264 
THE PATENT SHOE. 
comments somewhat freely, and in no tender terms, upon my 
Patent Concave Horseshoe. I might wish to trespass on your 
kindness by expressions of pride, that my agent had succeeded 
in licensing so talented a practitioner as Mr. R., but his “ disap- 
pointments and feelings” having been of such a character as to 
render it cruel in me to defer for one moment removing from his 
mind’s eye that veil of obscurity which has so operated upon his 
physical organs as, by his own admission, to lead him to the 
destruction of his effects. 
We have, however, previously from him the usual admission, 
he did approve of the principle of my shoes ; but he feels dis- 
appointed that, on application, they did not, within four or five 
months, cure some of the evils (beyond his reach) which I had 
stated would be, by their constant application, less frequent. 1 
beg to use this gentleman more tenderly than he appears to do 
either horse-shoes or horse-corns, by simply calling attention to 
his hasty decisions and violent operations on other points as 
well as the shoe in question. Allow me to tell him the shoes he 
is pleased to name as of my manufacture may have been, for 
aught l know, as miserably made as those which have lately 
passed under his process of “ beating;” for it so happens, that 
I have not manufactured shoes till within the last month, and 
even the patterns sent out have been made by different licensed 
smiths at their own establishments. I may leave others to judge 
of the talent of Mr. R. as a shoeing smith, or the attention he 
pays to the application of shoes in his forge, when he is so far 
lost to his own interest as publicly to advertise the valuable fact, 
that, though a shoe be produced presenting precisely the same 
foot surface as the best description of the usual seated shoe, be- 
cause the ground surface is not the same he cannot attach it to 
a “ strong sound foot” without in a u single set” producing 
“ corns.” This is too gross ; a child would tell him there is no 
difference in the foot surface of the concave and other well- 
formed shoes, and if he produces corns with one he will with 
the other. It is somewhat amusing to listen to such non- 
sense and publication of a man’s own stupidity; but be his 
talents what they may, his powers of vision astonish me ; for 
not only does the gentleman know that he produced corns, but 
he absolutely saw them come, they grew so fast. “ I have seen 
corns produced, &c.” He has seen more than this ; he has seen 
nails break in the neck (good ones, doubtless) : perhaps he would 
kindly tell me the maker’s name. He has seen iron and shoes 
beat up by the same magic influence. An explanation, however, 
follows ; and in spite of all that has preceded it, this is lamed . 
He admits the two edges of my shoe receive an equal degree of 
