Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-04-28
SOCIETY'S FREAKS.
One Of the Latest Is Photograph.
 ing the Feet.
Fashionable Women Have TheIr Comely Pedals Either Cast In Plaster, Bronze or Marble or Give the Camera
 n Shot at Them.

Tn this age of freaks and fads nothina
 is very surprising. A radical departure
 from that to which all are accustomed.
 of course, draws forth comment for the
 time being, but the talk is short lived,
 and few days roll around before society
 IS discussing the merits of another in-
 novation. What an endless amount of gossip, says the Detroit Free Press, was
 caused by the adoption of the deeollete
 dresses not many years ago. How the
 cartoonists strove to outdo each other in
 their caricatures, and how the para
 graphists labored to produce funnier
 jokes about the prevailing styles than their rivals. Yet this is all over, and to-
 day high-necked dress is indeed rare
 at grand ball. So with all things, the
 young man and his kummerbund, par
 ticularly. But they appear to have
 come to stay until the people who foster
 these departures tire of them and look
 for something new.
 These changes, or progress, as they are termed, are not alone confined to dress. All the arts must step up in
 their turns and accept with good grace changes which would make the old masters seek oblivion in some convenient NH'O' AL1O11S Duo L1OS1 uOGlCG8Dl6 1aQS of this season are two which have given the photographer and designer in plaster Of paris quite 8 revenue. In some cline lady with pretty foot, which she could not display to sufficient de- gree to satisfy her vanity, owing to the social restrictions which compel both rich and poor to wear shoes, conceived the idea of having a cast taken and a 1ilxanaSS r0o6n SV, did the craze spread until it has per vaded the civilized world. In some cities which never assume the initiative in such departures, the establishment of this custom was slower than in the metropolises of both worlds, but it came at last, and now the sculptor, or what ever you may call the artistic plasterer, is reaping harvest. Detroit belongs to this latter class, and some members of its population have the malady badly.
 The method was learned at a studio where the work is performed. Coylv does the maiden acquaint the master with the object of her visit, and time is set for the casting. She returns on the appointed day, and, releasing her foot from the prison of silk and leather which protects it from earthly sub SNOAASSS SA "AASAA GA1O udb1NCS in bygone years, she places it in the i position told. A shiver creeps up her spinal column as the plaster is applied, and when the foot has been completely covered as high as the ankle the cast is taken off and allowed to dry for a week. Then it is slightly moistened l and the liquid plaster is poured in the | mold, from which it is taken as soon as GVTfI InSn I,Ss4 drying and smoothing off takes place. At the end of a week there is an exact l counterpart of the foot in plaster of | paris.
 The work is difficult and the price for | a plaster cast is twenty-five dollars. If | the lady desires it in bronze the cost is | sixty dollars; and if in marble one | hundred and fifty dollars, and probably | more if the sculptor's reputation is such \ as to warrant him in charging one per son enough to pay his elementary edu- cation in the art.
 The expense of the plaster and bronze | casts makes it impossible for the lady | to distribute these touching remem- brances of herself, and some genius in feminine garb launched the idea of hay ing the foot photographed. It has edhen we'll III the east, ana It mas been reported that ladies right here in De- troit have had their feet taken
 One cannot glean the slightest idea of what the foot looks like from the shoe except as to length, and in the days when the heels were worn under the instep you couldn't tell even that.
 ''It is not the foot which looks pretty in the shoe which is perfect, not by any said an artist. "As rule the women having the prettiest feet wear the most comforta ble shoes and their feet look larger and not nearly as shapely as those of the women who wear finht Shnas ,ubnr, or, 4ln rAr.ooA l