Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1892-05-14
SOCIETY'S FREAKS.
One Of the Latest Ii Photograph
ing the Feet.
Fashionable Women Have Their Comely
Pedals Either Cast In Plaster, Bronze
or Marble Give the Camera
Shot at Them.


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 decollete
dresses not many years ago. How the
cartoonists strove to Guido 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 ever, and to-
day high-necked dress is indeed rare
ut 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. ALI 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
cave. Among the most noticeable fads
thephotographer and designer in plaster
of paris quite revenue. In some
cline lady with pretty foot. which
She could not display to a 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 n cast taken and
likeness made in bronze. Like wildfre
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
mctropolises of both worlds, but it came
at last, and now the sculptor, or what
ever you may call the artistic plastcrer,
Is reaping q harvest. Detroit belongs
to this latter class, and some members
of its population hare the malady badly.
The method wis learned at studio
where the work is performed. Coyly
does the maiden acquaint the master
with the obj tct of her visit, and a time
IS set for tie casting. She returns on
the appointed day, and, releasing her
foot from the prison of silk and leather
which protects it from earthly sub
stances; on which the natives trampled
in bygone years, she places it in the
petition told. A shivcr creeps up her
spinal column Us the plaster is applied,
@2d when the foot has been completely
Covered Us high as the ankle the cast
Is taken off and allowed to dry for q
week. Then it is slightly moistened
and the liquid plaster is poured in the
mold, from which it is taken US, soon as
sufficiently dried, and then the final
drying and smoothing of takes place.
A. the end of n week there is an exact
counterpart of the foot in plaster of
p3ris.
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
a to warrant him in charging one per-
son enough 10 pay his elementary edu-
C',tiOn in the art.
The expense of the plaster and bronze
casts makes it impossible for the lady
t. distribute these touching remem-
E.anccs OF herself, and some genius in
t minnie: garb launched the idea of nav
i.,g the foot photographed. 1t has
t:kcn well in the east, and it has been
r,portcl that ladies right here in De-
tot: have had their feet taken"
One cannot CLEAN the slightest idea
OF what the foot looks like from the
sho" except as to length, and in the
d;,y" When the heels were worn under
tho i7stcp you couldn't tell even that.
1T is not the foot which looks pretty
IL the shoe which is perfect, not by any
Leans" said an artist. "As rule the
omen having the prettiest feet wear
tie most comforta bic shoes and their
f"ct Look larger and not nearly as
siaprly as those of the women who
ear tight shoes when on the street.