Not for the first time medical journals have been discussing the immediate need of reform in what they cal] "adult footwear" (which reminds me of the shopwalker who, when a friend of mine asked for red stock-witted boy fighting with his brutish mother. Birds seem to know when a storm is coming and cower away into shelter. Cats go mad in a wind and gallop about with tails like button hocks. St. Francis of Assisi might speak affectionately of "Little brother the wind" But were even other saints so tolerant? wonder how St. Simon Stylites liked it on his pillar when the simoom blew up. ings, wanted for a fancy dress dance, called majestically to the counter "Miss Brown, show the lady our cardinal hose") and the especial damage done by the sort that women prefer.
It is pointed out that Though feet differ in shape, it may be said that the natural healthy foot has a straight inner line, with well-separated and straight-lying toes.
further, when in walking the heel is lifted from the ground, the front portion of the foot and the toes expand a little as pressure is transferred to them and need the proper amount of room for this untrammelled expansion.
Which obviously they cannot get in "narrow two's" the size which Jerome K. Jerome's lady friends fancied, and complained that they never could get shoes small enough to fit them.
Clu Maurier, in "Trilby preaches the same theme:
It is a wonderous thing, the human foot—like the human hand; even more 50, perhaps: but unlike the hand, it is seldom a thing of beauty in civilized adults who go about in leather boots shoes.
So that it is hidden away in disgrace, a thing to be thrust out of sight forgotten. It can sometimes be very ugly indeed—the ugliest thing there is even in the fairest, and highest and most rifted to her sex..
And all for the sake of a high heel and a ridiculously pointed toe—mean things, at the best.
But it is to be feared that the doctors will be no more successful than the once all powerful Trilby. No doubt, if we went about like the women in countries along the Mediterranean, barefoot and carrying pots of water on our heads, we might develop beautiful feet and fine figures (though Mediterranean women go to pieces extremely young). But our climate doesn't suit that sort of thing; and anyway, what's the sense in carrying about pots of water on our heads, with all resources of modern plumbing (h. and c. in all bedrooms) at our disposal.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.