Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-05-21
PATENT LEATHER TAN SHOES.
They Are n Novelty and Dealers Are
Wondering IL They Will Take.

They Are n Novelty and Dealers Are
Wondering IL They Will Take.
From the New York Sun.
The latest development in the light-col-
orei shoe is of a character to puzzle the
public as we'll as the shopkeepers. One
dealer told Sun reporter the other day
that he had no idea just what the new
style meant.
ait Is something that seems all wrong to
me- he said. land We are waiting to see
what the people going to think of it.
The new shoe combines the features of
an undress and a patent leather shoe as
well. 1t is made of the usual tan-colored
leather. but is finished with a patent
leather glaze that makes 1T shine like the
newest sort of black patent leather pumps.
some man had been trying to solve the
problem of the combination of tan shoes
and the silk hat by inventing something
that would seem a little more appropriate
to the men who like this fashion. There is
the tan-colored leather. with its suggestion
of summer neslige. and the light back
ground a protection from the dust. Then
there is the shiny glaze TO AFFORD some
sort of excuse for the connection with the
Silk hat. But 1 don't believe that so much
analysis prompted the inventor OF that
novelty. That it was devised for the mere
purpose of getting out something new or
maybe to furnish a permanent shine that
geEerally costs ten cents whenever 1t Is
put on the unglazed shoe seems the most
probable explanation.
THE care of light shoes Is likely to be
more expensive in the end than the ordi-
nary black ones. for they promptly show
neglect. and everywhere it costs double
the price of ordinary backing to have
them cleaned. But they have come to
stay. There is no doubt about that. and
their survival seems more remarkable after
the struggle it took to make them popular.
/ remember how conspicuous the few men
were who ten years ago courageously ven
tured out wearing these light-colored shoes.
They have now generally driven out of use
entirely one sort of shoe That is the black
calf low quarter shoe. Comparatively few
of them are made now, and l don't be-
lieve that anybody regrets their disappear
ance- They were always inconvenient,
with no end of trouble to the bootblack
who had to look after them.
This year finds no change in the gen.
eral styles. The heavy. double-soled tan
shoes that began to be fashionable about
three years ago We're made then by only
the high-priced shoemakers. but they are
to be obtained anywhere now, and even the
lasts. which were supposed to be the ex-
elusive property Of these makes. are now
10 be had for cheap prices in form that
initiates remarkably well the best work
of the expensive men.
This spring sees few of the combined
tan and patent leather dress shoes. which.
in spite of all efforts to make them popular
here. remain nothing more than a shop
window curiosity. These shoes with the
tan tops. pearl buttons. and patent leather
uppers, are regarded highly fashionable
by certain exquisite dressers in London
and Paris. but New York won't have them
Neither will IL take the tan buttoned Shoes
which succumbed after a year of trial.
They are worn to some extent in London
but they are not the best STYLE and New
Workers promptly assigned them to that
catalogue of intolerable eventualities that
includes the patent leather shoe with white
canvas tops and white buttons, the tan
leather shoes with some sort of tops and
the combined patent leather and tan shoe
described above We rejected all of these.
Russia leather Is still the most popular for
the tan-colored Shoes