, 1923-03-11
Womanhood
Regains Foot
Flat HeeIed and Rounded Shoe
Is Now Giving Her Sex
Freedom of Toes.

Triipy Is coming back. Do you re-
member Trilby7 She was the girl with
the pretty feet-the one who was NOT
ashamed of them. Folks used to say
that George du Maurier invented her
sort of made her up out of his head
and his experience in Paris studios
and just put her feet Into his celebrated
novel as Shakespeareare did Falstaff or
Poor Tom-for modern writer's
call comic relief"
Yet there is no doubt that after the
publication OF ''Trilby" in the early
ninetles there was a greater
stretching OF feminine toes and a greater
consciousness Of the feminine foot than
had been felt at any previous tlmS bac
TO the time of the First Napoleon.
Before that time a woman's foot was
considered something mysterious. some
thing TO be spoken about as the Eliza
bethan poets did speak about II Cor was
1t Bobbie Burns who wrote of his lady's
foot like a little mouse runs in and
out"). or something frankly ugly like
the foot of n peasant woman accus-
toned to wooden shoes. or IN AfrnSn
or Polynesian woman who has gon,
barefooted all her life.
The latter part of the last century
vas probably the height of the craze for
small feet among fashionable women.
and therefore probably the nadir of tho
beauty of the ten little pinks toes. 1t
was a time of pinched toes for both men
and women. The c~hiropodists OF to-day
are reapiug tho harvest that was sowed
along about that time
In those days even boys wore the shoe
Of the period. 1t was called generically
n "toothpick.'' and scant regard way
given to the position of the toes In theiI
close confines. With girls It was worse,
and It is no Wonder that the jeunt
feminine OF that generation would never
think of such a thing rs going bathing
without stockings. Modesty was sup
posed to discourage 1t; the conventions
did discourage 1t. and any one who had
ever seen a beautiful foot positively for
babe 1t.
How different Il is now. In this de-
cade young women of America, and even
of some countries of Europe to which
American shoes have percolated. run
about on peaches almost shamelessly in
their bare feet. Their mothers might
have dared 1t in some instances, but
their g-randmothers never would have
so ventured.
Their grandmothers were too mod
est" some one says. "and their mothers
were less modest. and these girls were
not modest at ALL"
Not a bit of tiff you want the ~
Not a bif OF It.
Grandmother did not run the beach In
her bare feet because her toes were
knotted into all sorts of shapes by the
shoes she wore. Mother did not run the
sands because she was wearing the
pumps OF the period. Both of them
were virtually crippled and suffered the
fortunes of martyrdom when they
danced with the Prince of Wales (after-
ward King Edward VIII.
In those days the chiropodist had
never been heard of. but corn saive was
sold under flaming lights in every small
town In the community. alongside of
ytrt,-.I nn IrNato--- oil 1r-------
Eradicator and all the rest OF the gas
oline flared nostrums.
Everyone had corns or bunions or
chilblains In those days. because It was
before the Americans began to under
stand wearing shoes.
Most of us are old enough now to re-
member the Russo-Japanese war, but
very few know what decided that con-
fict. The betting was all In favor OF
Russia.
Japan cannot win.'' said the WISE
acres" The Mikado has an army of
men who will wear nothing but straw
sandals on their feet and put nothing
but fish in their bellies"
h happened?
The Japanese Emperor issued an ORR
der something to his effect:
ITO win his war all of my soldiers
will wear shoes which are made in New
England. u. S. A. and eat corned beef
mad in Chicago. U. s. A. It is an or.
der from your Emperor"
They did wear 'em. and they did eat
II, and the downfall OF Russia began
from hat minute. How much of It was
due to sole leather and how much to
canned beef is p-roblematical At any
rate. they both come from tho same
country and the same critter.
1t has often been said that South
America would be the greatest country
in the world II the right shoe salesman
would get there. 1t is n notorious fact
that the peasants of most OF the South
American countries do rot wear shoes.
1t is also a fact that a barefoot army
never won In the face of an army who
wore shoes-especially II the shoes Cited
the wearers.
There are those who say that much
OF the success OF the A. Z. F. was due
to It's we'll fitting ~footgear. At any rate.
there was never an army In the world
which went into action with such shoes
as our men wore.
But this is a long cry from Trilby.
even though she wore a soldiers coat
In the dear. forgotten play.
The point is this-the Flapper has
brought the foot back to ~womanhood-
1t Is to the little girl with the bobhI6
hair and tho felt hat that milady owes
the freedom of her toes.
There was an old man who lived
once far out in the West. Probably lie
never saw n Flapper-but certainly ne
would have liked to see one. And this
was his favorite toast:
May the life of ye be long
And the death Of ye be aisy:
Give birth to a daisy.
Little sister with her fiat heels. her
pug nose. her swinging shoulders and
the heels that knock all the plaster of
of the parlor down below is the one
who has r~ediscovered the female DOT.
Little sister has put this foot down
so emphatically that II can no longer
be squeezed into a ~"toothpick" shoe.
She wants a broad toe. a low heel and a
shoe that will give her foot a chance
to wiggie a bit and she Is not only go
ing to get It but she has got 1t.