The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-02-10
THE PRIDE OF FEET.
A Specimen of the CuriOsities of
Feminine Makeup.

AiAal SiilSd5O ilii9NcbtA0h AACAlLll3 SoOO
will go dow in history as a cause cele-
bre for two reasons. 1t is almost I'M
precedented that two women should
honestly claim the same person as a
daughter, and especially when the
daughters of the two had grown to
arated from the mother but a few
months. Yet here is a case where it
has actually occurred. Mistakes in
identity by friends, brothers, sisters,
fathers, husband and wives have oc-
Cured, but the proposition that a
Emother would know her own child has
commonly been held conclusive. But
here a mother has positively identified
as a child a woman who is not her
child, and one whose eyes are of diff
ferent color, though the distinction be-
tween blue eyes and light gray yes is
one that is not readily made by the
casual observer.
And almost as curious as this is the
fact that the fugitive wife, whose de-
sire to escape from her husband is
evidently a ruling passion. should re-
veal her identity and disclose her hid
ing place from pique over a remark
made about the size of her feet. She
endured the modification of having an
other woman put in her place by her
mother and her sister; but when her
double, in evaporation, said that
though their faces were similar, she
would marrant that their feet were
not, and that when the real woman
was found she could put both of her
feet into one of her Shoes" wrath over
came all other feelings and the fugi-
tive came to the front to vindicate her
feet. She Indignantly averred that il
the other girl could put both of her
feet into one of her shoes she must be
a Chinese or deformed, and the facts
sustained her. for while her foot is the
broader and with a higher instep, 1t
is the shorter, and she wears a 4B,
while the double wears q 5A.
But both of the young women display
unmistakable pride in the size of their
feet, although they are not especially
small Pride in such matters is n of
the curiosities of the human makeup,
AS Hood wrote:
A pride there is of rank-a pride OF
birth.
A pride of learning and a pride of
purse.
A London pride-in short, there be on
earth
A most of prides, some better and some
worse.
And they were interesting. 1t is said
that Disraeli was prouder of his small
hands than of all his great mental ac-
complishments. This was presumably
because they were badges of aris-
tocracy, in their evidence that he had
not been brought up to labor, and he
~worshipped aristocracy. And small
feet of the sarneS character-evidences
that he possessor did not have to go
barefoot when a child. Generations of
carefully shodi children of the nobility
developed this characteristic of those of
gentle blood" as distinguished from
the commonalty. But such proofs of
superiority were not meekly endured.
In due time brainy commoners dis
covered that the '"artistic hand" was
not small, but long IN slender, and
then came the athletic multitude who
scorn small feet as evidences -of
efeminacy.
1T has been basely insinuated, how
ever, that girls with large hands and
feet usually go in for athletics in order
to account for their extremities, but
that is a problem that calls for Sher-
lock Holmes. Probably the average
woman either envies or feels akin to
that happy miss of whom it was
! written:
Her feet beneath her petticoat
Like little mice stole in and out.
But the ranks of those who take 10
athletics in order to account for large
feet they are finding allies in the aris-
tocracy of honest labor, which has
made generous hands and feet rec
ognized insignia of merit in the litera-
ture of this country and of Europe
Indianapolis Star.