The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1882-01-05
Facts About Feet.
Some Odd Glimpses of Human Nature
Caught in Last Makers Shop.

'Never wager that woman has pretty
foot because she wears shapely boot or Shoe"
I said member of the oldest and largest last
making firm in the Middle States. 81 know
that very few fashionable women can boast Of
| cornless and bunionless feet Skillful work
men are paid well to make their feet look
shapely without inflicting too much pain.
| OF course the women must suffer, but they
grin and bear it better than men do. Fashion
able women have a pair of lasts made, send
them to the shoemaker with instructions to
use the softest leather, and then have the shoes
sent home without ever having seen the shoe
maker. 1T is easy, however, to detect wo-
man who suffers from corns or bunions. The
walk betrays her. Her eyes and face are also
telltales. She will bear excruciating pain In
the street, but as soon as she arrives at home
she filings off the shoes. / know many silly
women who wear shoes so tight that the blood
cannot circulate, and they have fainting spells
after the shoes are removed. Middle-aged
women are mere particular than young women
to have pretty shoes, and it is harder to please
them. Married women are very proud of their
Shoes and gray-headed grandmothers are
sometimes as anxious to have shapely foot as
the girls are. During twenty-five years we
have had hundreds of aged people among our
most fastidious customers
Styles have not varied much ia late years,
fashions of their grandmotherss days. A
century ago women wore shoes with very thin
soles high insteps, and straight heels, q in
ches high But the heels then were broad.
Now the shoes slope sharply from the heel to
the hollow of the instep, which is made to bear
the weight of the body on heel hardly one
inch in diameter at the bottom. The ball OF
the foot and the toes sustain most OF the weight,
and the ball therefore spreads forward and out
ward. The short shoe prevents the toes from
pushing forward naturally, and the result Is
corns and bunions.. The heel does not bear its
due proportion OF the weight OF the body:
The toes and the very sensitive under part OF
the instep therefore suffer, and they distribute
torture to other parts of the body. Aches OF
all kinds ensue, and the consequences are often
serious. Tight shoes are the cause OF much
sickness among women, and many nervous dis
orders are traceable to the abuse OF the foot.
/ am glad that style of shoe is becoming
fashionable having the heel and sole broad
and low, SO that the foot rests naturally.
Some persons who have tender feet suffer
from corns and bunions, no matter what kind
of shoe they wear, but the majority dishgure
their feet by cramping them in tight or short
shoes. The pinching and cramping process is
begun in the cradle, when the mother squeezes
the soft tiny feet of the baby into shoes that
are not large enough to give the toes full play.
AS the boy or girl grows, the cramping is con-
tinued in order that when they are young men
and women they will be in the fashion at snv
COST. Il0y Will udVo tuo nAIIOWoot bOoi tuO
highest and slenderest instep, in order to be
in the style, and the warnings of physicians,
lastmakers and shoemskers are disregarded.
Sensible folk come to US to have lasts made
the exact shape of their feet, and they want
every joint and toe to have full play. We take
q diagram of both feet, for people rarely have
both feet exactly alike in every joint, and then
take note of the play of the feet in walking.
We make such lasts by hand, but lasts for the
trade are now turned out on lathe. A small
block of maple or persimmon wood is thus fash
ioned into last very quickly. The trade pay
from 40 cents to $1.25 pair, and we sell to
shoemakers and customers at the same price.
Lasts made to order cost as high as 80. Ii you
have your own lasts good shoemaker can ex-
actly fit your foot every time.
BY the shoe he wears or the last he orders, l
can tell where my customer comes from, and
can also Judge something of his character. This
broad, comfortable looking last is popular IN
New England, where the people care more for
comfort than for appearances. That nobby,
short toe is favorite with city folk. The toe
cut off square and turned up is for the New
Orleans trade. Those lasts, broad at the base
of the foot, with the toe about OF an inch
wide and turned up, are for the people on the
Southern coast. The Creoles of New Orleans
prefer that round toe which runs to a sharp
point and turns up like turtles head. That
last which resembles Chinese junk is dotted
on by flashy young men who frequent midnight
picnics and cheap masquerades. The narrow
round toe is popular with some fops. Country
men and foreigners ask for broad soies and
wide heels, something substantial.
I know men and women whose feet are 80
broad and fiat that we have to make each last
in four sections in order to get the last out az
ter the shoe is made. The fnest-looking men
generally have the ugliest feet"