November 28, 1914 
LAND AND WATER 
CHOOSING KIT 
Practical Hints 
{Continued from page 93). 
^ T the present time, when every man who has anything 
^m to sell is doing his level best to sell it and com- 
/ ^ plaining about the lack of trade, it is a strange 
/ ^L experience to come across one who will not 
■^ -^- advertise, and even goes so far as to say that he 
does not wish his name mentioned, because the demand far 
exceeds his capacities of supply. Yet such is the case, and 
in a Piccadilly estabhshment, too. I have promised not to 
localise the article and the business firm which provides it 
any further than that. 
The Discovery of the Boot 
The article is a boot, the like of which was never seen 
before, and I spent a most interesting half-hour examining 
and talking about that boot. It is hand-made, and made by 
only one little place in all this country, so that the supply is 
not much more than a dozen pairs a day. It has never been 
advertised in any paper, and the sale grew in the first instance 
from a customer who was going to West Africa inquiring if 
he could be provided with a boot which would let him stand 
all day ankle deep in water at the tin mines of Nigeria and 
still keep his feet dry. It was a rather impossible proposition, 
but it was done. That man has since talked about the boots 
among miUtary officers and others, with the result that the 
little establishment which makes this particular kind of 
footwear has all the work it can do. 
Nine months' wear 
The boot is an ordinary thing in appearance, except that 
it is capless ; from waist to toe the soft, thin-looking leather 
goes without a seam, and that leather is waterproofed by a 
process which makes it sound for a matter of nine months' 
wear ; and the man who wants more than that in hard 
campaigning work will never be satisfied on this earth, for 
the boot that lasts six months under Service wear and strain 
is abnormal. I queried the absence of nails in the sole, 
which is plainly stitched (hand stitched) with a row of tiny 
screws along the stitching for e.xtra strength. " But," said 
the man who sells this boot, " the strength of a sole lies not 
in steel nails, but in its power to withstand the wet " — and 
that I know to be true. The sole of this boot is leather, 
proofed against wet by some process — there is a lot of mystery 
about the whole business — ^which is so effective that pioneers 
from the tropics, military men, and others who want the 
very ultimate in service out of their equipment come back 
again and again for other pairs. The West African man who 
first discovered the boot comes in regularly for two pairs 
every eighteen months — nine months apiece, as the makers 
claim. For marching purposes steel " brads " are screwed 
both at heel and toe to give a grip of the ground, but for 
wear one depends entirely on the capacity of the leather to 
stand wet, which means to stand wear. 
Ventilation 
The stitching of the uppers — the ordinary machine work 
that one gets on all boots — is reinforced throughout by hand 
stitching, and altogether this particular boot looks and is as 
workmanlike an article as one can obtain in these days of 
shoddy and cut prices ; it is real, good, honest workmanship 
throughout. I queried the matter of ventilation, and there 
the salesman shook his head—he had a sufficiently good 
article to admit its drawbacks. " You must either sacrifice 
the waterproof quality of the boot," he said, " or be content 
to do without ventilation ; you cannot pet the two." And 
this any sensible person will admit to be correct, for 
footwear that will keep out the wet must keep out everything 
else as well ; it is only logical. He showed me a pair of 
riding boots that looked just the thing for campaigning work. 
" Ventilated," he said. " Some customers will have them, 
and of course thev let the wet in as well." 
{Continued on page 107) 
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105 
