130015 Shoes, fi nd s- ml m a -MOder n

S far back as we can trace the early history of man ,under civiliz ed conditions of life , we find that shoes

of some kind have been worn .

! t first they were very crude and simple , being noth

ing more than soles fastened to the foot by means of

thongs or straps,which passed between the toes and

around the ankle,l ike Figs . 3 . Shoes of this de

scrip tion were called sandals,an d were worn by the a n

cient Egyptians,Greeks

,and Romans .

I t h a s been discovered,by means of paintings on the

w alls of Thebes,that shoemaking formed a distinct and

quite lucrative trade away back in the re ign of Thoth

mes I I I .

,some fifteen hundred years

‘

before Christ,so

that followers of the awl and last can truthfully boast of

the great antiquity of their profession .

The material chiefly employed in the manufacture of

shoes,from the earliest times to the present

,has been

leather,though stuffs of various k inds and colors have

entered into their composition a tld iffer en t periods .

The sandals worn by the priests of ancient Egyptwere generally made of palm and papyrus leaves fast

ened together . Some well - preserved specimens of these

sandals,obtained from tombs

,can now be seen at the

Bri tish Museum ,in London .

Such were t he shoes probably worn by Rhodope , the

Cinderella of the N ile . Rhodope was said to have thelovel ies t foot in all Egypt . One d ay, as shew a s t akin gher bath

,an ea gle stooped from ! eaven and carried off

her sandal . She watched h im as he soared on high

until he finally disappeared i n the distance .

! hen , after a t ime , he let the sand al d rop , i t fell a t the

feet of the ! ing,who was so charmed wi th its beauty

that he commanded that a search be made immediately

for its owner. Rhodope was soon discovered,and

shortly a fterwa rds became the Queen of Egyp t .

In both ancient Greece and R om e'

w e find that , whilei t was common for the women to wear some kind of a foot

covering , shoes were not generally w or n by the men or

youth , the latter always being taught to g o barefooted.

But later on,on ceremonial occas ions

,the magistrates

began to wear a red shoe,while the soldiers took to a

boot reach ing almost to the knee,very elaborate in de

sign , and in a short time the custom of wearin g a covering for the fee t was adopted by all classes . The shoes

of the women were always wh ite in color,the senators

black , wh ile the magi strates kep t to themselves red .

I n. eastern countries w e fin d the Japanese wearin g a

shoe of rice and straw woven together !Fig . This

material is very light and soon wears out so,when

starting on a j ourney of any length,it is customary to

take a n umber of pairs of shoes with one , leaving the old‘ones along the roadside as they become unfi t for use .

The Japanese , on entering a house , observe the same

rule a s the Turk on going into his mosque , always tak

ing off their shoes and leaving them at the threshold,

lest they might soil,

the door - mats , for which they havea peculiar and marked respect . The military in Japan

wear a kind of clog,covered with movable metallic

plaques ! Fig. To this is a tta ched a sole of wood or

plaited straw,which is held on the foot by means of a

roll passing between the toes .

The Chinese,we all know

,have

,for ages past

,relig

iously devoted themselves to d w a r fin g the feet of their

women of the higher classes,so that it is not at all un

common to find a full - grown woman with a foot as small

as a child’s of four or five with us .

Of late years this barbarous custom has been gradu

ally dying out,and now one can occasionally come

across a woman whose feet have not been distorted,

still , when they are al lowed to wear shoes of natural siz ea n d form

,they are usually fixed on h igh

,c’onical soles

,

l ik'

e‘

F i'

gur e 8,which renders walk ing very d ifii

‘

c‘

ult.

But the C hinese!

women are n ot expected to walk m uch ,as their l ives are passed in seclusion and retirement.

Some of the shoes worn by the ladies are very beautiful

,in deed !Figs . 6 being made of delicat e pink and

blue satin embroidered with birds and flowers .

The men generally wear bla'

ck

i

s a t in boots with white

soles,which they lay off i n summer for shoes made of

plaited bamboo,with cork soles .

In India,shoes are worn only by the higher classes

,

and a few of the lower castes . This hab it of going

shoeless seems to render the toes of the ! indoo almost

as l issom as fingers . Sitting at his work , if h is hands

are employed he can use his feet to pick up any article

he may require,as the big toe becomes quite prehensile .

