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Show Immigrant Is No. 1 Army Shoe Repairer Greek Has Largest Contract For Mending Brogans. FORT WORTH. This success story concerns Tom Peters, a Greek immigrant, who today holds the nation's na-tion's largest contract, nearly $250,-000, $250,-000, for shoe repairing. Peters, who still has more than his share of trouble with the English Eng-lish language, came to the United States in 1911. He had little money and little knowledge of the language. lan-guage. He came across country and 6ettled in Waco, Texas. His first shop spread 9 by 7 feet with two shine chairs. Two years later he had saved enough money to get in "the big time." He came to Fort Worth and opened a "seven-chair shine parlor." par-lor." Since 1913 he has shined and repaired re-paired shoes here. His business grew with each season. Then came America's defense program. Today Peters' shop repairs more than 1,500 pairs of soldiers' brogans daily. Ebullient Tom can't account for his sudden success. "I am doing a nice little business here," he said, "and I hear about i army shoe business. I bid here. I bid there, then I bid another place. "Now see what I got," he continued con-tinued pointing to a stack of rundown run-down army shoes covered with the red dust of three great army camps and 27 CC units in the Southwest. He has "stepped up production" so that now he gives overnight service serv-ice to Camp Barkeley, the 45th division's divi-sion's new training camp near Abilene, Abi-lene, Texas. Each morning vans dump, 1,000 pairs of shoes in froAt of his repair shop. Each night trucks pick up the repaired shoes and head back to Abilene. |