Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1880-08-19
Mistellaueuns &eadiug.
SOMETHING ABOUT SHOES.

edly of great antiquity, and have in all
times been worn in some form or other by
the people of civilized countries. The prac.
tice of shoe and sandal wearing can be traced
back for some thousands of years, and is
probably of Eastern origin. Thus we find
frequent mention of the shoe in the Bible,
from the book of Exodus to the Acts. The
we'll known injunction to the Israelites as to
how they were to eat the Passover may be
mentioned as all early instance where shoes
are referred to, though we have before this,
in the account of Moses and the burning
bush, an earlier reference, giving an antiquity
of over three thousand years to the shoe.
There is, however, mention made Of shoe
latchet as early as the time of Abraham.
The reader who refers to Cruden will find evi-
dence there Of the frequent mention of the
shoe in Scripture.
Among the ancient Hebrews. shoes were
made of leather, rushes, or wool, those Of
the soldiers being sometimes of brass or iron,
tied with thongs passed under the feet. The
ancient Greeks wore various kinds of shoes,
the women of distinction wearing sandals,
and the Lacedemonians wearing red shoes.
Shoes among the Greeks were made so high
as to reach generally to the middle of the leg,
and were often of gold and silk and other
precious stuffs, The Egyptians made their
shoes of papyrus or palm leaves.
Coming to the times of the Romans we
find shoe making assuming something of the
nature of an art. The Romans wore two
kinds of shoes-the calceus covering the
whole foot, not unlike our modern fashion,
and the sandal or slipper, covering only the
sole of the foot. These were often sump..;
ously ornamented, Caligula having lis enrich
ed with precious stoaes,-Nero his shod with
silver, and his empress, Poppaa, hers with
gold Some remarkable examples of Roman
shoes were found in tomb at Southheet, in
Kent, in 1902. They were Of purple leather
retculated in hexagonal designs of beautiful
workmanship, each bexagonal division being
worked in gold. Indeed. the Romans seem
altogether to have been liberal patrons of the
followers of St. Crispin, for the streets of the
imperial city in the time of Domitian were
so blocked up with cobblers' stalls that he
caused them to he removed.
In England, the fashion of wearing shoes
can be traced back to the earliest times
According to Meyrick, the shoes worn by
the Belgic Britons were made of raw COW.
hide that had the hair turned outward, and
coming up to the ankles. A great beau OF
the time of William Rufus, called Robert
the Horned, wore shoes, with long sharp
points, stuffed with tow, and twisted in a
spiral form. This fashion took the fancy of
the people of that day immensely, and the
points went on increasing yearly to the reign
of Richard the Second, when they had to be
tied to the knees of the wearer to save him
from being encumbered in walking. This
tying or fastening in the case of gentlemen
was by chains of silver or silver gilt. In
Chaucer's time the upper part of these shoes
was cut to initiate a church window. The
rank of the wearer in those days was known
by the length of his poulaines. "The men,
says Paradin, "wore them with a point be-
fore, half foot long; the richer and more
eminent personages wore them a foot, and
princes TWO feet long" By an act of the
reign of Edward the Fourth, the absurd
length to which these points had attained Was
limited and no one under the rank of a lord
was to wear shoes more than ten inches long,
md all cobblers making them were to be
lined, and cursed by the clergy.
Shoes, more or less ornamental, appear to
have continued in Vogue among Englishmen
down to very late period. Perhaps the
most splendid pair of shoes we read of is
that worn by Sir Walter Raleigh on great
court occasions. They were of buff leather,
so gorgeously covered with precious stones as
to have exceeded in value the sum Of six
thousand six hundred pounds. Our present
style of shoe was introduced in 1888, but
buckles were not used till 1860. High heels
were fashionable in three reigns previous to
that of Queen Victoria, those of Charles the
Second James the Second, and William and
Mary. The man of fashion in 1920 wore his
shoes square at the toes, with diminutive dia-
mond buckles, monstrous flap on the instep,
and high heels. "Red heels to his shoes" is
one of the directions for making beau in
l727; and Gay, in his "Trivia,' thus sati'
rizes the fashion:
"At every step he breads the wall to lose, =,
And risks, to save coach, his red-heeled shoes.
A SKETCH OF DR.. TANNER.-Dr. Henry
5. Tanner is a native of Tunbridge Wells,
England, and is about forty-nine years of
age He was about sixteen years old when
he came to this country. He married when
he was twenty-three, when working at bis
trade of carriage.maker in Ohio. His wife
assisted him to start and manage q fruit store,
and afterwards stimulated his ambition to
study medicine She studied with him, and
they graduated together at the Cincinnati
Eclectic Medical Institute. They practiced
together at two or three places in Ohio, and
in one town were proprietors of electro ther-
NAL baths. Finally her health failed, and
she went to Duluth to recruit. hestill prac.
ticed and supported herself, but he followed
after while. She led in the next move, too,
which took them to Hudson, Wis. There
they lived until separation three years ago.
The separation was amicable,. but accounts
differ as to the cause. The Doctors friends
say it was because she was active, energetic,
independent, ambitious of acquiring wealth
and professional distinction, while he was
phlegmatic and Indifferent Whatever the
cause, the separation took place in 1877.
Tanner has for the past three years been
practicing medicine in Minneapolis Recent
ly he has given his time almost entirely to
research and correspondence on the subject
of ng.continued abstinence from food. An
unusual tendency to accumulate fat when his
appetite was given unrestrained sway first led
him to limit his diet, by which means he re-
duced himself from 200 to 100 pounds, and
those who are familiar with his habits assert
that he eats scarcely enough in twenty-four
hours to make one ordinary sized meal. 1t
has long been hobby of Tanners that alb
stinence from food was the surest remedy for
bodily ailments, and in his own case he has
regularly practiced it, often pursuing policy
of this kind for twelve days. On one occa-