! mong the P ersians we find that in ancien t times

one of low stature was generally looked upon with dishon

or ; hence arose high heels to repair the deficiency of

nature . ! t firs t they were worn only by actors and

actresses on the s tage,but were afterwards adopted by

all classes,even those whose stature required no addi

t ion a l height blindly conforming to the prevailing fash !

ion,as many people do at the present day .

Some of the shoes worn in Eastern countries,at dif

fer en t t imes , have been very interesting ! Figs . 9 , 1 0,

1 1,1 2

,

Figure 1 1 shows a lady’s shoe richly painted with

small flowers . In front is a knob of brill iant color,di

v ided in to segments to imitate the petals of a flower,

and at every step the wearer takes she presse s a sprin g

concealed under the sole,which causes the petals to

al ternately open and close . One can easily imagine

the sensation such a shoe would cause,seen pr om en a d

ing along any of our prominent thoroughfares for the

firs t time .

The shoes worn by the wealthy are of the richest de

scription,being overlaid with gold and silver

,and em

broidered with precious stones . Others,l ike Figure 1 4 ,

are adorned with inlaid work of pearls or delicate shells

set in gold,closely resembling c/oz

'

ssm m e enamel,while

many employ the wings of gorgeous insects in their

decoration .

The color of shoes in the E ast seems to be a matter

of importance,indicating the rank or caste of the wear

er,red and yellow being the favorite shades .In olden times the M ohammedans were very j ealous

that none should wear yellow but themselves,wishing

i t to be preserved as their distinctive mark ; and thereis an old story which tel ls how

‘

some charitable person

gave a Christian beggar an old pa i r'

of yellow sl ippers,

and the Sultan happening to see them had the old man

thrown into prison,and despi te his explanations and

protestations of innocence would not spare his l ife .

Leaving the East,and coming back to Europe , we

fin d that in the early days of the C hur ch at Rome there

— 1 2

l ived a p 1ous man named Crispin,and his brother

,who

became converted to Christianity,and leaving their na

tive v illage traveled into France and Britain .

! hile on their travels they supported themselves bymaking shoes

,which they sold to the poor at very low

prices.

!There is a legend which says that an angel suppl iedthem with all the leather

,which probably accounts for

their moderate charges . ! ! t a ny rate , they are said to

have done a great deal of good among the poor,but

were finally martyred for their faith,in the third century .

Ever since their memory has been celebrated by the

faithful of their craft with great r e]01cm g and merriment

on the a sth of October , which is known as St. Crispin’s

D ay, while he is considered the patron sain t of a l l shoemakers.

In the nin th a n d tenth centuries , we fin d the use of

wooden shoes,or s a éots

,very general throughout Eu

rope,princes of all degrees wearing them . Their reign

w a s of short duration , however , as they wer e s oon rel

ega ted to the poorer classes , by whom they ha ve been

worn ever s ince.

One would think,from their clumsy appearance ! Fig .

that it must be rather awkward work to walk in

them,but the peasants do not seem to find it so , and

1 4— 2

even indulge in the ! l ight fantastic with considerable

grace and freedom of motion .

Their chief obj ection,however

,is the noise they

make . ! aving lived for some time in the close

vicinity of a publ ic school in Brittany,where some

one or two hundred children were in daily attend

ance,wearing these wooden sabots

,I have a very dis

t inct recollection of the din and clatter these l ittle oneswould make

,as they raced each other down the hill on

their release from school . N ot many years ago an a t

tempt was made to introduce wooden shoes into the

! nited States , but i t met with so l ittle success that i ts

pro! ectors were forced to abandon the scheme .

In Venice we fin d that the custom in olden times was

to have the shoes of the women mounted very high,

so as to make w alking as difficult as possible . By this

means j ealous husbands thought they would be able to

keep their wives at home but the plan did not succeed

very well,I believe .

Figs . 1 7 and 1 8 show the Venetian shoes of this pe

r iod,the sixteenth century . The firs t one

,of white

l eather,i s cut out in a delicate lace - work pattern

,fur

n ished with a broad sole , and would have been comfort

able enough,were i t not for i ts high support.

These supports , or c/zap z'

fleys , as they were called by

the Venetians,were m ade of wood and covered with

leather of different colors . M any w ere curiously

painted,while the richest were of gil t . The height of

these cfiapz’

zzfys was determined by the rank of the

wearer,the nobles t l adies often having them one - half

yard or more high. Of course no woman could walk

easily,hampered with such appendages , so all that could

at all afford i t would have one or two attendants tosupport them on either side when they walked abroadand even thus supported

,walking was extremely difficul t.

