Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-06-06
Boot. and Renutv.

T NJ. Aubriiet, a Frenchman, has writ.
ten a book on the beauty Of English wo.
men, aud the Chicago Times, in an allu'
sion to his observations, makes these
editorials remarks;
The care which is taken Of woman's
Sset has much to do with her health. and
the boot, which in France is constructed
with no reference to either health or the
foot is made in England expressly for
both. In France the question is, How
small a boot can | wear2" In England
the foot is laid on paper, the outline
taken, the instep. the ankle aud the leg
actually measured; and the result is that
the French beauty is raised two inches
above her natural height, her feet are
thrown forward against the pinehiug up
per, and she dances badly, and cannot
walk at all; while the English woman
goes out upon the grass in broad soles
aud low heels, is quite unconscious that
she has bootson absorbs beauty-making
juices into her blood. The interior con-
struction of the ioot-the numbers Of
separate little bones Joined only by the
Welding cushions of cartilage-injures
elasticity which so delighted the French
man, and which cannot be taken away
except by tightness in the material used
for ~encasing the foot. Ia the cities Of
Spain, where the narrow, high heel has
been copied from Paris, there is very lit
tie beautiful dancing. In the villages
where the girls 90 barefooted half the
year, the luxurious grace OF the wal z has
been noted, and it is attributed TO that
happy poverty which has neither fat
tened the foot ia the middle by giving
burdens 70 be carried in %girlhood 1.-THE
cause OF fiat feet among the women in
Germany, Holland, Sweden, Russia, and
the b~ourgeoise Of France). nor deformed
the great toe and ~paralyzed the asirala
gus by the fashionable device Of satin
slippers. Bertha Won Hillern's feet are
as perfect in proportion as those of the
Greek statues, and as she is not small,
her feet would neither illustrate English
poetry nor satisfy the vulgar popular
ashton. But they complete the perfect
symmetry Of her 1.-THE and supple frame;
they perform just the function for which
ittb are mdut-tutJ ChTIJ lhelT lOau
easily, gracefully and without fatigue.
She would as soon think of rampingth them
in tight boots as Budd Doble of running
Goldsmith Maid with shoes which rams
form her geit into a stagger. Women
who get shoes to fit them are good walk
ers; women who are good walkers are
healthier hal those who prefer to rent
their pedal ~phalangas to the expensive
bootmaker advertisements of their folly
and his art; and women who are good
walkers and healthy have a beauty which
is more enduring than any that can be
acquired By cosmetics. A thick soled,
low.heeled. perfectly comfortable pair OF
boots is a better investment than several
walls Of the most poisonous rouge and p
dozen boxes Of powdered arsenic. In
the beautiful natural foot, q line drawn
from the center Of the great toe to the
middle of the heel is perfectly straight.
When it is not, the boot, instesd Of pro-
tecting health and ~prolonging the tints
of beauty in the complexion, is the
author of cor.s and bunions, aad of that
refinement of %excruciation, i~n-growing
nail.