Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-03-01
A woMAN's WORD ABOUT FEET.

1t mas renamed Tor woman to come
forward and tell us some needed truths
about the human foot. If all Miss Kepley
says in the Popular Science Monthly about
our treatment of our feet is true-and we
believe she has not much exaggerated
AngIo-Saxons deserve to suffer eternal
pains for the brutal manner in which they
have malformed themselves.
This lady is courageous, for it required
more than ordinary valor to face the result
of such sentences as these for instance
at is very hard to find any woman who
will confess that her shoes are too tight,
too short, or too high. heeled. Her shoes
are usually miles too big, and hurt by
their looseness. Ii women complain of
lame backs or sore feet they will be sure
the shoes have no part in it, because wo-
men are not aware how they have depart
ed from nature in this regard.
Many of the peculiar ailments under
which women pass their days in invalidism,
unhappy and miserable themselves, and
making others unhappy, would vanish or
be greatly mitigated if they would but
apply common sense to the selection of
their shoes. It is very hard to persuade
them to reform their habits on this point,
but have never known any woman who
had learned the new comfort to go back to
the old habit.
This is true, but women will none the
more relish it. Miss Kepley's criticisms
should have wide publication. She clearly
demonstrates that in the matter of shoes
for children the mass of people are prac-
ticing cruelty upon their offspring that if
inflicted among the heather would rouse
a missionary world to arms.
We all know that the charges of the
lady are true, that the pointed shoe, the
high heel, the close grip of the leather, the
narrow boot, the unyielding sole, ETC., dis
tort the foot, displace the structural
anatomy frame or skeleton, and pro-
duce innumerable discomforts, diseases
and malformations. More than this, they
affect the bodily form and the bodily
health. Indeed, they are INDUCED in at
the expense of health.
But there is not much sympathy to be
wasted on adults. They are all aware of
the fortunes of fashion in this respect, and
if they lack the courage to resist them, let
them suffer. Some of the results of this
cowardice Miss Kepley illustrates, and the
exhibition of distorted feet, crossed toes,
crooked ankles and bunions is shockingly
real.
To the salvation of the children from
such miseries, however, we may give at.
tention. 1t is in youth that the ruin of
the foot is accomplished. The bones are
then soft and yielding, and the shoes most
children are forced to wear are not adapted
to the natural shape. position or duty OF
the foot. We cramp and control the foot
of the child to crafty an erroneous taste
false idea of beauty. More than this, it
is shown, and medical authority of high
order cited to prove it, that this de!orming
of young bones in the feet produces curva-
ture of the spine and other serious all
ments, and in the case of many young girls
their early invalidism is directly traceable
to the abuse of the feet and the consequent
abuse of the bones and muscles of the leg
and the back; false carriage, injury to vi.
tai organs, and finally chronic invalidism
and speedy decline result.
All this is very bad. We do not believe
it to be much exaggerated. There is
enough of truth in it to cause parents to
seriously reflect, and also to occasion the
inquiry, Why is it that the physicians of
the day do not use the influence they pos.
sess TO correct the evil, the consequences
of which are constantly presented to
them?