Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-01-31
A CIPHER ON SHOES.
Numbers Abolished and Feet Arc
Fitted Regardless of Customers

Pride,
Chicago feet are fast losing their
''prominent distinctiveness" owing to
the general introduction in the large
cities of the French system of num-
bering shoes. In years gone by the
women of the windy city achieved an
unenviable reputation of having unus-
ual large penal dimensions. hence the
the term which has long ceased to be
a standing" joke on the vaudeville
stage. AS matter of fact 1t is quite
probable that Chicago women, as
class, have no larger feet than their
sisters in other cities. 1t is impossible,
however that they have set the pace In
the size of their foot apparel and in
sisted in comfort taking precedence
over the size or shape of the shoe.
There is no longer any occasion any
where for women to pinch their Feet IN
order to sustain their reputation for
wearing a certain number of shoe.
Minneapolis manufacturers and re-
tailers of shoes say that the introduce
ton of the French system of number
ing has solved the problem of uncom-
Portable Shoes and people with ill-nt-
ting shoes are greatly the exception to
the rule nowadays. Dealers admit that
the new system has given great salts
faction to the trade. The clerks ind 1t
much easier to suit customers and
there are fewer complaints than form
erly because of insists.
1t is a fact that women who insist on
squeezing their feet into shoes of GER
tain number in others days, in spite of
the clerks protestations that untold
misery would surely follow, are not SO
particular now. They ask for the old
familiar size as of yore. but II the in
telligent clerk hands them shoe that
fits, even If it happens to be size larg-
err, they enter no demurrer.
This is due to the fact that the code
of signals" used under the French sys-
TEN is absolutely unintelligible to the
uninitiated. The women with NO.
| foot who has heretofore labored under
the delusion that a shoe which might
have fitted Mrs. Tom Thumb was just
her size, has been cured of this mania
by the sensible fitting system now in
vogue.
The French system consists entirely
of French combination of numbers,
| the use of letters having been entirely
cut out so far as the shoe stamp is con-
cerned. While the same general sys-
TEN is in use, each large factory has a
cipher code of its own, to distinguish
| it's OUTPUT from shoes of other makes
| A pair of shoes of a particular brand
handled at a certain Nicollet avenue
| shoe store, for instance, might be mum
bered 1874 The clerk would at once
take this number to mean that the size
| of the shoe was CD. He would arrive
at this conclusion by adding the first
two numbers to gether. which would
rive him six, and then interpreting the
figure four to mean d last. In deter
mining the width all he has to know
is that stands fora; 2 for B; for c;
for d; for e and 80 on. A dash
would stand for half size.
In another store visited this morning
the figure 80 was taken for the unit, OF
1 No. 1. Thus SO would be equivalent te
No 4. Another number would indicate
the width.
"Our aim" said one dealer, 'is, frs
of ALL to see that our customers are
properly fitted. Even the cranks wht
once insisted on getting certain num-
Der generally complained the loudes
| when their shoes began to hurt them
/. When person of that class pretend:
to know now just what size she wears
we occasionally enter into littl'
harmless deception and give her foo
the benefit of the doubt. She neve,
knows the difference, and she gets thu
size she really wants"
The rule applies to men as well a
women.