Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1889-10-09
LIFE IN A SHOE-STOR
Women Will Have Pretty and
Tight Fitting Shoes.
Some Of the wbims That Ladies Have
with Reference TO Their Foot-Gear-
why None But sweot-Tempered
Mon Should Sell shoes.


A man in the shoe business dies twenty
years before his time" said white-haired
shoe-dealer in one Of the uptown retail
stores TO a New York Sun reporter. ut Is
the hardest business there is. II lady
wants bonnet she buys one she can get on
and not hurt her head, but il she wants
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 a trying business. A man does not live
out half his days"
" But your hair is white
"Yes, my bair is white-it is the busi-
ness. 1t is also thin-that is the business,
too 1t was all different when was young.
We had not many kinds of shoes, only few
sizes, and just two diffe 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.
II women would wear the size shoe they
need would like it better, but they won't
if they know it, Do you know what a large
4l2 shoe isi Well, now, will tell you in
confidence-it is az. When a woman asks
for that kind of a shoe mark the number
from a 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
90 by to church. They are sweet, bright
eyed, red-cheeked and straight-limbed.
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 that! They are looking for soft stones
IN the walk-smooth places--because their
feet hurt so badly. They can not step
square and stand on the curbstone, and
they dread to put the foot down on the
crosswalk.
We have to tt the head and the foot,
| too, when we sell shoe. The head says
| No. 3, AA,'; the foot says 3 EE-we
can't fit both with the same shoe"
"Are girls or married ladies most partic-
ular about their shoesP
go, girls will wear small shoes any way,
but often married lady comes in and says:
| | wore No. shoe before l was married,
| but now my market is made will be COM
fortable,' and we sell her five. The first
| 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
np 1,itbt t,yi cd and thrpn- -rprpnrp1
joints.
"Women are much harder to fit than
men, hut when Il man is Il 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 l showed her kid boots
and it was all right Another asked for
| oxen use, 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 the
| 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, and we dare not tell them;
| they would never try it; so we mark it six"
~ 10 thii out ySdlo dSO tO-uuy SluCS
became shoemaker" said Mr. Alexander,
land think no article of wearing apparel
has improved more than the fashion and
shape of shoes. Here is case of shoes
which was manufactured in New York and
received a medal at the Cry stal Palace Lon
| don, Just before it burned, some time in the
| fifties. The most stylish street shoe then
was low, heelless gaiter, laced on the in
side of the foot, made of cloth of all colors,
| from the most delicate lavender to seal
| brown, with or without a narrow foXing of
patent leather scarcely half an inch wide.
| The delicate shadss of blue, pink and laven-
der We're 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
| bordercd 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 favorite style'was in the Jenny Lind
! buckskln, a low shoe cut all in one piece,
with u seam in the back and no heel. There
were also street shoes worn with light hose.
These shoes were all made and stitched by
hand. One clerk could wait on half dozen
ladies ut 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 lady took the next size larger; II
| that was too narrow she took the next size
still OF course il was too long, but we
! filed the zoe with cotton batting, and it was
perfectly satisfactory,