What is "shoeblacks"

Usage examples of "shoeblacks".

Under the porch of the general post office shoeblacks called and polished.

Here he is generally surrounded by an admiring throng of ostlers, stableboys, shoeblacks, and those nameless hangers-on that infest inns and taverns, and run errands and do all kind of odd jobs for the privilege of battening on the drippings of the kitchen and the leakage of the tap-room.