Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1874-01-07
EDUCATED FEET.

EDUCATED FEET.
What Can be Done with the Toes
About Feet i'm General-Shoes.
It is astonishing to what uses the
feet and toes could be put, if necessity
arose for a full development of their
powers. There is way of educating
the foot, as we'll as the hand or the eve
and there is no telling what an edu-
Gated fnat can be made to do. In the
time ,xande4, Indians were taught
to d ,ir bows with their feet, as
we'll tn their hands, and this is
done at the present time by Rock We'd
dahs of Ceyloh And nearly all savage
tribes can turn the toes not only to
good, but bad account like the Abo-
rhymes OF Australia, who, while they
are cunningly diverting your attention
with their hands, are busily engaged in
committing robberies with their toes,
with which they pick up articles, as an
elephant would with his trunk. So
also the Hindoo makes his toes work at
the loom, and weaves with them with
almost as much dexterity as with the
D.
hold the piece of wood he is planning by
his foot, like a parrot, and will
work grindstone with his feet. The
Banaka tribe, who are the most famous
canoe-men on the West African coast,
W Ill impel their light canoes (weighing
from to 10 pounds) with great veloci-
ty over the waves, and at the same
time will use the foot to bale out the
water; and when they would rest their
arms, one leg is thrown out on either
side of the canoe, and it is propelled
with the feet almost as fast as with a
paddle. Monsieur Ducornet, who died
some years ago, was born without
hands, and was brought up as an art
ist, and actually exhibited at the Lou
vre pictures painted by his feet. The
feet Of Thomas Roberts, the armless
huntsman to Sir George Barlow, were
made to perform the duties of his
hands. Also William Kinstone, who,
with his toes, wrote out his accounts,
shaved and dressed himself, saddled
and bridled his horse, threw sledge-
hammers, and fought a battle, in
which he came off victorious.
Many exquisites of both sexes claim
admiration for their pedal extremities,
but it is the boots and shoes which
cover them which we are called on to
admire. Their foot, if barred, would
present very great divergence from
the classical idea of beauty. The
firmly planted foot, neither too large
nor too small, but justly proportional
to the height and weight it sustains,
the smooth surface and regularly
curved lines, the distinctness of the
divisions and the perfect formation of
each toe, with it's well marked sepa-
rateness, and it's graduation of size and
regularity of detail to the very tip of
the nail, are now to be seen only in art.
In Greek nature they were found, or
the ancient sandal, which left
the foot unfettered, gave freedom to
the developments of it's natural grace
and proportions. The modern boot or
shoe, with the prevalent notion that
everything must be sacrificed to small
nees, has squeezed the foot into a
knotty and irregular lump, where the
distorted toes are so imbedded in the
mass and mutilated by the pressure
that it is impossible to pick them out
in the individuality and completeness
of their original forms. AS our climate
forbids the sandal and renders the
shoe Necessary, care should be taken to
adapt it as perfectly as possible to the
natural conformation of the foot 1t
should be long and wide enough to adj
NIT free play of the toes the space
between the heel and toe should be
firm, and. of curve the same
height as the natural arch of
the foot, while no part of the
artificial covering should be
so binding as to prevent the free action
of the muscles, and the circulation of
the blood. The French loot is meagre,
narrow ard long; the Spanish is small
and elegantly -curved-thanks to it's
Moorish blood corresponding with the
Castllian PRIDE high in the instep. y
The Arab foot is proverbial for its high
arch ga stream of water can run IN
der the hollow OF it, The foot of the
Scotch is large and thick that of the
Irish fiat and square; the English
short and feshy. The American foot
is apt to be disproportionately small.
A foot, for both beauty and speed,
should be arched, fairly rounded, and
it's length proportional to the height
of the person. The ankle-especiall
of women-should be round and firm,
and not too small.