Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-09-11
LIFE In A HOE-STORE.
Women Will Have Pretty and
Tight Fitting Shoes.
Some of the whims That Ladies Have
with Reference TO Their Foot-Gesr-
why None But Sweet-Tempered
Men Should Sell Shoes.

years before his time" said white haired
shoe-dealer in one of the uptown retail
stores to New York Sun reporter. at is
the hardest business there is. If q lady
wants bonnet she buys one she can get on
and not hurt her head, but if she wants a
shoe she tries on every one in the store, and
then limps out in pair two sizes too small,
and scolds and says we have not good
shaped shoes, because they hurt her feet.
1t is trying business. A man does not live
out half his days"
" But your hair is white
| Yes, my hair is white-it Is the bust
ness. II is also thin-that is the business,
| too II was all different when | was young
We had not many kinds Of shoes, only few
sizes, and just two dffe rent widths. Now
there are hundreds of styles of shoes-six-
teen sizes and eight widths, and you have to
| try them all on the same woman sometimes
to please her. When / was young woman
put on her own shoes with little help. Now
we have to take off the old shoes, button all
the twenty-five or thirty pairs Of new ones
we try on, tell all sorts of stories about the
sizes, be careful indeed not to hurt the
| bunions and corns that we must pretend
not TO see, put the old shoes back on and the
rubbers, pick up the bundles, help the
women TO the door, and close it after her.
| IL women would wear the size shoe they
| need would like it better, but they won't
| II they know it. Do you know what a large
| 4l2 shoe isl Well, now, l will tell you in
confdence-it is az When woman asks
for that kind of shoe mark the number
from pair of rs, fit it on her feet, and she
| goes away delighted. But three-fourths OF
| the ladies have too small shoes / stand by
my door Sunday and watch the pretty girls
20 by to church. They are sweet, bright
| l.l...z
| God made them good-but they can't walk
in straight line; they go dipping and
lodging all over the walk in crooked paths,
like the wicked the Bible tells about Why
is thati They are looking for soft stones
IN the walk-smooth places-because their
feet hurt 80 badly. They can not step
square and stand on the curbstone, and
they dread TO put the foot down on the
crosswak.
we have to tit the head and the foot,
too, when we sell a shoe. The head says
No. 3, AA,'; the foot says IS EE'-we
can't fit both with the same shoe"
Are girls or married ladies most partic-
ular about their shoesi"
80, girls will wear small shoes any way,
but often married lady comes in and says:
Il wore No. 3 shoe before was married,
but now my market is made will be com
vanity an elderly woman gives up is her
pride about small shoes. To the day of her
death her bonnet must be becoming, her
dress must fit nicely, her glove be neat, but
she will say of her shoe: Give me some
thing easy You see she has spoiled her
feet in her youth, and now she must do pen
ance with twisted toes and three-cornered
joints.
women are much harder to fit than
men, hut when a man is a crank he is the
worst kind of "a one Dudes are the worst
of all to deal with. They don't know what
they do want.
"a woman came in one day and asked if
we had Kidneys / showed her kid boots
and 1t was all right Another asked for
oxen tise, and another for paper goat and
they all, without exception, wanted shoes
too short. never knew a woman TO ask for
long enough shoes unless she was very old.
"The largest size sell is No 10, and tho
girls that wear those shoes have brains and
breeding enough to ask for that size, and
not make me try ON every number from six
up; but we have several customers who
have nine shoe, aud we dare not tell them;
they would never try it; so we mark it six"
SIT is thirty-one years ago to-day since l
became n shoemaker said Mr. Alexander,
land l think no article of wearing apparel
has improved more than the fashion and
shape Of shoes, Here Is a case of shoes
which was manufactured in New York and
received medal at the Cry stal Palace, Lon
don, just before it burned, some time in the
flfties. The most stylish street shoe then
was low, heelless gaitcr, laced on the in
side of the foot, made of cloth of all colors,
from the most delicate lavender to a seal
brown with or without narrow foxing of
patent leather scarcely half an inch wide
The delicate shadss of blue, pink and laven-
der were the most popular street shoes,
while for the house tinted satin shoes en-
broidered with vine in bright, soft shades,
or in plain colors, were selected by women |
OF fashion, Slippers had no heels, and were
held in place by ribbons crossed and /
strapped round and round the ankle The /
soles OF these shoes were straight and mar
row, having no arch at the instep the tops
cut like congress gaiter, with no vamp,
reaching only TO the bend of the ankle and /
bordered with lace frills or silk fringe with /
tassels One pair of buttoned shoes was
displayed so low that five buttons fastened .
1.-THE buttons being of brass, the shoe
itself of pale gray cloth, foXed narrowly .
with patent leather, with three tiny straps
OF the leather ornamenting the toe. An
other favorte style'was in the Jenny Lind
bucksllln, n low shoe cut all in one piece,
with u seam in the back and no heel There
We're also street shoes worn with light hose
These shoes were all made and stitched by
hand, One clerk could wait on half n dozen
ladies' at once in those days, as they put the
shoes on themselves and we had only two
widths and few varieties, II shoe was too
narrow IA lady took the next size larger; II
that was too narrow she took the next size
still OF course 1t was too long, but we
illed the toe with cotton batting, and it was
perfectly satisfactory,
A Memory of Thad. stevens.
Thaddeus stevens had two weaknesses:
An unconQuerable love for poker and A