Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-12-20
WOODEN FOOTWEAR.
Its Popularity Among the Peasants O
Northern GERMANY.


Northern Germany.
Many German and Scandinavian i'm
migrants who have settled in villages
or communities of their own in the
Northwestern States and Territories,
have brought with them the custom OF
wearing wooden shoes. such as they
wore in their homes in the old world. As
rule, however, they soon abandon the
practice. For while they insist that
wooden shoes are better than any
other; that they keep out the mud and
dampness better than leather, and are
cheaper in first cost, besides wearing
much longer.
After little time, however, the
usage of the new world becomes too
strong for the old world wooden shoes,
which are then thrown away. The
wearers find, too, that in our severe
winters high leather boots and shoes
are more protection, and keep out the
snow better than wooden ones, which
are very like slippers in being cut low
pointed at the toe. There are few
Northwestern communities even among
those almost wholly inhabited by Ger
mans or Scandinavians. where people
in wooden shoes are often met at this
day. As these shoes are quite bulky,
they are seldom brought across the
ocean, and, so far as they are worn at
all, are made by hand, of poplar or
Eastwood.
On the European continent, wooden
shoes are very common among the
peasants of the North. as well as in the
greater part of France. France is per-
haps entitled to be called the true home
of the wooden shoe, which is there
called the sa6Ot. 1t is very skilfully,
and even gracefully made. and in the
province of Auvergne, in Central
France, it is customary to decorate the
wooden shoe with delicate carvings of
flowers and with sentiments.
A pair of wooden shoes is favorite
gift of lovers to their affianced brides,
or of gallants wEo wish to win a sweet
heart. These queer lovers gifts are
decorated with carved representa-
tions of garlands of forget-me-nots or
narcissus, or with a pair of doves, or
with two hearts joined together. This
custom has given rise to the proverb
in Auvergne, uttered of some poor,
unattractive girl who has no sweet
heart, Her sabots are ungarlanded"
Skillful carvers of wooden shoes even
decorate them with portraits of the
persons they wish to present them to,
or, if they are little conceited. with
their own. II the shoes are made for
wedding present, as is often the case,
upon them are carved the names of the
parties, the date of the wedding, and
such other facts as there is room for.
And on the sGbots of some of these
stalwart peasants there is room for a
good deal. These gift shoes, as
may be imagined. are not worn
to "knock around the barns and
baru-yards with. They are kept for
state occasions, and sometimes are
put away as precious souvenirs. The
peasants have no idea of being ashamed
of their Sabots. as the German immi-
grants in our Northwest often become.
And the peasants, indeed, say that
Queen Marie Antoinette once wore a
pair of wooden shoes in the palace of
the Trianon. 1t is not probable, how
ever, that any queen ever wore Sabots
as a habit, or for any other purpose
than to set the people an example of
frugality; because they are not COM
Portable except to people who wear
them a great deal and become accus-
toned to them.
The peasants of several European
countries have song, varying almost
with each province, which tells the
mythical story of still another queen,
with her wooden shoes" The song
is legendary, and tells that country
maiden, on account of her wooden
shoes, was scorned as every plain" by
all sorts of people. But at last the
king himself came her way, and falling
in love with her simple grace, like
King Cophetua, astonished his court
iers by making her his queen. The
song has constant refrain, with my
wooden shoes, land the last stanza runs
something like this:
$50 was not quite so plain,
With my wooden shoes,
With my wooden shoes,
But the king from his throne
Came to take me for his own,
With my wooden shoes"
It Is said that a machine has
been invented in France for making
wooden shoes, and it is feared that,