Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-12-21
Why Woman Sits on the Floor to Pull on
or Remove Her Shoes and Stockings.

Why Woman Sits on the Floor to Pull on
or Remove Her Shoes and Stockings.
The progress which has been made
in our day in scientific research is some
thing wonderful. There seems to be no
such thing as a contented scientific
person, who feels that he has solved all
possible problems, and henceforth has
nothing to do but to sit down and con-
template his own excellencies. No
sooner has the modern scientific person
solved one problem than he hastens to
attack another. As fast as he upsets
one old-fashioned belief he begins to
undermine another. The result is that
every day some new discovery is made,
or at least some new topic attracts the
attention of the scientific mind. It
seems only the other day that Mr.. Oar
win was investigating the nature and
origin of the once-familiar feminine
habit of bhlshing, and wrote his famous
circular to British missionaries asking
them, in the interest of science, to OBJ
serve whether their heather acquaint-
ances blushed, except so far as their
faces were concerned. And now, close
upon the settlement of the blushinq
question, we find Mr.. Darwin and his
fellow philosophers Investigating the
reason why the female of our species
always sits down on the floor to remove
her shoes. The question may not seem
an important one to ight-minded and
ignorant persons, but the thoughtful
man knows that all truth is precious,
and that to search for the truth con-
corning the origin of any custom is
grand and noble work.
It is universally known that when a
man desires to take of his shoes he
adopts one of two methods. Either he
sits on chair or sofa and rests one
foot on his knee while christening and
removing his shoe, or he stands up, and,
by placing his foot on chair, brings the
shoe readily within reach of his hand.
Neither of these methods is ever en-
ployed-asw we are assured by the author
ity OF scientific persons-by women.
Mr.. Darwin asserts that the habit of
sitting down on the floor in order to
unlace or unbutton shoes is peculiarly
characteristic of women, and is, so he
believes, an element, or, at all events, q
sign of sex. It is not the business of
the public to inquire how Mr.. Darwin
and his scientific friends acquired the
data upon which they base their asser-
tons as to this alleged feminine habit.
Perhaps they wrote to the late DR.. judi
son, an eminent missionary, who, hav-
ing been married four times, must have
collected vast and awful quantity Of
facts. However this may be we need
not now inquire, since it is with the in
vestigation as to the origin of the al
legged custom that We are at present
concerned.
Mr.. Darwin has a prejudice i'm favor
of the doctrine which he invented con-
corning the survival of the fttest, and
naturally brings it into service when
ever there is an opportunity. He claims
that chairs had not been invented when
women began to wear shoes, and that
hence they were necessarily obliged to
sit on the floor when they wished to
take them off. When chairs first came
into use they were very expensive, and
were handled with great care. The
thoughtful young man, of course, pre-
ferred to marry girl who would never
put her foot on q chair, and, therefore,
selected . wife whom he knew would sit
on the floor to take of her shoes Instead
Of using one of his precious chairs.
Thus it was only the girls who praoticed
that judicious habit that secured hus-
bands. They married, being the fittest
for matrimony, and the occasional
women who used chairs in connection
with removing their shoes gradually be-
came extinct. This is an ingenious
theory, and, coming from the source
that it does, it deserves respectful con-
sideration. At the same time, it must
be noticed that it is based upon gra-
tuitous assumption that feminine shoes
preceded chairs in the order of develop
ment. This still remains to be proved,
and until it is proved Mr.. Darwin's
theory cannot be regarded as anything
but an ingenious hypothesis.
Mr.. JohnaStuart Mill insists that the
difference between the two sexes in
their manner of removing shoes is due
to distinctive mental peculiarities.
Man, SO he asserts, delights to make all
things subservient to him, while woman
prefers to be herself subservient.
Hence man, when he proceeds to take
off shoe, compels his foot to approach
his hand, whether by placing it on q
chair or by laying it across his knee.
Woman, on the contrary, is perfectly
contented to sink gracefully and gently