The Princeton union., 1892-05-26
THE ROMANCE OF S()LES.
A GREAT COLLECTION OF FA-
NOUS FooT-GEAR.
Three Hundred and Tens Pairs or Old
Shoes Which Have Histories--The
Result of Thirty Long Years
biz of Searching.

In q forgotten corner of Paris. sur
rounded by its Fifteenth Century gar
den. stands the Hotel de Cluny, which,
as Victor Hugo says. exists to-day
for the consolation OF artists" This
famous roof covers much that is
curious and interesting. but nothing.
perhaps which better repays study
than the shoes collected by M. Jules
Jacqumart. .'Shoes!' I hear my
Philistine friends exclaim.s Yes and
old shoes at that $40 pairs of them,
writes Elsie Anderson De Wolfe in
the Cosmopolitan. There are French
shoes Of the fifteenth. sixteenth, sew
enteenth and eighteenth centuries;
there is Spanish German and Portu-
guese footgear of the same period.
Here is the shoe of the Venetian noble
and here the boot, pur-fretted, that a
hero Of the league has worn in stir
ring and bloody times. Close by are
ecclesiastical shoes. gold. en- mbroidered,
velvet-soled, that have pressed no pave
ment> savethe marble of the vatican.
Here are Oriental shoes that have
waited at the white mosque sdoor in
the yellow blaze of an Eastern sun
while their owners prayed within;
sandals from royal Egyptian, dead
and mummified these 2. 900 years; the
pointed, upturned toes that Circas-
sian favorite wore; tiny shoes that
have confined the crippled feet of a
Chinese belle. Here too. are mocca-
sins OF the red skinned North Ameri-
can Indians that have followed the
North Star on enterprises of blood
shed, and here is the sealskin shoe of
Lapp which has served in a weary
tramp during the sunless day of an
Arctic winter.
This unique and splendid collection
was made by M. Jacquemart during
thirty years of ceaseless searching.
In the collection are African shoes
from various provinces most of them
IN leather embroidered with many
colored silks and wools Here also
are heelless Turkish shoes richly sewn
with gold and gems and near by the
hand-knitted woolen socks worn by
the poorer Turks. This heavy. square
toed shoe OF black leather belonged to
that fighting governor of Languedoc
Henry. duke of Montmorency. A
great feur-de-lis is stamped on the in
STEP the solid wooden heel is red
colored. and on the flap the entwined
initials Of the duke. Even the sole is
covered with arabesque. .s.
Here is a shoe that has belonged to
no less a person than Catherine de
Medici, mother of three kings 1t is
easy to imagine that these very pieces
of skilled workmanship clothed her
thin Italian feet as she paced the Am
boise terrace more than three CEN
turtles ago. weaving the web that later
closed about the victims of st. Bar
tholomew. ali e
A little further on is as curious an
example of odd footgear as can we'll
be imagined-a sixteenth century
French white leather affair." the long
toe broadening at the tip the long
tongue embroidered in colored silks,
the sides slashed and laced to the GEN.
trail tongue The heel is red and,
most quaint detail of all is joined to
the toe by second sole, fat square
and red. 49,, -.
Further on are the shoes of great
ladies whose graces adorned the
courts of the Louis. Here is Louis
XVI. shoe. of rose colored dotted silk
embroidered with white flowers, the
heels in white kid. Those others are
the tiny shoes of the beautiful and un-
happy Princess de Lamballe They
are of dull. blush silk entwined with
yellow ribbon. ..1s
Near the shoes of this ill-fated prin-
cess is shown a curious Italian pat
tern OF dark wood carved in design
of branches rosettes and trelliswork.
On the sole are two hearts pierced by
an arrow. But the most interesting
wooden shoe in the collection was
made when Henry of Navarro was
king. 1t is finely carved in rosettes.
and belonging to it is a sort of mule of
similar workmanship, into which the
toe fits the whole joining at the heel
with a wooden screw.
Hardly less curious is the footgear
of the beginning of this century.
with ruches of the national colors and
tri-color rosettes. Among the shoes
OF this era by far the most interest
ing are those which once shod the
Empress Josephine
In large case on the left side of
tho room at Cluny is the collection of
riding and regimental boots. Here is
pair that might have belonged to
Maurice de Sake, so valiantly do they
bear themselves.
The funnel of the boots is very large
and the great flap is stamped with
fleur-de-lis The foot is small. with a
rounded toe and the heel with its
marks of q spur bears dolphin.
Besides them stand a pair of boots
that a marshal of France has worn
They are long and soft made in
shagreen, with thick. white, stitched
sole. a garter fastened below the knee
by buckle and second buckle at
the flap. ! fancy this officer must
have been a bit of a dandy and proud
of his leg. s.
A Trip Acro,s India.
In book intended to guide other
horsemen who may desire to initiate
him. Lieutenant Varges of the Austro-