Walking, running, and dancing are the most potent cosmetics for
producing a foot beautiful in form and graceful in movement. It is
possible that much walking does slightly increase the size of the foot,
but not enough to become perceptible in the life of an individual; and
it has been sufficiently shown that the standard of Beauty in a foot is
not smallness but curved outlines, litheness, and grace of gait, these
qualities being a thousand times more powerful “love-charms” than the
smallest Chinese foot. Moreover, it is probable that _graceful_ walking
has no tendency to enlarge the foot as a whole, but only the great toe;
and a well-developed great toe is a distinctive sign of higher
evolution.
It is useless for any one to try to walk or dance gracefully in shoes
which do not allow the toes to spread and act like two sets of elastic
springs. One of the most curious aberrations of modern taste is the
notion that the shape of the natural foot is not beautiful—that it will
look better if made narrowest in front instead of widest. Even were this
so, it would not pay to sacrifice all grace to a slight gain in Beauty.
But it is not so. It is only habit, which blunts perception, that makes
us indifferent to the ugliness of the pointed shoes in our shop-windows,
or even in many cases prefer them to naturally-shaped shoes. Were we
once accustomed to properly-shaped hygienic boots, in which no part of
the foot is cramped, our present shoes, with their unnatural curves
where there should be none, and the absence of curves where they should
be (“rights and lefts”), would seem as “awful” and “horrid” as the old
crinoline does to the eyes of the present generation. As Professor
Flower remarks: “The fact that the excessively pointed, elongated toes
of the time of Richard II., for instance, were superseded by the broad,
round-toed, almost elephantine, but most comfortable shoes seen in the
portraits of Henry VIII. and his contemporaries, shows that there is
nothing in the former essential to the gratification of the æsthetic
instincts of mankind. Each form was, doubtless, equally admired in the
time of its prevalence.”
The Germans claim that it was one of their countrymen, Petrus Camper,
who first called attention, about a hundred years ago, to another
objectionable peculiarity of the modern shoe—its high heels—ruinous
alike to comfort, grace, and health (a number of female diseases being
caused by them); yet they admit that Camper’s advice was hardly heeded
by the Germans, and that it therefore serves them right that quite
recently the modern hygienic shoe, with low, broad heels, has been
introduced in Germany as the “English form,” the English having proved
themselves less obtuse and conservative in this matter.
The heel is, however, capable of still further improvement. It is not
elastic like the cushion of the heel, after which it should be modelled;
and Dr. Schaffer’s suggestion that an elastic mechanism should be
introduced in the heel is certainly worthy of trial. Everybody knows how
much more lightly, gracefully, as well as noiselessly, he can walk in
rubbers than in leather shoes; and this gain is owing to the superior
elasticity of the heel and the middle part of the shoe, covering the
arch, which should be especially elastic. It is pleasanter to walk in a
meadow than on a stone pavement; but if we wear soles that are both soft
and elastic we need never walk on a hard surface; for then, as Dr.
Schaffer remarks, “we have the meadow in our boots.”
As the left foot always differs considerably from the right, it is not
sufficient to have one measure taken. The fact that shoemakers do take
but one measure shows what clumsy bunglers most of them are. As a rule,
it is easier to get a fit from a large stock of ready-made boots than at
a shoemaker’s.
The stockings, as well as the shoes, often cramp and deform the foot;
and Professor Flower suggests that they should never be made with
pointed toes, or similar forms for both sides. Digitated stockings,
however, are a nuisance, for they hamper the free and elastic action of
the toes. Woollen stockings are the best both for summer and winter use.
No one who has ever experienced the comfort of wearing woollen socks
(and underclothes in general), will ever dream of reverting to silk,
cotton, or any other material.
Soaking the feet in water in which a handful of salt has been dissolved,
several times a week, is an excellent way of keeping the skin in sound
condition. For perfect cleanliness it does not suffice to change the
socks frequently. As the author of the _Ugly Girl Papers_ remarks, “The
time will come when we will find it as shocking to our ideas to wear out
a pair of boots without putting in new lining as we think the habits of
George the First’s time, when maids of honour went without washing their
faces for a week, and people wore out their linen without the aid of a
laundress.”