Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1895-11-08
ABOUT SHOES.
Care Is Required In Fitting Them to
the Feet.


Care Is Required in Fitting Them to
the Feet.
There is threadbare joke about the
woman who wears No. shoe on
No. 5 foota feat that is impossible in
exact ratio to the antiquity of the story.
There is a distinct limit to the squeeZ-
ing capacity of any shoe. no matter
what may be the endurance of the
wearer. But, On the authority of the
most experienced shoe dealers, we find
it true that the majority of feet are
distorted and turned from their natural
growth by the obstinate and misplaced
vanity of the general shoe buyer. Very
few persons get their shoes long
enough. The great foot folly lies right
here. The masses buy short, broad
shoes, so that widths such as double
and double ID, that never ought to be
manufactured. are in much demand.
When a woman tells the size of her foot
she likes to make the use of short
Eumber-nothing is said about the
breadth.
The best authorities assure us that
any one could have what sculptors call
the perfect foot, a long, narrow one, IL
mothers would only begin, with the
first shoes, to put their children in
those that are little longer than the
foot, adding all the extra space neces-
sary before the toes instead OF at the
sides, as they are for some unaccount-
able reason so prone to do. Thus,
without injury, but rather to the adj
vantage of the foot, a pleasing shape
may early be secured at the expense Of
the present squat eXtremities.
The other day a woman who had
worn her shoes so short that her feet
had bumped themselves up at the in
step in the most unsightly protuber-
ances told a salesman who tried to per-
suade her to lessen the width and in
crease the length of new purchase.
that she was considered by her friends
TO have perfect Trilby foot" She
added, with a toss of her head: "A
longer size, indeed! Why, my foot was
modelled on the other side"
For what, unless il were as mon
StfOSfty thought aHotueI CuoloiucA,
who overheard the remark
The Chinese are not the only race
who disfgure their useful eXtremities.
They go Systematically to work to ac-
complish their deformities, while our
women do it by blindly ignoring the
pedal space that nature has allotted
them. The Mongolian feet are short
ened by long turning up of the toes,
ours by cramping the members till the
instep is slowly raised in self-defense.
A naturally high instep is thing OF
beauty, but one that is elevated by
force is nothing but grotesque.
And (but of course this is a secreD
We find, if shoe dealers are to be trust
ed. that women are not alone in this
vanity. They declare that men COM
nit the same folly of broad and short,
and, what is oldest of all, that country
people are much more prone to it than
city-bred men and women.
Another word of warning may prove
useful, as it seems not generally to be
understood, that when one goes into
a shop to try on shoes the feet are con-
tracted from the exercise of walking,
and are in the best condition for MAX
ing them feel easy and comfortable.
Due allowance should be made, too, for
the first morning hours, when, after a
nights idleness, the feet are somewhat
enlarged and quite likely to be agrees
sive in the matter of space.-New York
Times.