656 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the ideal lady's foot of to-day ; narrowness, shortness, and littleness 

 are the qualities that go to make it up ; and there are women, if we 

 may believe what is said in the newspapers, who to secure a narrow 

 foot are willing to have the little-toe ruined. 



Strange as it is, the American women, while cramping the feet, 

 deny it. The Chinese are more logical. They distort and cripple the 

 feminine foot to a much greater degree, and then sing its praises. Its 

 favorite name, the " golden lily," is well known. 



Many of the peculiar ailments under which women pass their days 

 in invalidism, unhappy and miserable themselves and making others 

 unhappy, would vanish or be greatly mitigated if they would but 

 apply common sense to the selection of their shoes. It is very hard to 

 persuade them to reform their habits on this point, but I have never 

 known any woman who had learned the new comfort to go back to the 

 old habit. 



No exercise is so healthful and delightful as walking, yet few wom- 

 en can endure it. For to walk in their ordinary shoes is one of the 

 most exhausting labors women can attempt. There is no doubt that 

 by a thorough and careful system of pedestrianism many women would 

 become robust, though now half-invalids. I know of one who walked 

 on an average two or three miles a day, and would spend an hour or 

 ^^^^ two cutting brush, saplings, and small 



A " " 'y^> trees, lopping off limbs, hauling brush 



§ ^^iV ^^ gullies and into heaps, and climbing 



i \~-,^^^ fences. Her garments were warm and 



ft ^"~^--*^::^ loose, her shoes "stogies," big, broad, 



^^^^^^^j^^^^^^^^^pP^ and low -heeled. Health came as a re- 

 ^ ward. Another case is of a lady who 



Fig. 14.— a Wedgb-toed Shoe, • • i x i • i 



IS a commercial traveler m a large 

 Western State. Her health broke with in-door confinement at school- 

 teaching and book-keeping, and she was advised to try the road, which 

 she did, as agent for a sash, door, and blind factory, and afterward for 

 a paint, oil, and glass establishment. She never misses a day nor a 

 train, dresses feet and body for comfort, is hearty and well, and earns 

 a large salary. 



The feet not only look smaller, but really become so in tight, high- 

 heeled shoes, in consequence of a reduction of the blood-supply. "We 

 are told of a Frenchman who invented an apparatus for reducing the 

 size of the nose, and it consisted only of a spring which cut off the 

 supply of blood to the organ. A paper was read at a recent health 

 congress in Switzerland, calling attention to a French style of shoe, 

 which, the author remarked, gave the foot a " hoof -like " appearance. 

 This, style is much worn here, and produces a clumping, ungraceful 

 jolt in the gait, tending to induce destructive spinal vibrations. 



Probably the worst and most lasting injuries to the foot are pro- 

 duced during childhood, when the bones and cartilages are tender, and 



