Taste comes, at least to a great extent, from education. The teaching of China creates a taste which admires a short, stumpy, small, useless foot, as beautiful on a lady. In more enlightened countries a more intelligent taste condemns such a foot as anything else than elegant. A still better educated taste will admire only one that is entirely normal; and to bring opinion up to this standard is the object of effort. People are to learn that pointed toes and big joints are not natural; that they do not come of themselves, and that the foot-gear which produces them cannot have any propriety or beauty. The various long-toed, narrow-toed, broad-toed, stub-toed, short-heeled, thick-soled, stiff, awkward things that are worn by the masses must be seen to be, as they are, unfit coverings to be put upon a decent human foot. Shapes, styles, and fashions must be judged by their harmony or want of harmony with natural requirements, and accepted or rejected accordingly. There must be less deference to an unreasoning, arbitrary opinion, and more of original thought and independent action; though it could hardly be supposed that for such a matter any great amount of personal independence would be required. A different set of views and tastes will thus, however, be substituted for the present ones, as the work of time and a more general knowledge of the subject.
There is no difficulty in starting a revolutionary movement. Any of the proposed forms of lasts can be obtained from the last-makers of the large cities—all but the Eureka very readily—and often the shoemaker himself, if ingenious, can provide them for individual feet by altering some of those now in use.
This is not so very difficult when the last has sufficient thickness at the toe. At the inside, from the ball forward, it may be shaved or rasped off enough to give a plane surface half an inch or more in width, a shoulder being cut at the commencement near the ball. Successive layers of firm, solid sole-leather are then pegged or nailed very strongly to the wood without splitting it, each thickness separately, to make the work more firm, until enough are on to bring the corner out where it should be, when they are rasped into the form required. Nails must not be driven in the outside pieces. The opposite side of the toe may be narrowed, curved, and thinned to give the whole the proper shape.
There is no reason why those persons who are capable of appreciating the doctrine of this treatise should not set an example worthy of imitation; and as the abuses complained of are so very common, it is quite probable they might soon find themselves in the company of a large number. Ultimately, it is expected that something not less perfect than the form last proposed, and having all the qualities desirable in a model shoe, will be universally adopted.
There will still remain to be discovered a mode of covering the foot which will secure to it all its natural freedom. What this will be it is not easy, just now, to tell. Possibly it may take the peculiarity of the glove, and provide separate apartments for each of the toes, becoming thus a kind of foot-glove, with a flexible sole, separated between the toes, and which will allow them to bend or spread, and the whole foot to lengthen or contract without hindrance whenever occasion may require. It will be an article of luxury, rather than otherwise, and there is no prospect of its immediate production. Yet such an one cannot, without difficulty, perhaps, be made sufficiently thick to be a good protection against dampness and the coldest weather. Some compromise, with the existing style of boot will become necessary, though a shape better adapted to the comfort of the toes may be given to the forward part of it, as by the time it is made, the cramping, narrow-toed boot will be out of favour; and this brings us again to the Eureka as the most appropriate form.
What, now, can be done toward the cure of crooked toes and enlarged joints after they have been induced? The way of their prevention is already made plain, but to remove the disfigurement after it has become a settled thing is a much more difficult matter. The toe must be forced back to its former position, and kept there by a steady, constant pressure, and the parts be allowed time to gradually re-adapt themselves and grow fixed in their proper shape. The straightening of the toe will allow the bones to come nearer together at the joint, and this, when not sore, may perhaps be pushed back slightly, toward the middle of the foot, by the pressure of a narrow boot. As this process is the exact opposite of that by which the deformity is developed, it ought, with proper time, patience, and thoroughness, to be tolerably successful. Dr. Meyer even leaves it to be inferred that toes which are not badly distorted will gradually re-assume their primary position without any assistance, provided the shoe is of the right form, with plenty of room at the end, and the stocking is not allowed to prevent.
For straightening the toe it would seem that some efficient mechanical contrivance could be easily arranged, but as yet there is nothing entirely satisfactory. To be completely successful it ought to be something that can be easily fastened to the bare foot, so that all the toes may be brought to their proper place before covering with the stocking. But there is a difficulty in making the little toe, or even more than one of them, act as a point of support from which a force can be brought to bear against the great one. So, while unable to do better, this stationary point must be found in the sole of the shoe. The best thing we have been able to discover is a simple plate of metal, standing upright between the great toe and its neighbour, so securely fastened to the insole as to prevent the toe from inclining toward the side. Of course nothing can be done in a boot or shoe of the common form, as in such a one the toe cannot be straightened by any means whatever. The last on which it is made must be one like that described as the Excelsior, or, what is still better for this case, one of the form proposed by Dr. Meyer. There is no danger of going to an extreme in so shaping the last as to turn the toe inward, because, the toe, after being fastened at its end, tends strongly to resume its old, deformed position by pushing the upper over the edge of the sole at the joint. It thus partially defeats the object, and will be straightened less than the form of the last (and shoe) indicates that it ought to be. Hence it is well not to let the ball of the last project over the bottom, and thus try to keep back the joint from pushing over the upper of the shoe. And, even if the last is crooked inward at the toe a little more than Meyer’s rule directs, there will be no harm. It should also be well hollowed or curved on the inside, at the region back of the ball and above the shank. The more the wood is taken off here, the more the foot will be thrown toward the outside of the shoe, or made to tread outside, and this will somewhat counterbalance the tendency which the toe has, when the end of it is made stationary, to push the joint and whole foot toward the inside. The crookedness will appear extreme, and perhaps ridiculous, but it will be found in practice that it takes a very crooked shoe to make a big toe straight.
We believe, however, that this tendency of the toe and joint to keep their old position by treading over inside can be counteracted by putting a low counter or stiffening of sole-leather into the upper of the shoe at the ball, in the same way a similar one is inserted at the heel. Or, if the joint is too sensitive to be touched by stiff leather, let the stiffening piece be placed just back of the ball, in the shank. The top part of it must be thinned, while the bottom part remains thick and firm. It has not been fairly tried, but if the joint is not sore it can hardly fail to be effective.
It should be a false insole to which the partition or separator is fastened, so that it can be easily changed, because there is some difficulty in fitting it exactly right the first time, and, besides, the wearer may wish, even when it suits as well as possible, to remove it and give the toe a resting-spell in its old position; while if the partition is secured to the proper insole of the boot, it must remain there, whether right or wrong, and in the latter case the boot will be worthless.