The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-11

Sun, are the latest thing in women's
| shoes. They are a trifie smaller than a
canalboat and weigh a little less thar
ton. The Chicago girl dotes on them
the New York girl takes to them but
mildly, while the San Francisco cir
would almost rather wear coffin than
a double decker.
The style is what the dealers call a
fad style 1t has a double projecting
sole. enormously thick. The lower
deck is a good three-quarters of an inch
wide. The upper is a quarter of an
inch in width and is rope stitched 70
the lower deck. The extension runs
round the shoe, heel and all.
With this formidable sole goes an
! upper which is equally startling. A
! double decker of patent leather has an
elaborate punched toe and a trimming
of the same style extending entirely
! around the shoe. The eyelets are huge
brass ones. Altogether it is a shoe
about as graceful as an elephants hoof.
A shoe salesman, who goes all over
the country was showing his set of
samples the other day to a layman. He
lifted the double decker and laid it
down with a sigh.
That's the sort of shoe that makes
the manufacturers want to lie down
an extreme, but look at all the rest of
these heavy shoes for women. If it
wasn't for the extreme West and the
South we might as well give up the
ghost. Now, here's the shoe that wom-
en- used to wear before they took It
into their heads that they'd wear ar
mored cruisers on their feet"
He picked up a kid shoe whose up
per was as soft as a kid glove and
rolled the sole up as if it had been a
card.
Now, there's a shoe that there was
money in" he said. That's what we
call turned shoe. It's sewed on to
the sole wrong side out and then turn
ed over. There's no insole. That was
shoe that wore QUIT" admiringly
The upper always ripped loose from
the sole. Always did. The woman took
1T TO the shoemaker and had 1t sewed
up and the next week it ripped off in
another place. But what can you ex-
pect of a shoe like that?" holding the
6ouble decker at arms length and re-
garding it with deep disgust.
Those things simply won't wear
out Why, we used to sell at least
two pairs Of light, turned shoes where
we sell one pair of heavy shoes now. If
woman had given the turned shoes the
hard wear they give these new-fangled
ones we'd have sold twice as many as
we did. That double decker goes it
little too hard though. 1t won't be a
good seller except in Chicago. They're
great on fads out there.
That old gag about the Chicago
girls big feet isn't true, by the way.
The Lord doesn't make a special size
or feet for Chicago. The shoe clerks
out there do the best they can in that
OF hitting out West. Their idea is to
have woman wear a very long shoe.
so that 1t makes her foot look slender.
out In Sioux City saw a clerk fitting
a woman, and he gave her a No. 9
when she ought to have worn a No. Z.
Boston women wear these big.
heavy shoes. too. The uglier a shoe
is the better it takes in Boston. 1 sup
pose that's because they have New
England consciences up there. They
can't reconcile themselves to seeing
their feet look trim and pretty. 1 can
tell you just what cities in the country
will buy any shoe you show me. Here,
for instance, is a Philadelphia seller.
That's good shoe; heavy, we'll made.
thick sole, broad toe, but not extreme
In any of these points. At the same
time the toe is broader and squarer
than the shoes which sell best in New
York.
Here's what we call a freak toe.
The shoe has an absolutely straight
line on the inside then sheers off sud
denly on the outside, so that the point
of the toe is right at the inside cor
ner of the shoe. Instead of a round toe
there is simply a corner. That shoe
sells best in Chicago
Down South the girls are iust be-
ginning to get over the notions their
grandmothers had about footwear.
TheyVe always worn just as short
shoe as they could scrooge their feet
into. That made their instep hump up
and as a consequence there had to be a
special style OF shoe made for the
South. know a Southern woman who
is feet inches tall and who wears a
21s shoe. Proud? She is as proud as
peacock, but know a chiropodist who
treats her feet and he says
The shoeman made an expressive
gesture. Then he picked up two shoes.
These are the best New York sell
ers, he said. This one is a light
weight kid shoe, with a patent leather
tip, flexible sole and what's called a
medium toe. This other is heavier and
has larger toe but is not a freak. One
is a dress shoe, the other a street shoe.
Take ii all in all, patent leather is the
bCSl-ociiihB sllOe III new YORK to-day,
more's the pity for the feet that wear
the shoes. Here's a new thing; looks
like patent leather, but is more flexible
and porous and is guaranteed not to
crack. That's ideal kid"
What struck the tan shoe this
spring." asked the layman; 'It dropped
out of fashion all of a sudden*"
Didn't 1t, thought said the shoe
man with shrewd smile. But what
would you do IL your customers were
pretty we'll loaded up in a certain line
and you knew you couldn't get much
of an order from them? You'd start a
new fashion. wouldn't you, so that
they'd have to buy? There are tricks
as you may have heard, in all trades,
I'm thinking, though, that IL wont be
an easy trick for us to get women to
stop buying these heavy shoes that
they've taken such a notion to. ANY,
body that'n call off that fashion will
earn the heartfelt gratitude of the
shoemakers, you may be sure of that.
We've done what we can for ourselves
though. Look at this heel. That's the
very latest thing and is called the Gu
ban. Looks like a sugar loaf with the
top bitten off and then turned upside
down, doesn't 1t? Folks'll get tired of
that heel even IL their shoes wont wear
out and so we may be able to do a little
business here and there and keep out
OF the poorhouse."
Then the prosperous looking shoeman
closed his case and took comfort.