The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1874-07-02
THE FEET.
All About Pedal Decoration in the Good
Old Days Is. &.

/
develop and the pretty feet of the fair
seemed to have betrayed the earliest
susceptibility to pedal ornaments, al
though the use of these embellishments
was by no means confined to them, as
we shall presently see. Some of the
earliest and most distinctive examples
we find in Jewish records. Thus, in
Solomon's song Il chap, ivy, the bride
is thus addressed Chow beautiful are
thy feet with shoes (sandals), o princes
daughter I" In the case of Judith Of
the Apocrypha, although her personal
attractions, the splendor OF her attire,
and other ornaments, may have attracted
the attention of the fierce HOlofernes,
the Assyrian general, il was her sandals
that "ravished his eyes" (judith, xvi
chap, 9v.) A passage in Isaiah gives
us an idea of the character of some of
the ornaments employed. "Hdughty
daughters of Zion walking and miucing
as they go, aud making tinkling with
their feet. The Lord will take away
the bravery of their tinkling ornaments
about their feet" Isaiah, chap. iii, lG-
49, The first approach to boot-and
there was probably nothing of the kind
prior to 500 b. C.-was in the shape of
high stocking or greave, a piece of
leather affixed to the front of the shins
as a protection from injury in war, by
means of Ieathern thongs or iuteraced
bands of leather. This protection doubt
less eventuated in the elaborate fectal
greaves which formed an important part
of the armor of a later period. The
transition of the sandal to the shoe is
perhaps more evident in the sculptured
remains of Persia than in any other of
the dumb yet eloquent witnesses OF an
tiquity.
The bas-reliefs of Pcrsepolis give
many illustrations of the style of boots
and shoes worn by the Persians in the
time of Darius and erXes-botween
52l b. C. and AIS b. G. One of these
is a sort of ankle boot, half shoc half
sandal for what is termed the "upper
leather" is little more than the straps of
the sandals left much broader than usu-
al, and fastened by buttons along the
top of the foot. This kind of shoe is
represented as having been worn by
soldiers, the upper classes, and attend
ants around the throne of the king.
Other specimens are completely and
unequivOcally shoes, the chOracteris-
tics of the sandal bel G apparently en-
trely absent. There are also among
these sculptures several kinds of boots,
one of them being similar to e three
quarter wellington of the present time.
A highly ornamental dress bootadorned
the legs OF gaily-drcssed youth de-
pictel on Thcbnu painting, aud sup
posed to have belonged to n country
adjacent to Egypt II is similar in
form to the dress of Wellington of the
present century, and is a sample of the
boot decoration then prevailing. Ing
| hirami, in his WOrlumc,W EtrUScH,
gives an engraving of n heather prizes,
| taken from an ancient Etruscan sculp-
ture, the figure wearing pair of top
boots exceedingly like those worn by
the ditchcrs and fishermen Of to-day.
The Etruscans were anteccdent to the
Greeks and Romans in civilization, SO
that this must be very old, although not
so ancient as the Theban painting just
noticed.
It is tolcrably clear that the shoe de-
veloped into the boot, and that Orator
Henslcy's celebrated method of making
shoes had not been thOught of at This
early stage Of the worlds history. Many
of Our readers will rccpllect the anpc-
dote of the great mob orator, who once,
by clever strategy, is said TO have at
tracted "thc greatest multitude of shoe
makers ever known to have been assem-
bIed on one occasion" Mt his orNt)ry
near Lincoln's Inn Fields He had an
nounce1 a special discourse to shoemak
crq, and in orlcrt to "draw" an audience,
with the true genius Of sensafiOnalism,
he declare that he could teach them Il
most expeditions way of making shoes
His method was simple but c0ncus We,
viz to cut off the tops of their boots
The ticket OF admission on that occasion
bore the appropriate but mooklng motto
-OHIHC nGjuS cOntinct in sc minus Cthr
greater contains the lessl. 1t is also
sufficiently clear that in great degree
modern fashion is but an imitation a
more or less refined one it may bc-of
the other forms and fashions whose re-
cords are to be found on those ancient
monuments. History repeats itself
in the way of boots ana shoes as with
everything else, and the boots of mod
ern day. find their earliest cxpmplars on
these striking sculptured memorials of
nations whose sun of prosperity has
gone down forever, but who once Occu
pied the proud place in the world of
"first in arts as in arms"
The great Persian monarch, Cyrus,
was not only warlike soldier, but
cOnnOiSSeur in tine art of dress. He
was accustomed to wear purple and
white robes, and to encase his feet and
legs in yellow buskins. II man
was unfortunate enough to possess the
dignity of high stature, he recon-.
mended that he should wear n suit of
buskin or stocking, between the sole of
which aud :he bottom of the foot some
substance might be inserted to give au
increased hight to the wearer. A SINH
lar method of increasing their hight
appears to have obtained amcng women
also, for Xenophon, in his H.cOnOmics,
mentions the wife of Ischomachus as
wearing high shoes for that purpose.
In the to bs of ancient Egypt, women's
shoes have been discovered that dis
tinctly have this object in view, for they
are formed of stout sole of wood,
to which is affixed four round props
really sort Of foot.stool, only fixed
to the feet. raising the wearer foot
in hight. The Pnrygian bonnet, which
the goddess Minerva is sometimes rep
resented as wearing, is a characteristic
head dress which finds a fitting coun-
terpart in the Phrygian boot. This
article was worn very high, had four
long flaps or streamers at the top (con-
sisiing of the leg.skins of animals
whose skins had been used for body
c'othing), and we're laced up in front