Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-07-28
Our Shoes.
"'Shoe the old horse,
Shoe the old mare,

buG leu Tue bI6 COlG 20 Udfo,
says the nursery rhyme which we
have repeated many time as we sat
by the fire toasting baby's pink toes {.
But in real life we are not fond, as a
rule, of letting the little colt 60 I'M
shod, if that same frisky parsonage
is lad who belongs to us. Unless
indeed the dear child is to go crab
bling, with trousers rolled to the
knees, Or to wade in the brook or the
surf.
1t is strange, however, consider
ing how proud we are of the baby's
rosy feet, that we take such pains to
make the feet of boys and girls SO
clumsy and misshapen. We squeeze
the growing foot into leather box
too tight and too short for it, and
presently the poor little toes, which
have no room to lie fiat, are crowd
ed one over the other, and the tender
bones are bruised out of shape, while
the pink nails become pointed, crook
ed, and scrawny bits of horn, if they
do not push their way into the soft
and yielding file sh. Callous places
called corns appear, making no end
of trouble, and the joints, having no
room to develop as they ought,
spread out and bulge up, and pres
emily an angry red spot appears on
their surface, boring torture called
a bunion. The whole of this defor-
nifty and torment might have been
avoided by simply never letting the
child wear a shoe which did not fit
easily and smoothly over the foot,
projecting little in length beyond
the great toe, wide enough for the
toes to move within it, only tight
enough for comfortable snugness ov-
er the instep, and with broad sole
and a low heel.
The delusion, which is widespread
sensible shoemakers and doctors to
contrary, is that small foot of beau
ty or a blemish; it is, so 10 speak,
a mere accident. The thing to be
desired is foot in proportion to its
possessor's size, diminutive if the
person be little in stature, and
substantial if the person be tall and
heavy. Look at the feet of the beau
tlful Greek statues, copies of which
are the artists ideal poises instead
lily, but models of elegance, in exact
proportion to the rest of the figure.
We are very much amused at the
Chinese, who bandage the feet of
their daughters, so that the poor
things must hobble through the world
never able to walk, to dance, to skip,
to run up stairs or down, or do any
of the pleasant things which we are
fond of. Fancy a Chinese lady play
ing lawn-tennis But when hear a
mother gravely speak of breaking in
a pair of new shoes on Elsie's feet,
letting the little girl suffer an hour or
two of torture every day for week
that by Sunday she may walk with
out limp, ] do not think very high
ly of that mothers common sense.
The new shoes should have comfort
able from the first moment of their
pptting on.
Mothers and nurses should be very
careful in pairing the little nails on
baby's feet, and as the children grow
older should teach them that nails
should be cut squarely not in a cur
we'd fashion. If there is danger of
an n-growing nail, it may be aver
ted by simply making V-shaped in
cision in the upper part of the nail,
at the centre and down almost to the
quick.
SO much of our pleasure and health
depends on our ability to 60 about
freely that we cannot too carefully
watch our feet, and when we count
the tiny toes, and say,
''This little pig went to market,
And this little pig stayed home,''
we should make ourselves certain the
the dear little pigs, either going out
or staying in, are we'll shod for the
journey of life.
Right is right and wrong is wrong.
Popular opinion cannot make the
right wrong, or the wrong right
Yet many man or boy, on coming
into a new community finds that pop
ular opinion just there approves that
which he knows ought not to have toll
comes the question
whether he is to accept public opin-
ion as a guide, or to conform his
course to standard that he knows
to be correct. On his answer to that
question hangs the pivot of his char
acter and destiny.
A SCRAP OF PAPER SAVES HER LIFE-It was
Just an ordinary scrap of wrapping paper, but
it saved her life. She was in the last stages of
told nv that che ,vae inour