The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-04-21
Talusology:
The Cult of the Ankle.


talusology?" repeated Mile. Zie, the ankle
culturist. Because l was stranded in
Paris and driven TO answering the adyer-
tisement of an American woman for an
American masseuse. She was amazed
when I suggested beginning with her
ankles-most of our countrywomen neg
lect their ankles explaining
that they were half an inch too thick,
and then proving that statement by meas
urements.
THAT matchmaking Is not a new, but
recently revived, cult is evidenced by the
anklets left by the ancient Greeks and
Romans who probably devoted time as
well as money to their ankles. No doubt i
Anthony gave Cleopatra more than one
pair of anklets during the course of their
Irritation.
Considerable time is required to get the
ankles into good condition, aud unless
some women begin shortly they won't be
able to appear with bare ankles next sum-
mer at the Narragansett, Bar Harbor and
Southampton bathing beaches, and II GER
tain maids and matrons wear stockings
into the surf people will say that their
ankles are unpresentable. A prominent So
ciety woman living on Sixty-seventh
street, near Madison avenue, has decided
to pass next summer inland, simply be-
cause her neglected ankles cannot be re-
formed in less than year.
Society women with pretty feetI No
end of them. At the Long Island horse
shows you must have noticed Mrs. Cass
Garfield, Mrs. Reginald Brooks and Mrs.
Norman Whitshouse as they stepped from
their carriages or caught glimpse of
Mrs. William K. Yanderbilt's tiny feet.
To be sure, these women are from the
South and West, but New York can boast
of Mrs. Clarence Mackay, Mrs, Peter
Cooper Hewitt and Miss Natica Rives.
Mrs. Ernest Iselin has lived here so long
hat uha not anA
are those Spanish beauties Philip
Ludig and the Misses De Acosta-all with
faultless feet, and some Cubans quite as
fortunate are Mrs. W. Scott Cameron and
her sister, Mrs. August Belmont, Jr.
Every woman should criticise her
ankles as ptilessly as though they be-
longed to some other woman, or else get
the opinion of a relatiye-relatives are so
brutally frank The morning after a
debutante danced at the Junior League
entertainment her aunt said to her: My
dear child, l was positively ashamed of
your ankles yesterday. They are an inch
too large and almost square. You must
see Mile. Zie immediately
1.-THE ankles must be of good color.
That Is, as white as the rarely exposed
upper arm, and as smooth and free from
unsightly marks and bruises.
Sometimes simply rubbing with the
hand or with glove will restore tone
complain that their ankles are roughened
and Redeemed and otherwise discolored
by wearing low-cut shoes in cold weather.
For a mild case, vaseline camphor ice
will serve, but II the ankles have been
long neglected, 1t Is well to rub them
every night with almond cream and then
wrap them in the tops of discarded kid
gloves SO that the cream may thoroughly
work into the flesh. Afterward the cuti-
Gle may be bleached with diluted perox-
ide Of hydrogen
IF freckles appear as they are apt to
on fair-skinned persons who have been
exposed to the sun, frequent applica-
lions Of lotions containing lemon juice
and other ingredients may be used, II
they agree with the skin.
For moles we use a plaster which In
duces suppuration. but 1t must be re-
membered that moles are not to be
handled lightly or unadvisediy by anna
teurs.
do not have dark hair on your ankles
II you want them TO look pretty. Even
If you are exceedingly brunette. bleach
your ankles with peroxide of hydrogen,
which is harmless, or. better still, remove
the hair with a regular depiatory. One
of the best Is OF sulphydrate of soda.
100 grains; chalk. 500 grains Make into
a thin paste with water and apply to
hairy part: let it remain for a few
moments and then scrape 1t of with
blunt blade.
Thick ankles are an abomination In
the sight of all men aud are not in
frequently the crumpled rose-leaf of some
slender womans existence. whereas her
stout sister may bemoan thin legs. 1t
Is infinitely easier to round angular ankles
than to reduce fat ones, but both defects
can be remedied Every woman knows
that her ankle Is too large IL she is I'M
able to span 1t with her own thumb and
Co. FttD tins nd 90
If 1t is not precisely the size of her
arm directly above the elbow.
I'm buy a pair of anklets this morn
Ing" announced one of my clients the
other day. She is 0 loyal New Yorker
who believes that anything worth having
may be purchased between Fourteenth
and Fifty Ninth streets, but she ate
lunch and drank tea in the shopping
district and returned home ankletless and
with the report that few of the jewelers.
clerks knew what she was talking about.
Yet anklets are on sale In every
Continental city, and while automobfling
over Europe this winter, another client
collected some that will make the fire.
quenters of Baleys Beach and the sands
beyond the Southampton dunes turn
green with envy. One design Is
pent of finely spun gold with emerald
eyes, another of dull gold has Roman
enamelnng and third Is of pink coral
Jeweled anklets are unsuitable for quite
young girls. but debutantes favor gold
with tiny diamonds, rubies or emeralds-
emernlds will be exceedingly popular
and for women in mourning are designs
Of dull jet with tiny diamond or silver
tracings.
Green and red enamel ones studded
with diamonds are effective, as are the
reproductions Of variously colored snakes,
like the RATHER At Ostend last summer.
Lime Cavalieri wore Mercury anklets Of
finely spun gold with little silver wings,
said to be the gift of the King of Bel
GUM.
$50 far as l know. there is no other
talusologist In New York. 1t was easy
to acquire frst-class clientele through
my first patroness, who was so delighted
with the results of the treatment thar
she told her intimate friends. and now
l have more work than | can attend to
unaided, and am employing apprentices.
Yes, 1t takes time 10 learn talusologX
but there is plenty OF money In it for
an intelligent worker, for mature af,Ies
are constantly spreading and discolbr,ny
and girls growing up who will 10 am
bilious 70 look pretty from their Ties 10
their topknots."