"Another advantage may be mentioned for the benefit of those who study economy. Such shoes will not only keep in shape, but they will last two or three times as long as those with narrow soles. The uppers, not being stretched, as they are with narrow soles, will, if of good stock, almost never wear out, while the soles will remain square and even.
"I have spoken of the advantage of a greatly improved circulation, which would result from the introduction of the wide soles. I may add that the change which would at once appear in the manner of walking, would strike every beholder.
THICKNESS OF THE SOLES.
"The soles of girls' boots and shoes should be thick. They are not always to remain upon carpets, but they must go out doors and walk on the ground.
"Some people seem, somehow, to suppose that girls do not really step on the ground, but that, in some sort of spiritual way, they pass along just above the damp, unclean earth. But, as a matter of fact, girls do step on the ground just like boys. I have frequently walked behind them to test this point, and have noticed that when the ground is soft, they make tracks, and thus demonstrate the existence of an actual, material body.
"Now, while this is the case, and while it is indispensable to their health that they go much in the open air, they must have thick soles. Let these be made of the hardest and most impervious leather. It is well, in addition, during eight months of the year, to have the bottoms of the soles covered either with a sheet of rubber, or simply covered with a spreading of some of the liquid rubber, which will remain two or three weeks, and protect the sole from dampness.
OF WHAT SHALL THE UPPERS OF GIRLS' BOOTS BE COMPOSED?
"During the cold and damp months they should be made of thick, solid leather. No matter about the name; some calfskin is very thin, while morocco is often very thick. During the warm season they may wear for uppers prunella, or other cloth."
This much was spoken to my girls. I might leave the shape and width of the heel to the intelligence of the reader; but as the most preposterous heels have been recently introduced, it is perhaps judicious to point out the physiological mischief. The heels of the fashionable ladies' shoes at the present moment—quarter past three, P.M., August 4th, 1870,—are two inches high, and at the bottom not larger than an old-fashioned silver quarter of a dollar, if anybody can remember how large that was.
Need it be argued that this absurd fashion weakens the ankle, and jams the toes into the sharp points of the boots?