Year: 1876

The New York Graphic says ",Foot-
prints in the satid," sang the poet, but he
failed to state their sizes, And since, in |
connecticii with the late,t scandal, it re-
mained for the Jenkinses at Washington
to let the world know that Mrs. Belknap
wears onlya one and half shoe, polite
society would seem to offer a field, in this
regard, for investigation. So much
weight has the saying that "you can't
put No. foot into No. 6 shoe" that
even astute committees, while gravely
considering re.renehnent appropriations,
have often found it convenient analo-
KY. Unfortunately statistics do not
prove the truth of the adage, as is evi-
denced by hundreds of aching feet IN
New York every day.


But New York has something to be
proud Of in the matter of feet, and espe.
cially those of the gentler sex. 1t is the
testimony of some of the largest fashion
able shoe dealers that the average foot of
the feminine New Yorker is much small
er than that Vt most other cities in the
United States, and that there are hun
dreds of ladies in this city who wear
No. shoe-a halfsize smaller than that
which so recently pressed the carpets in
the temple of the nations Mars. hnup-
town dealer remarked that great many


ladies wore ones and twOs, and many


more tried to do so and could not. The
same desire to get on a small boot is man


ifcsted by the gentlemen.


The sales of fashionable boots and


shoes In this city reach their largest fig


urc with the ladies among the thtees and


fours and with the gentlemen in the


sevens and eights, and of these sizes the


proportion is about half to all Others, or


for every pair of ones and every two pairs


of twos, seven pairs of threes and fours


are sold The ladies' sizes usually run


from ones to skies in this city, while in


Boston and other eastern cities they are


marked from twos to sevens, and for the


gentlemen the usual range is from fives


to tens. Further south, and especially


in South Carolina, among those people


who are direct descendants FROM the HUI
guenots, the feet are much smaller. The


writer has often heard former slave


owner say that he could always tell a


Yankee by the size of his feet. Then
there are the broad Scotch boots and
shoes, whose outward appearance gives
no sign of what may be within and the


hob-nails, moccasins, and, last but not


least, the ponderous fifteens for the grave


and august senators of the sunny south


whose sudden transfer from the cotton
fields and rice-meadows to the Legislative
halls included all their understanding
There probably is never jammed into the
same space so much misery as can be
found in gathering of the colored breth
rem in their Sunday boots Their fiat
and bony feet are in constant rebellion
against the refining and cramping inhu
ences of fashion. Then there is the stage
boot, made with view to counteract the
effects of the sloping of the stage, and, O
course, worn principally by dramatic
artistes. The grace and dignity of stcT
that characterizes Miss Eytinge or Mis-,
Dyas would be impossible on the slope
that leads TO the footlights were not thcil
shoes made so as to harmonic with the
hazardous curve. Apropos of boots and
shoes, it may be stated that the contri
buttons from this city to the Centennial
exhibition will embrace a variety that
will not be equalled in the world. A
manufacturer on Broadway is now en-.
gagged in preparing two pairs of shoes for
the exhibition from the skin of human


being, a par fiem the skin of an anacon.
da, a pair from rattlesnake skin, pair
from the hide of kangaroo, and another
pair from the skin of catfish. The
leather of the last named is equal in it,
texture to the finest silk, and of those OF


the skin of human being the quality
would be rated anywl ere, perhaps, if We
did not know what it was, as superfne


At no distant day it may be the fashion


for the merciless fair to count their shoes


by the number of their victims, and lii


orally trample their disappointed suitor,


under foot. No better use could be de


vised for the epiderms OF theswains who


wasting in despair, die because a wo


mans fair"