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 FIVE 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 atown. “ Boots,” said he to the Minister of 
Finance, “are actually cheaper to-day at Issoire 