F inally,the daughters of one of the D oges came to

the conclusion that the fashion was abominable,and

they would stand it no longer. I t was not long beforetheir suff ering sisters became of the same mind, and the

fa sh 1on gradually died out .

! hen Charles I . first met his future w ife at D over,

he seemed surprised to find her so tall,and

,having

made some remark to that effect, she answered him as

follows ! Sire , I stand upon my own feet. I have nohelp of art . Thus high I am 5 I am neither higher Or

low er,

! wishing him to understand,i t seems

,that her

fin e sta ture was no t due to artificial means .

Fig . 1 5 represents a highly ornamented clog of this

period,while Figure 1 9 shows another s tyle of Venetian

pattern .

On page 1 3 we have t w o shoes from ! frica,Figs. 2 1

an d 22 . The firs t, of yellow leather , is qui te simple in

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- 1 8

design,but the latter i s more elaborate in decoration.

Fig. 24 shows an Indian shoe , while Fig . 2 3 i s a P ersian

boo t,whose poin ted front is supposed to have been de

si gned for the purpose o f preventing the wearer fromk icking up the dust

,so unpleasan t in hot countries.

In France the clothing of the foo t has always been asubj ect of Special consideration , and many have been

the styles that have emanated from there . ! mong the

firs t was the long poin ted shoe,called thepoula z

'

n e !Fig .

in En gland named cm éow es . !This name , poula z

'

fze,seems to indicate that the fashion - came from

P oland , though the pointed shoe is supposed to be of

Eastern origin . ! These shoes grew both in favor and

length,for a number of years , until the pou la in e had

reached such proportion s that it was necessary to fasten

i t to the knee by means of a chain o f gold or silver,

w hile in order to keep i t in shape i t had to be stuffedwith hay

,straw

,or fine moss . The length of the pou

Za z'

n ewas determined in the same manner as the height

of the c/zap z'

fleys , by the r ank of the wearer , and i t wasno uncommon sigh t to find a n obleman w ith his poula z

'

zze some twelve inches or more in extent,while the

upper part of his shoes would be cu t out to imitate thewindows of a church .

! hen the crusading army was before N icopol is , these

poula z'

n es astonished the Turks very much , who probablywondered how fighting was to be done in them . ! hen

i t came to decisive action,however

,it was found that the

pou/a z’

fles impeded the movements of the knights so

much that an order was given to cut them off .

There was also made,at th is time

,in order to avoid

t r a ilm g the pozt la z'

fzes in the mud of the narrow streets,

a kind of wood en clog ! Fig. with cross - bars edged

with iron ; this was fastened to the foot by an em br oi

dered leather strap . By means of this contrivance the

pow/a im s were kept from contact with the ground .

This fashion flourished for a long t ime despite theanathemas of the b isl10ps , w ho stigmatiz ed them as i m

moral,and the denunciations of ofli c ia ls .

By an act of P arl iament,in 1 46 3 shoemakers were

prohibited from making,for the low er classes

,shoes w ith

points more than two inches long ; and afterwards excommunication was pronounced on any person found

wearing them ; so they were forced to retire , after a v ig

or ou s reign of almos t three centuries .

From the pou la i n e, fash ion ran in to the opposite ex

treme,and in the sixteenth century people wore shoes

with square toes as broad,and som etimes broader

,than

they were long ! Fig. They had no straps,and were

only h eld on the foot by the narrow p iece rising abovethe heel . I t was shoes of this kind tha t were worn byFrancis I . of France

,and ! enry V I I I . of England .

In the latter country they were abolished durin g thereign of M aryTudor. The examples given are believed

to be German,and must have belonged to a person of

h igh rank,from their decoration .

! nother early example of a French shoe 13 Fig. 29.

I t is of whi te s tuff ornamented on the instep with a largerosette of silver lace and a long metal point. The heeli s so high that the wearer must have l i terally walked onher toes . ! nother female shoe of interest i s from the

wardrobe of Catherine de M edicis,Fig. 2 8 . The shoe

,

of white l eather,n o longer has the toe pointed but is

square in shape,covered to the i nstep with s ilk

,on

which are worked figures in silver lace,giving to i t the

appearance of a metal surface . This shoe is peculiar,

in having a sole which connects the toe and heel

together in the form of a pattern .

