 



" GRAND SLAUGHTER OF BOOTS AND SHOES ! " 



"BOOTS GIVEN AWAY ONLY FlVE FRANCS A 



PAIR ! " 



Boots were never so cheap before, in Issoire or 

 anywhere else in France. 



The Issoire Citizens' Foot-wear Manufacturing 

 Company took no part in these cheap sales. Its 

 agents were active, however, and they privately 

 bought up a part of the stock of the smaller stores, 

 and sent out several wagon-loads across the coun- 

 try to Clermont, and one down the river to the 

 farmers in the valley of the Loire. 



It was an era of cheap boots. Everybody was 

 well shod. The children burned up their wooden 

 shoes, or used them only for coasting in the winter, 

 and there was general satisfaction. The Minister 

 of Public Instruction, who spent a day in Issoire 

 on his way from Marseilles to Paris, had a pair of 

 new boots presented to him, and he showed them 

 at home, as an example of what the octroi could 

 do for a town. " Boots," said he to the Minister of 

 Finance, " are actually cheaper to-day at Issoire 



