The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1876-03-30
FOOT WEAR.
The sizes Most In Demand North and
south.

eDOuLn
The New York Graphic saysi "Foot-
prints in the sand" sang thepOet, but he
failed to state their sizes. And since, in
connection with the latest scandal, 1t re-
manned for the Jenkinses at Washington
to let the world know that Mrs. Belknap
wears only one and half shoe, polite
society would seem to offer atield, IN this
regard, for investigation. So much
weight has the saying that you can't
put a No. s foot into No. 8 shoe" that
even astute committees, while gravely
considering retrenchmentapp
have often found it a convenient analo-
gy. Unfortunately statistics do not
prove the truth of the adage, as Is evil
deneed 0y hundreds of aching feet i'll
New York every day.
But New York has something to be
proud Of in the matter Of feet, and espe-
cially those Of the gehtIer sex. It is the
testimony Of Some of the largest fashion
able shoe-dealers that the average foot Of
the feminine New Yorker IS much small
er than that of most other cities III the
United States, and that there are hun
dreds of ladies in this city who wear a
No. l shOe-a halfsize smaller than that
which so recently pressed the carpets in
the temple of the nations Mars. Anup-
town dealer remarked that great many
ladies wore ones and twOs, and many
more tried to do 50 and could not. The
same desire to get on a small boot Is man
Tested by the gentlemen.
The sales of fashionable boots and
shoes in this city reach their largest fig
ure with the ladies among the threes and
f6tt3 gnd with the gentlemen in the
al EI,ngp r1sos, no
proportion is about half to all others, or
! for every pair of ones and every two pairs
of twOs, seven pairs Of thTees and fOurs
are sold. The ladies' sizes usually run
| from ones to skies in this city, while in
Boston and other eastern cities they are
marked from twOs to seVens, and for the
gentlemen the usual range is from fives
! to tens. Further south, and especially
in South Carolina, among those people
who are direct descendants from the HUI
guenots, the feet are much smaller. The
writer has often heard a former slave
owner say that he could always tell a
! Yankee by the size of his feet. Then
! there are the broad Scotch boots and
shoes, whose outward appearance gives
no sign of what may be within; and the
| hOb-nails, mOcCasins, and, last but not
! least, the pOnderOus fifteens for the grave
and august senator of the sunny south,
/ whose sudden transfer from the cotton
! fields and rice-meadOws to the legislative
| halls included all their understanding
! There probably Is never jammed into the
| same space 50 much misery as can be
! found in a gathering of the cOloTed breth
rem in their Sunday boots. Their fiat
and bOny feet are in constant rebellion
! against the refining and CTamping inttu
ences of fashion. Then there is the stage
| boot, made with a view to cOunteract the
effects of the sloping Of the stage, and, o
course, worn principally by dramatic
artistes. The grace and dignity of steI
that characterizes Miss Eytinge or Mis-
Dyas would be impossible on the slOpt
that leads to the foOtlights were not thei
shoes made so as to harmonic with tn
hazardous curve. AproPos of boots an,
shoes, it may be stated that the contri
buttons from this city to the Centennia
exhibition will embrace a variety tina
will not be eqUaIled in the world. !
manufacturer on Broadway is now Ell
gagged in preparing two pairs of shoes fo
, the exhibition from the skin of a huma
, being, a par from the skin of an anacOr
da, pair from a rattlesnake skin, a pa
, from the hide of kangaroo, and anotht
= pair from the skin of a catfish. II
! leather of the last named is equal in /
! texture to the finest silk, and of those
q the skin of human being the qUalit
would be rated anywhere, perhaps, if v
G did not know what it was, as superfn
= At no distant day it may be the fashiC
! for the merciless fair to count their sho
. by the number of their victims, and i
y orally trample their disappointed suite
3 under foot. No better use could be d
a vised for the ePidermis of theswains VII
Il wasting i'll despair, die because a W
= mans fair"