What though the gath'ring mire thy feet besmear,

The voice of industry is always near.

BLACKING. An article prepared in various ways for the blacking of boots and shoes. Each manufacturer has his own recipe, in which the principal ingredients are oil, vinegar, and ivory-black, or some other sort of blacking matter. In former days shoe-blacks stood in our streets to perform the required operation on pedestrians, but in these days of improved pavements, and greater cleanliness, the brilliancy of the shoe that has received its morning polish at home, is scarcely impaired through the day. Blacking is either liquid or in the form of a paste, and some of the establishments for its manufacture, especially in London, are on the most extensive scale, and are known by their elaborate system of advertising all over the world.

DAY AND MARTIN – falsifiers of prophecy. Thirty years ago, our wiseacres predicted, that when all could read and write, we should find none to black our shoes. The day of evil has arrived; everybody can read and write; our shoes are not only better blacked than ever, but they are polished by comparatively polished people; our blacking-makers acquire fortunes, and build palaces, thus giving encouragement to other arts than the black one; and it is even reported, that a London firm keeps a regular bard upon the establishment, to write poetical puffs.