Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1893-10-20
OUR KNIGHTS OF THE ANVIL.

OUR KNIGHTS OF THE ANVIL.
Without wishing to do injustice to our
rural knights of the anvil, it is never
theless lamentable truth that these
votaries of the butteress and drawing
knife are all the world over so welded to
a number of traditionary practices, so
heinous, so irrational, SO preiudicial to
the interests alike of the morse and his
owner that one might we'll be excused
from wondering if their missions were
not to mar instead of to protect the mar
velously perfect handiwork of the
Creator
Ignorant alike of the anatomy, physi-
Ology and economic relations of the parts
they mutilate, they cut and carve as
within. prejudice or time-honorcd custom
dictates. Disaster, it may be slowly,
but surely. follows, and all too often the
poor dumb creatures suffering foots up
the bill. Let us glance in passing at
some of their traditional practices.
Foremost among them is the insane
out the sole till it visply yields to the
pressure of the operators thumbs. The
frog is Natures cushion and hoof eX-
pander, placed there by an allwlse hand !;
by its elasticity it wards off conclusion
from the less elastic portions of the
structure, and by its residence assists in
maintaining the natural expansion of its
horny ambt; that is to say, it does so in
its natural state. but the drawing knife's
touch is fatal to it.
Once cut and carved and deprived of
pressure those very acts cause it to
shrink, dry and harden, and at once lose
those very attributes which constitute its
usefulness to the foot. Robbed of its
elasticity and residence. it is incapable
of diScharging its allotted functions
both a. cushion and as an eXpander it
is a dead failure indeed it is worse, as
IN its altered character it is now Il menace
instead of "A protection, a bane rather
than a boon to the foot that wears it.
The destruction of this important fac
tor having thus been provided for. the
operator probably next turns his atten-
ton to the Soles. which, by all traditions
of the craft, must be pared down until
only "A thin flu. of soft, partly-for-
med horn is left to protect the liv-
ing structures within against injury
from the substances with which the foot
necessarily comes in contact. Nor does
the mischief stop here. The sole itself,
or what is left of it, consists now of soft,
moist, half-formed horn. which dries and
shrinks on exposure to the air, and there
by entails further and still more Seri-
Gus injury on the foot.
In the mutilated, Shrunken sole the
delicate fibers are pnched in the leSSened
caliber of the pores; the source of sup
ply is cut of and the process of repair
retarded, if not absolutely arrested
There seems to he a fascination about
this work of destruction, and the incom
petent workman next addresses himself
to the self-mposed task of improving
upon nature by removing the nOrnS anC
what ne calls. on the tuctS a non ucenoC
principle "opening' the heels. a process
which in plain language means opening
a road for them to close over. On this
poor. manned foot a shoe, often many
sizes too small, is tackled. and the rasp i,
most likely called into requisition to re
duce the foot to fit the shoe, for although
it is apparently of little moment whether
the shoes fit the foot, it is indispensable
necessary that the foot should somehow
or other be got to lit the shoe, and horse
shoeing, like other arts, must needs sac
rifice on the altar of appearances. 1t il
said that art and nature should so Otter
be at variance, and that what Statistic
the one should outrage the demands o
the other Government Report.