The Washington times., 1913-09-26

vogue. One really amounted to very
little indeed, unless one fiat-heeled. The
advocates of the fiat heel and the duck
walk were as the sands upon the sea-
shore. Flat heels impaired the grace
less, walrus-like roll so affected in some
circles. Dame Fashion. naughty old
soul though she be, was taken by the
ears.
Tired of Flat Heel.
With the first breath of fall In the
air, however. Dame Fashion got her
ears free. Flat heels had become an
abomination in her eyes. She had tot
tered under the sway of the fiat heel
until her fashionable brain was reeling.
So. with ears quite free and untram-
meled, Dame Fashion blythely leaped
from the sublimated rubber heel to the
ridiculous but astonishingly pretty
spool heel
Therefore, Washington, on the eve Of
the football and hot-soda-drink season,
bows low to the spool heel
A soldier of fortune-an adventurer-
this spool heel.
1t originated at the French court Of
one OF the Louis-es, or Louie-s, just as
You prefer. The spool heel, which
then did business under the firm name
of the Louie" heel, reached its biggest
season under the favorable eye of Marie
Antoinette.
At any rate, the spool" heel went to
the guillotine with MaSie and her Louie
and it came to an untimely end. almost,
as Marie and Louis themselves. How
ever it wasn't dead.
The spool heel remained in a state
or innocuouS desuetude so to speak, up
to the time of the late Della Fox. Della
rode to fame Cthis IS terrible secret.
too) on the spool heel. That is, when
she wasn't walking
From the middle Of the sos until the
close OF the '9O's, 1t was sign Of moral
turpitude to be seen upon the streets in
company with the spool heel.
Folks sitting at front windows pulled
down the shades to peep out, and an
nounced that So-and-So's spool heels
made her look like an actress" One
was suspected of a grievouS lack Of
moral probity if one wore spool heels
to elsewhere than a dance.
Nevertheless. certain low persons con-
tinued to wear the spool heel simply
FOR its beauty. They cared not one whit
for the bad reputation the "spoor' heel
numerous that their orders for spool
heeled'' Shoes made to order, began
crowding in so fast on the makers that
some leading light Of the Brockton trade
conceived hybrid specimen Of shoe,
combining the more conservative lines
Of the current mode with the unequs.led
but tainted grace Of the spool heel.
The rest of the tale is history.
Everyone knows what would have
happened diaphanous gowns Of the
slit variety had they appeared along
Fourteenth street in 1895. AS they slip
ped into favor on the rising tide of
lackadaisical taste in dress, so the
spool heel has come.
Therefore. F street, bow You must
to the spool heel
There is something high-arched and
patrician about the ''spool-heeled'' shoe.
The high arch, of course, Is Just in
front of the spool" heel, but the patri-
clan features of this footwear are in
tangible, subtle, and naive.
Growing In Popularity.
The spool" heel in dancing effects
has been growing in popularity for sew
eral years. but it wasn't allowed on the
street The fall season of 1913 sees
the spool heel liberated. 1t has be
come a part and parcel OF the hlgh<
topped, dazzling patent leather shoe OF
the lady Of fashion. The high-heeled
effects are laced, are buttoned, on high