Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1913-01-17
GERMANS SHOES.
Big Footwear Worn by the Sub
ieCtS of Emperor William.
NOT FITTED TO THE FEET.

Large Quantities of Leather Wasted
Yearly by Superfluous Material Be-
ing Put into the Boots of the leu
tons.
One square inch Of cloth or leather
may not involve the ruin OF q race or
nation, except in Holland, where even
less might stop hole to keep the sea
away, but when you multiply one inch
by eight and that again by forty or
fifty millions you get result OF ma
tional Importance.
No traveller who crosses the Rhine
into Germany can fail to observe that
every boot and shoe made in that
country is conspicuously longer than
the foot it enshrines. The military
boot sets the pace, SO to speak. It
projects about an inch beyond the
point where the major toe terminates
and then stops short, as If bitten Off
In fit Of anger by a square jawed,
i'll natured shoemaker It Is not q
dainty boot at best, and It's plalnness
is accentuated by the lack Of vamp,
From the edge Of the trousers to the tip
Of the toe 1t stretches it's slow and
shiny length. unrelieved by any mtt-
eating band or deprecatory dot or
dimple. The tightness Of the trousers
leg from which it protrudes serves
only to emphasize it's excessive pro-
longation, says writer In the New
York Post
Far be It from me to quarrel with
the customs or the costumes OF a
friendly people, yet l cannot but reflect
on the economical effects OF this Pc
culiarity of the Germans footwear.
The superAuous length Of every
German boot being about one inch
and the width at the toe about two
inches, it follows that the upper part
contains some two square inches in ex.
cess Of its requirements. In the sole
beneath there is like redundancy,
making four square inches in all. This
number of one legged folk being neg
ligible, it is fair L. assume the possess
sion of at least one pair Of boots or
shoes by every man, woman and child
in the country, with eight square
inches of wasted leather in each pair.
CThiS assumption is Il most conSerya-
tive one, for, while MANY feet go UNI
shod large part of the time, the rich
have several pairs apiece
Now, the population of Germany is,
roughly speaking some 45,000,000
souls, which implies 100000 soles
and as many uppers, and, the number
Of superfiuous square inches in each
upper and sole being two, behold
grand total Of 360O00,O0O square inches,
or 100000 square feet
1t would be bad enough if Germany
had to pay even the lowest price for so
much wasted leather, but she has to
pay instead a price which has been ar
tlficially increased by her own excess
sive demand for the commodity.
The German people are far too well
instructed to ignore this waStefulness
and far too scientific not to have found
a way Of offsetting it. The obvious
way, of course, would be to make their
boots at their feet, but they have chO-
sen to adopt a roundabout method OF
striking an economic balance. Instead
of curtailing their footgear they scimp
the cloth in their trousers.
Here again the army has taken the
lead, the result being that the smartly
dressed officers trousers are not only
skin tight, but so short that he has to
strap them down to prevent their ris-
ing above his boot tops! Thus Is Peter
robbed to pay Paul, thus is the devil
beaten around the stump, and thus is a
great nation allowed to squander mil
lions of square feet Of leather annually.