Bad fashions of lasts have had much to do in producing a deformed condition of the feet, as well as the false ideas and tastes of the people. Shoemakers, and more especially last-makers, who should have studied the nature of the foot, and given the people, who looked to them for a correctly-shaped last and shoe, something truly and naturally adapted to its purpose, have failed in this part of their duty. The latter have made lasts of all varieties of shape except the true one, while the maker of the shoe has made a bad matter worse with his high and short heels.
Formerly the great majority of ladies’ shoes and gaiters were made upon lasts that were straight, and the same is true even yet. Almost the whole of the cheaper kinds of work got up in the manufactories is of this style. Slippers are hardly ever seen made upon other than straight lasts. The whole custom is a wrong one, for this reason; the middle of the toe of shoes made upon straight lasts is nearer to the outside than it is in those made on rights-and-lefts. Hence they draw the great toe farther toward the outside of the foot than do those of the latter kind, and have a greater effect in producing all the evils that go with deformed toes and joints. No woman ought to be asked to wear them, nor should she allow herself to do so if those of another form can be obtained. Girls whose feet are growing cannot have them forced into straight shoes, especially if tight, without perpetrating a kind of tyranny very similar in character to that of the Chinese. Right-and-left boots and shoes are the natural right of all men, women, and children. Men and boys have, in this respect, the advantage over their sisters, as their foot apparel is almost wholly of the better shape. There is no reason why women and girls should not have the benefit of the improvement in form, though it is only a slight one, and they are counselled to take it whenever they can. In fact, there is no excuse for straight shoes, except that they can be made a little more cheaply—that is, there is a little less expense for the lasts used. They do not wear more evenly than the others—on the contrary, they are quite as liable, if not more so, to tread over at the heel. They never fit the foot so well in the hollow, at the instep, or on the side. There is no necessity for their existence, for there is no form of foot-covering but might be made on crooked lasts with equal facility. Ladies’ slippers are believed to be the only article that is always made straight, and for these, right-and-left lasts, properly adapted to the purpose, might be used without the least difficulty. Considering these facts, and that there is but a slight advantage to the manufacturer, and to him only, in their production, and that the children and poorer class of women, who wear them—the most helpless classes in the community—are almost compelled to deform their feet in doing so, it becomes a disgrace to the shoemaking profession that straight shoes are not abolished.
Many right-and-left lasts are made so nearly straight that the difference in form, and the benefit arising from it, amount to but very little. This must be remedied by the people learning what is to be desired, and making a demand for it. It is sometimes argued that the straighter the last is, the less liable is the foot to tread the boot over to one side; but this we hold to be a fallacy, and that the liability to tread over, is determined by the shape of that part of the last between the heel and instep. The form of the toe or forward part has nothing to do with the matter. It is generally, however, an advantage to the foot, though not to the boot, if it succeeds in treading the latter over to the outside. It thus gives the boot a more distinctly right-and-left shape, and can hence more easily preserve its own. When it goes over inside, there is a good prospect of a big joint being soon produced.
The last-makers have given us toes of many styles, from the turn-up toes an inch longer than necessary, to the stub-toes half an inch shorter than the foot; and from the round toe narrowed to a point, to the square one nearly or quite as wide as the ball. All that needs to be said of them is, that the wider they are, except the extreme just noted, the better for the foot, at least while the present lasts are in use, and generally the handsomer also; that the long toe is unnecessary, and therefore unhandsome; while the short or stub toe is decidedly awkward and clumsy-looking, besides being injurious to the foot, and utterly unworthy of toleration by any person of sense or taste. The true and most tasteful shape will be found near the half-way point between the two extremes in each direction. Whether round or square is of no material consequence.
Here, then, we have found several causes for the deformities of the forward part of the foot—the crooked great toe, the cramped and distorted smaller ones, the corns between, the grown-in nails, the big joint, and the increased width. The cause first operating to produce them is the wrong shape of the shoe at the inside, which gives the oblique position to the great toe. Narrowness and shortness are stronger influences acting in the same direction, aided still further by extreme height of heels, by changing, by narrow-toed stockings, etc. And it is especially worthy of being noticed that the short and narrow toes, and the high heels often adopted to improve the foot’s appearance, do thus inevitably defeat that purpose.
The attention of those who regard their own foot-comfort is earnestly directed to the points and reasoning presented in this chapter. Just as earnestly it is desired that those whose principal aim in dressing the foot is its beauty, elegance, and perfection of form, should give a thorough consideration to what has been said. Both classes will easily see that, in order to gain the object sought, there must be a reform in the shape and style of the foot’s covering. The nature of that improvement is already partially shown—that is, as far as the toes are concerned—and will be shown fully in what is to follow.
The cuts below, showing some of the worst deformities of the forward part of the foot, and adding the force of illustration to what has been said, are an appropriate conclusion to this chapter. It will do no harm to contrast them with Fig. 8 and Fig. 3, previously given.
Fig. 12.