The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-01-17
PRETTY FEET.
THE PAST AND PRESENT OF WOMEN's
SHOES

SdOES.
BENEDICT's B0AsT-THE DUrCHEss OF
YoRK's sHoEs-INTERvIEws WITH THE
KNIGHTS OF ST. CRlsPIN-THE FEET OF
DIFFERENT NATIONS.
The New York Murcury publishes the
following upon the subject of the fair pedal
extrsmiEies:
''Does any lady or gentleman present
know what was the size OF Cie6erella's
foot?"
"why do you ask?" queried laughing
chorus OF voices.
'Becausa, ny wife has the tiniest foot
ever saw. She wears a child's shoe, only
seven and three quarters long, and yet she
weighs 126 pounds"
The scene was a handsome parlor in
this CITY, on New Years night, and the
speaker was flushed and pompous bene-
dict, who had only recently been ad-
mitted into matrimony's told. From that
moment shoes and feet absorbed the con-
versation. The toes of such of the ladies
present as were graced by diminutive pedal
terminations began TO peep like mice from
beneath silken skirts, while the feet OF those
not so envisbly endowed were seen no more
during the evening. One married lady told
of minister of her acquaintance who, when
his wife died, afterwards paid his pastoral
calls with shoe of the lamented departed
In his coat pocket, and it was his habit to
of marriageable daughters, generally, that he
would never marry again until he found
lady whose foot would fG that
shoe. The foot of the ''sainted de-
parted" had been unusually small.
The parson himself was a pious Apollo
eligible msidens in the congregation; and
consequently that shoe was soon utterly de-
moraliZed by the frantic attempts OF feet,
many sizes too large, to force entrance
therein. The shoe fitted two or three mer-
riei bellies, but, at last accounts, no candi-
date above eighteen had "come down" to
the standard. A gentleman present, who
parted his hair in the middle and wore an
eyeglass-a la Levi, tootist-opined that the
feet OF American women were smaller than
they were 20 years since, alleging as a cause
the disinclination to exercise evlnced by
them. A young lady who wore distract
ing pair of dress boots, remarked iD silvery
accents, that "to complete the costume,
nothing is more important than well-fitting
and stylish shoes, and this Centennial year
novelties in shoes will be looked forward to
wi tn interest" A pert little miss Of ten won-
dered what sort of shoes girls wore
HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
Replied a slver-haired octogenerian: 'I re-
member reading when was young man
that about the time when Patience Delight,
daughter to Cslled-to-Grace Delight and
Affection, his wife, was tried in New Haven
before Brother Condemned Fish and Rever
end ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Parkinson, tor
bewitcbing a man named Harvey, and with
her two piercing eyes banishing res
training grace clean out of bim--I re-
member, say that the woman were recon-
mended to wear slippers of humanity, shoes
of diligence, stockings of perseverance and
garters OF determination. ""About the time,"
continued the old gentleman, warming with
his subject, "when our people began to get
clocks and watches, and learned to
were very tasteful about the feet
ships that used TO call here brought fancy
shoes from France and England that had
cork soles and ties of silk edged with rich
lace, spread out like rose, until they
nearly covered the foot. Then, about the
introduced and the Franklin lightning
rod began to be experimental With, and
when men generally began to wear collars
to their shirts, the bellies of the period wore
laced shoes and topknots. Just preceding
the period when our brave forefsthers were
diluting their tea in Boston bsrbor, and
when they were planting liberty poles
pretty extensively on Manhattan island,
our richer bellies were tOttering along on
high heels, as we have seen them up TO this
day. These were the Louis XIV. heels, aud
some doggerel about them appeared in
bOBLOH newspaper Ol In0 u WDlCu
can remember but one line:
"You can wabble along, but take care, miss,
don't fall"
"As far back as 1 can remember ladies of
this city wore boots with high heels and
tall tops, made to walk but not to run in,'
as the boys used to say. I tell you they
bore a close relationship in form to those
some of you girls are wearing just now.
"What is the smallest foot you ever saw,
grsndps?" asked she Of the distracting
dress boots.
"Wel,I remember seeing a boot, but
somehow never could quite believe that
full-grown woman's foot ever got inside of
it. It was made of green silk, ornsmented
with gold stars, bound with scarlet silk,
and had Louis Quinze high scarlet heel. 1
saw it in London in 1919; crossed the At
lsntic in a steamship that year; 1t had been
worn by the duchess OF York, who was re-
nowned for her small feet. Well, it meas
ured only
FIVE AND THREE-QUARTER INCHES
in length, and the breadth of the
sole across the instep was one and three
quarter inches. An engraving the exact
size OF the shoe was published in London
after she died. Somehow, could never
persuade myself that q woman's foot had
ever been inside that SHOE" Whereupon
the newly made benedict pronounced the
dutcbess's shoe fraud, a delusiOn and
dead beat, and said he would back his wife's
foot against all the dutchesses in flunky
Europe. A Mercury man who bad been
present went home pondering on the Gu
rious information he had heard respecting
shoes and feet, and next morning he pro-
ceeded TO interview several deciples OF Sc.
Crispin concerning the peculiarities of Ia
dies feet. Some of the fashionable Broad
way and Sixth avenue stores were first
called upon. In reply to the question,
"Whst is the smallest size of ladies' shoe
ever inquired after?" the reporter learned
that there were several hebes in the city
who invariably wore children's sizes, and
had them made to measure. There were
splendidly developed bellies, tall and ma
jestie, with little, shapely feet, barely eight
inches In length, and there were several
petite Southern and Cuban sylphs whose
tiny feet were barely six and a half inches
long, aud who of course always bought
mis- ses' shoes when they purchased ready
made. The proprietor of an uptown es-