The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1895-11-15
ABOUT SHOES.
fCars e Required a Fitting Thorn

the Feet.
There is q ~threadbare Joke about the
woman who wears q No. 8 shoe on q
No. 5 foot-a feat that is impossible in
exact ratio to the antiquity Of the story.
There is a distinct limit to the suueez-
ing capacity Of any shoe, no matter
what may be the endurance Of the
wearer But, on the authority of the
moss Sperienced shoe dealers, we find
it trHs hat the majority of feet are
dist and turned from their natural
growth1 the obstinate and misplaced
vanity of the g~eneral,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
c and double D, that never oughtsto be
manufactured, are in much demand
When a woman tells the size Of her foot
she likes to make the use Of a short
number-nothing is said about the.
breadth.
The best authorities assure us that
any n could have what sculptors call
the perfect foot, a long, narrow one, if
mothers would only begin, with the
first shoes, to put their children in
those that are a little longer than the
foot, adding all the extra space neces-
sary before the toes instead of at the
sides, as they arc for some unaccount-
able reason so prone to do. Thus,
without injury, but rather to the ad-
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 a new purchase,
that she was considered by her friends
to have a 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 it were as a mon
strosity?" thought another customer,
VIII OVC1 ACo1u -l11C lC11d1 NJ -g-..
The Chinese are not the only race
who disfigure their useful extremities.
They go Systematically to work to &C
complish their deformities, while our
women do it by blindly ignoring the
pedal space that nature has allotted
them. The Monaghan feet are short
ened by a 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 a thing of
beauty, but one that is elevated by
force is nothing but grotesque.
And (but Of course this is a secret)
we find, if shoe dealers are to be trust
ed, hat 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.