The Shoemakers Quality
John Galesworthy's "Quality" is a heart rebdering story of two german shoe makers. Both of them were brothers, who sturggle to maintain the quality of their work in the face of mounting competition from the profit oriented big manufacturers.
The Gessler Brotherss were shoe-maker who had their shop in the fashionable West End of London. It was a modest establishment. Guly three pairs of beautifully made shoes were displayed at the window.
The narrator's family had been their customers for a long time. The Gessler Brothers were men of few words.They loved their trade. The younger brother was the dominant partner and received orders. The shop had only one wooden chair for the customers. Work was done in the inner room. The boot were so well made that they lasted for a long time. Their concern was that of the genuine artists.
The brothers had to feel the competition from the Wholesale manufactures who made low quality shoes but did good business because to show and advertisement. When the narrator entered their shop once with a pair of shoes made by the wholesalers the Gessler's became miserable. He ordered for two pairs which was very good and durable.
When the narrator visited their shop again after two years, the shop looked smaller and the man looked older and thinner. The next time the elder brother was dead. In another year he seemed to have grown fifteen years older. The narrator gave more orders but they took sometime to come. When he went there he found a new man and was told that Gessler had died of slow starvation maintaining quality to the end.
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