Fig. 14.—Compromise.
Fig. 15.—Common Sole.
Figure 14 represents the sole of a crooked last, such as may occasionally be seen in use by some of our best boot-makers at the present time. Contrasted with the one beside it, which is a pretty fair specimen of right-and-left lasts generally, it is evidently nearer to the true form. In it, the line drawn from the middle of the heel to the middle of the ball region passes through the toe nearest the outside corner, leaving the greater space at the inside; while in the other the line passes through the toe at the middle, thus making it virtually only a straight last, hollowed out a little the most at the inner side. For the purpose of giving the great toe a straight position, it is seen at a glance that the form of Fig. 14 is far superior to that of Fig. 15, though the tendency to distortion would still remain with it to a considerable extent. For the sake of a name to distinguish it, this may be called the Compromise. It is not so much in advance of the common styles that many people would notice the difference at all, and last-makers and shoe manufacturers might adopt it, and with a slight effort force it into general use, with great benefit to those feet that are still tolerably well-shaped, if not to their own direct advantage. At least, the acceptance of it is one step in the right direction for those who are not ready to make a more radical innovation.
Our next form is something better. The reason for it is the rule given, some fifty or sixty years ago, by Dr. Peter Camper, of Amsterdam, who wrote an essay on the subject, in which he stated that the proper form of shoe was such as to allow all the toes to lie parallel with a line drawn through the middle of the sole from heel to toe.
This, though not perfect, was, considering its date, a pretty good standard; but the shoemakers, if they were ever governed by it at all, have transgressed it since, until its intention has been entirely defeated. They have done this by narrowing the toe of the sole so much that the toes of the foot, instead of lying parallel to each other and to the line of the foot’s length, have had their ends drawn together at an angle till they were compelled even to lie one over the other.
When the toes lie as closely together as they can without crowding—parallel, the middle ones at least, to the line of the foot’s length—there is but little variation on the inside of the foot from a straight line. The cuts 16 and 17 represent, one a foot in which the toes are drawn together just enough to touch, and one as they usually appear in the common boot.
Fig. 16.—Toes Parallel.