The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-11-18
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION
Blu REAU
FREDERIC }. HAsKIrI. Dirscss%.
WashtuzEan. d. G.
DO YOU WALK CORRECTLY?
WAshtnstHn. d G.


! New York, Nov. 15.-Do you walk
correctly? Most people don't. If you
have any illusions concerning the gem
eral uprightness of the human race,
| just sit at your front window some
| idle afternoon, and watch the method
| by which each pedestrian manages to
move along the sidewalk. It's a great
educational experiment. For If the
people look the same in your town as
they do here, you won't find more
| than about one in every thirty or forty
who walks the way nature intended
him to.
"Of course, people do not walk the
way they do deliberately, with malice
of forethought." said a New York ply
steal culture director the other day,
as he watched the various examples
of incorrect walking on Fifth avenue.
1T is just carelessness. The trouble
with most of US is that we have taken
our WALKING as a matter of course all
these years, just as we have our
physiognomy, neglecting opportunities
to change and shape it into a thing of
beauty"
But" complained his companion,
a business man, who had just received
a rebuke for his slouchy gait, why
get excited about it? Why reproach
me for what do with my feet? I'm
too busy to be handsome"
II suppose you are too busy to be
healthy, too" replied the physical di-
rector. yet it is a fact that nearly
all of the headaches you have are due
to the way you walk"
This incidentAis typical of the cam
paign for walking reform which is
now being carried on by physicians
and physical culture experts here. 1t
is absolutely the latest thing in pre-
Ventive medicine. Correct posture and
walking are not only being dinned per-
sistently into school children, but
H. -
was anything to be desired in their
methods of walking, are being given
directions for reform. When you go
to a doctor here now, one of the first
things he does is to look at your feet,
and along with your medical prescrip-
ton there is apt to be another to be
filled at the shoe store.
The two great impediments to cor
rect walking are the inadequately
shaped shoes, which have so long de-
lighted us, and the popular tradition
that it is better form to toe out. Men
have not suffered so much from these
two evils as women, but there were
enough flat feet in the army after the
first draft to show that mems shoes,
as we'll as women's, can stand few
reforms. The masculine ligaments are
stronger, and therefore harder to
break down than the feminine, and
they are never required to bear the
toes resent being eramped into narrow,
pointed shoes just as much as the
feminine
"A whole army of orthopedic ohysi-
clans make a living out of the fact
that folks will persist in wearin;, the
wrong kind of Shoes" says one foot
authority. Haven't you often passed
people on the street who were walking
along with painful Iimping gait and
strained, hurt expression and wondered
what awful thing had happened to
make them look like that? Probably
you were SO busy being sorry for their
faces that you didn't even see their
feet. If you had, you would have
found that what had happened was
not bad news but bad shoes.
'"To keep your feet in good condi-
ton so that you'll enjoy living and
walking, wear sensibly shaped shoe.
The kind with a low heel, straight
inner border. which does not twist the
big toe, and so cause bunion, is the
best model. should also be broad
enough to- al NV plenty of room for
the movements of the toes, and the
soles and upper should be flexible SO
that you can use your muscles, for
weakened muscles lead to painful
broken arches
If you suffer with painful feet. go
to your physician or to a reputa BILE
chiropodist and ask him to give you
the names of some firms which make
shoes to fit the natural form of the
foot; buy pair, and wear them. In
the case of women, this requires cour-
age. For these natural shoes are
weird-looking things. but it isn't their
fault. 1t is ours. The natural shape
of the foot is usually a great blow to
one who is not versed in the general
lines of the human anotomy. This is
because we have lost the sense of the
normal lines and proportions of the
foot, and even the expert is obliged
to study the feet of infants. primitive
and the best sculpture in order to re-
cover it.
American shoe styles, at present, are
very much under the influence of
medieval Europe. High heels were a
product of Feudalism. and so were
long vamps. The first pointed toes
made their appearance in medieval
times and were worn by the MOBILES
who kept their shoemaker henchmen
busy turning out new models. The
vamps became longer and longer until
toward the end of the fourteenth cen
fury they were quite ridiculous, as you
can see from some of the museum
specimens.
From that day to this, however.
long. pointed vamps have been a mark
of high rank. By cramping the foot
so as to render it incapable of hard
toll such shoes advertise the fact that
are worn by those who do have to
work in an effort to appear in the
same class. Thus. the narrow, pointed
shoe, worn by Fifth avenue heiress,
who has any number of motor cars at
her disposal is also worn by the little
factory girl who must stand a large
part of the day in performing her
work. In Europe, and especially in
Observation-Disclosures
gThe George N