The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-05-09
PRETTY FEET.
Very Small Extremities to Large Ex-
tent Female HalIucination.

| Very Small Extremities to Large Ex-
tent a Female HalIucination.
A woman with a disproportionately
large foot is by common consent en-
titled to pity. But it is not the size of
the foot which good taste objects to,
but its relation to the rest of the body.
A large woman with the tiny foot of a
girl would be as disproportionate as the
small woman with a large foot. What
IS known in the market as the No.
boot can not by any means be made to
60 upon the foot of any woman whose
physical proportions bear any COM
parison with those of the Venus de
Medlci, which is the representation of a
large and voluptuouS woman. Women
| who wear the No. 1 boot do not, as
rule, come under the head Of Yoluptuous
women. They are petite, viyacious,
pert, pretty, anything YOU like, but they
are not the Aledician type. Large
women, said well-known artist and
expert, must have feet that to be beauti-
full would be very ugly on a smaller
woman.
1t is to much larger extent, per-
haps, female curse, for those women
who dare not undergo its miseries grow
| sooner or later to believe that they do.
| and fire can not burn out of them the
conviction that their shoes are No. l.
Nobody but the woman herself knows
what tortures are undergone by the
slave with a No. foot who is chained
to No. l shoe. Professional women
who exhibit their feet are, of course.
more subject to this tyranny of the shoe
than other women, and it NAV not be
generally known that there are emo
tlonal and tragic actresses who. when
all other means Of Stimulating agony
and awakening pity fail rush to the No.
l boot. They put that on, and a sad,
far-aWay look Of unutterable despair
comes into their eyes, neuralgic
shadows play about their mouths, their
chins culver with uneXpressed Grief,
their temples throb with indescribable
Woe, Then the spectators are moved.
he fountains Of human sympathy are
opened, and the critics call it soul
agony, and that touch of nature that
makes the whole world kin. Seen from
the front the No. l boot on these occa-
sions is apparently sweet and guileless.
No one could possibly suspect it of
pans that would make an inquisitOr
sick. For the wearer does not let the
boot take the credit Of her tears when
they can be imputed to soul and heart
and other things than feet. But could
we see the same feet rs they really are.
in all their flat, stale and Improbable
naturalness We should begin to under
stand how UNANIMOUSLY mistaken that
wretch was who said that nature I'M
adorned is adorned the most.
And here it is worth while to remark.
en- PEASANT that the ballet dancers foot.
contrary to the popular notion. is not
and can not be small one. The de-
yelopment consequent upon continuous
physical exercise settles the conven-
tional idea of comeliness. A ballet
dancer never wears tight boot and
when she is dancing she wears shoes
which are models of adaptability and
freedom. But nevertheless the muscles
and tcndOns of the foot are enlarc cd.
the veins stand out. and there ia n ran
eral appearance of strength rather than
of beauty. All this may be obnoxious
to the fastidious taste of the Greek
sculptor, but there is really nothing re-
pugnant to good sense in it. Bv the
side of the ordinary society foot, when
barred to the light, the ballet dancers
is a thing of beauty. There is not one So
ciety belle in ten that dares to battle at
the seaside without hose on. Do YOU
know why? Ask the No. boot
To find the classic foot in these de-
generate days we shall have to look a
long way. The popularity of the classic
foot is the wide gap between the large
toe and its neighbor. This in the Greek
was undoubtedly caused by the thong OF
the sandal that came up between the
toes and kept them apart. Mr. Sarony,
in determining the fine point of a mod
els foot, is said to have doubled up
ten-dollar bill compactly and inserted it
between the toes with the jocose remark
that if it fell out it was the models.
And his experience is that it generally
stays there until it is pulled The Amer
lean women as rule have smaller feet
than the English women. But this is
not altogether matter of temperature
Habit in a large measure determines
the size of the feet, as it will of the
arms, and the English women use their
feet far more than do the Americans.
The Spanish women are celebrated
for their high iasteps, which for long
time was held to be a sign of good
blood and fine breeding But that no.
ton has been exploded of late years by
the investigations OF Darwin and others,
who find that the OSSeous formation of
the foot follows certain unknown con-
genial laws which make it possible for
the peasants daughter to have Gin
derella foot while the princess of the
blood may be born with large and I'M
calmly feet.--N Y. World.
Turkish Proverbs About Women.