CORRESP ONDENCE. 



121 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



A TYPICAL EXPEEIENCE. 



Messrs. Editors: 



I AM one of your devoted readers, enjoy 

 nearly all your articles, swallow nearly 

 all of your latest theories, and try experi- 

 ments suggested by the valuable chapters 

 upon " Chemistry of Cookery." 



Yesterday being the first pause in the 

 deluge which we have endured for three 

 weeks, I took advantage of the fair weather 

 to make some calls, donned my better gown, 

 and, alas ! my best shoes, and paid twelve 

 debts to society. 



Returning at night, foot-sore and weary, 

 I subsided into a wrapper, a pair of slippers, 

 and an easy-chair, to enjoy a pleasant hour 

 with the newly-arrived " Popular Science " 

 for March, 1884. 



In turning over the leaves, which hap- 

 pily are always cut, my aching feet caused 

 me to read with eagerness the chapter on 

 " Fashion and Deformity in the Feet," hop- 

 ing to find some practical help for a life-long 

 distress, the only consolation for which has 

 heretofore been that I have not four feet to 

 shoe, and the only hope for the future that 

 I may one day become, with the addition of 

 hands, like a cherub on a tombstone, a head 

 and two wings. 



I think no Chinese woman ever suffered 

 much more from her poor little cramped 

 toes than has your correspondent ; so natu- 

 rally I enjoyed Lord Palmerston's suggestion 

 as to the treatment of shoemakers, shivered 

 over all the interesting plates showing dif- 

 ferent fine specimens of deformed feet, re- 

 joicing that my own pedal extremities were 

 not so distorted, and read on with increasing 

 hope that the person who understood the 

 trouble so well would give a remedy. 



Imagine my disappointment and chagrin 

 after following the writer through all these 

 charming and harrowing details to find this, 

 and this only, at the end of the chapter : 

 "We may hope for some not far-distant 

 time when our demand will be for a normal, 

 healthy foot, in a natural and comfortable 

 covering, and not for a crippled and dis- 

 torted, withered, ugly 'club,' bound in an 

 instrument of torture " ! 



Now, this is exactly what I have hoped 

 and striven for all my life, but how is a 

 nineteenth-century woman to obtain the 

 boon? 



I have tried one shoemaker after another 

 with like result. Each new one daintily 

 lifts my old boot, pours contempt upon the 

 shoemaker who made it, points out all its 

 defects, and tells how much better he will 



do for me. I, with renewed hope, also de- 

 nounce the old boot and the last shoemaker, 

 and tell the new disciple of Crispin how 

 much better work I expect from him. Meas- 

 urements are taken; the new boots come 

 home ; I put them on and hobble round in 

 agony. The shoemaker looks puzzled; al- 

 ters the buttons ; adds a lift to the outside 

 of the heel; pockets my money, and after 

 thai answers my appeals with " They will be 

 all right after you have ' broken them in.' " 



I suppose it is all the fault of my feet 

 that the shoes never do get broken in. The 

 shoemaker is all right, the boots all that 

 ought to be desired ; but, in the first place, 

 my feet are not rights and lefts, though 

 they look like ordinary feet, and all my 

 shoes must be " broken in " by wearing the 

 left one on the right foot, and vice versa. 

 Then, too, the skin is sensitive, and blisters 

 easily ; so I am doomed to hear fine concerts 

 with two thoughts on my toes, trying to curl 

 them into a more tolerable comer of my 

 last " easy " shoes. The most eloquent ser- 

 mon is heard with my toes twingeing quite 

 as often as my conscience, while the supreme 

 consciousness of being well dressed in com- 

 pany is undermined by the stronger con- 

 sciousness of being altogether too well shod, 

 and the most rapturous enjoyment of art or 

 nature hindered by a very intrusive demand 

 of the lower nature. 



And now, in addition to the woes I know, 

 comes the horrible fear of those I have just 

 learned are possible. If, in addition to two 

 little toes now not altogether like those of 

 the Venus de' Medici, two or three corns and 

 numerous blisters, my agonies are likely to 

 culminate in such fearful extremities as are 

 depicted from Figs. 5 to 10 in your late 

 paper, and my poor feet are liable to be 

 pictorially presented to the happier mortals 

 of the future in some twentieth-century 

 "Popular Science Monthly," to illustrate 

 the barbarous customs of our own age, what 

 shall I do ? 



It is so easy to say a woman should be 

 independent of fashion, and consult health 

 and comfort alone ! How can one be inde- 

 pendent of the shoemaker, unless she uses 

 Indian moccasins, makes her own shoes, or 

 goes barefooted ? 



Now, in common hu(wo)manity, after 

 conjuring up these dreadful warnings and 

 haunting pictures to terrify my already in- 

 flamed imagination, do tell us where and 

 how to get comfortable coverings for our 

 feet, and secure the everlasting gratitude of 

 A Suffering Woman. 



Pbovidence, R. I., February 23, 18S4. 



