The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-07-15
The Boot.

The Boot.
The obstinate survival of the human
boot has long been subject of amaze
ment to the student of social customs.
At the present moment, while the Their
mometer is among the nineties, and
Manitoba is sending hot waves in all
directions, thousands of comparatively
Intelligent men are wearing boots that
heat their feet and legs cruelty and I'M
necessarily. They wear boots merely
because previous generations of men
living under peculiar conditions found
boots useful. This is the dullest and
most inexcusable kind of conservatism.
The boot was originally an outside
article of dress. In earlier DAYS Eu-
rope was terribly muddy, and trousers
and stockings were costly. The male
European, therefore. wore boots with
enormously long legs. BY this means
he protected his lower garments from
mud and kept his feet comparatively
dry. With the progress of civilization
the mud OF Europe dried up. Weather
bureaus were established which con-
tinually prOphesied areas of rain and
frequent local showers. OF course.
these never made their appearance, and
one necessary ingredient of mud was
therefore wanting. Street pavements
became common, and street-sweepers
occasionally swept. them clean. In
these circumstances boots ceased to be
either necessary or useful, but the con-
sentative European mind was unable to
abandon them. Instead of wearing
boots outside of their trousers, the
Europeans drew their trousers over
their boot-legs. This was an open con-
fession that boots were useless, and
that all the wants of the human foot
could be met by shoes. The bootleg
survived mercy because of the stupid
conservatism of its wearers, and should
the climate of Europe ever become so
hot that overcoats would lose their
reason for being, we might expect to
see the respectable conservative wear
ing his overcoat under his shirt.
In the civilized parts of this country
the boot is worn for the same reason
that it is worn on the other side of the
Atlantic. In the far West, where rat
tlesnakes abound, and where paved
streets are unknown, the boot fulfills its
normal purpose, and is worn outside of
the trousers, Elsewhere, however, it is
merely an illustration of human folly,
and there is not the slightest excuse for
its existence.
There are certain classes which have
an immoral interest in preserving the
popularity of boots. The shoemaker
always prefers to make boot rather
than a shoe, because it takes more
leather, and hence higher price can
be charged for it. He knows perfectly
well that the leather used in manufac-
turing bootleg will be of no possible
use to the purchaser, but what does he
care for that, provided he can make out
a bill for a pair of boots? Then the
doctors are advocates of boot-wearing.
They know that the practice of casing
the legs and feet with alright leather
in hot weather is an excellent plan for
over-heating the blood and inducing
sunstroke and other diseases. We need
not wonder, therefore, that unprinci-
pied doctors, anxious only to gain pa
tients. earnestly advise everybody to
wear boots, and that more conscientious
doctors scrupulously avoid saying
anything that might cast suspicion upon
boots. Finally, there are the temperance
lecturers, who know that boot-legs afford
q refuge for the imaginary snakes of
delirious drunkards, and who encourage
the wearing of boots in the hope that
drunkards may thereby be terrified into
repentance and reformation. In fact,
boots are among the most efficient aids
to the temperance cause, and were our
drunkards to universally wear shoes,
they would never be driven to temper
ary reformation by the visit of alcoholic
reptiles.
In the Western States there fingers.
according to the local press, a curious
custom which involves the wearing of
boots by fathers of manageable girls.
1t appears that when young man visits
a young woman with the intention of
ultimately making her his wife, the
girls father rushes upon him, and with
his right boot urges him to flight. This
is doubtless survival of a custom still
prevailing among certain barbarous
tribes, in accordance with which a lover
is expected to kidnap his intended wife,
and her father is expected to pursue
him, and, if possible, chastise him.
However this may be, no one can read
the Western newspapers without meet
ing constant illusions to the wrathful
parental boot and the flying lover. The
existence of this remarkable custom
necessarily requires that fathers of mar
riageable girls should wear boots. That
young men should wear them by no
means follows, and there is no doubt
that were Western lovers to wear only
light shoes, their chance of escaping
the pursuit of the boot-clad father would
be materially increased.
Woman long since emancipated her.
self from boots. 1t is true that she
wears variety of shoe to which she
unwarrantably gives the name of boot,
but it has nothing in common with the
gross and brutal boot of man. Of late
years sensible men have not disdained
to initiate the female buttoned boot, and
have found that in all respects it an
swers its purpose. It covers the foot
and ankle and affords ample protection
against the cold. All the finer feelings
Of our nature would revolt at the
thought of incasing our women in the
masculine boot, and welook with horror
on the occasional strong minded woman
who ventures on winter days to put on
a pair of rubber boots. This fact ought
to call the attention of men to the in
defensible nature of their own boots,
and they should pull off the leather
boots from their own legs before ven
turing to pull off the rubber boots of
their strong minded sisters.
It has been maintained with much
plausibility that the black silk hat is
the highest development of human
idiocy. This is probably true, for the
black hat has not the excuse of ever
having been useful or justiiable. While
in behalf of the boot it. can be urged
that it once had its uses, its retention
in civilized communities is at least as
nrenQSterQua as the continued wearing