Fig 3 0 shows a shoe of this period , of delicate workmanship . The toe has now become quite round

,while

the leather is slashed to show the stocking underneath .

Fig. 3 1 represents an I talian shoe of the seventeenthcentury ; Fig. 3 3 i s another style o f the peaked shoe , of

the same date . F ig. 3 2 i s thought to be Flemish in or

igin,and of the eighteenth century . The heel and back

are not unlike in shape the shoe worn during the R e

geney in France,but the peculiar front - piece makes us

think that this shoe could never have been very popularfor every - day wear.

D uring the Revolution in France,there w a s quite a

mania for classic styles in shoes,and many ladies in high

society adopted the Greek and Roman sandals,which

w ere fastened on the foot by gay - eolor ed ribbons.

M m e. T a ll ien once appeared at a ball in such sandals,

with her toes decorated with diamond rings.

Fig. 3 4 shows the shoe of the unfortunate D uke deM ontmorency , a v 1c t1m of the relentless animosity ofRich

elieu. I t i s of black leath er,with a large red heel

,and

entirely covered w i th ornaments ; tr adition says i t wasgathered on the scaffold. F ig . 3 5 represents a h ighlyornamented lady’s shoe of this period

,while Fig . 3 6 i s a

shoe worn during the Regency . The heel i s very high .

and not unlike a ba r ber ’

s w ig- stan d the front

,however

,

i s rather graceful in shape .

Figs . 3 7 and 3 8 are samples of the curiously carvedwooden shoes which were worn by lad ies at the end ofthe s ixteenth century . Fig . 3 9 representsa black leather

shoe of Louis ! I ! .,with red heel ; these were in high

favor a t c ourt at th is t ime.

The use of boots marks a conquering race . In Germ an y , during the M iddle ! ges , serfs ivere forbidden to

wear them and this probably e ! plains why,when they

r ose for j ustice , after age s o f oppress ion , they chose for

their s tandard a great peasant’s shoe, The samples of

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boots given are from the time of Louis ! I ! . and ! ! .

Fig . 40 was called the cauldron boot ; this had a peen

l iar appendage around the ankle. Fig . 4 1 , the bellows

boot,has an enormous top

,s o that a man could hardly

wear a pair without straddling . Fig 4 2 , the postill ion’s

boot ; these were generally made of very heavy material ,s o if the postill ion

,by chance

,should fal l from his horse

,

the wheels of the carriage might pass over his legs without doing him any injury.

! e have now followed the various changes that shoes

have undergone from the earl iest times to the present,

and would bring our remarks to a close with a notice of

some of the shoes of to - day furnished by J. J. Slater,

which,if not as fantastic in shape as some that we have

treated,cannot be excelled for grace or d urability.

Fig . 43 i s a Ladies’Riding Boot

,madeof morocco and

patent leather . This style is the only correct one atpresent

,and no riding costume is complete without

them .

Fig . 44 represents Ladies’ Button Boot. The mate

rial employed is kid top,with patent leather foxing .

This makes not only a very s tylish but comfortable

walking boot.

Fig . 45 shows Ladies’ Toilet Slipper. I t i s made of

Suéde kid l ined with s 11k . This materi al is now the

lates t style for dress or toilet sl ippe rs .

— 2 8

Fig . 46 shows Ladies’ Oxfords

,made of French k id

,

with patent - leather tips . This i s a delightful summer .

walkin g shoe , either for ci ty or country wear.

Fig . 47 i s a Gentleman’s Riding Boot

,the only proper

boot for park riding.

Fig 48 , Gentleman’s Button Boot

,m ade with kid top

,

cal f foxing, with t ips,for walking , or cloth t0ps and

patent - leather foxing,for dress wear.

Fig . 49 , Gentleman’s Oxfords

,or summer walking

shoe ; very easy and comfortable for every - day wea r.

The above are but a few of the various styles introd uced by them

,and a v isi t to their establishmen t w i ll

conv ince all of the high reputation their goods have

, achieved in the las t twen ty - five years

Shoes have not only been used for their. natural pur

pose of cover i ng the feet but from remote t ime haveplayed a part in many of the important actions of l ife .

Y ears ago i t was the custom in Ireland to elect a per

son to a certain ofli ee by throwing an old shoe over hishead . But on oneoccasion an excited elector

,whose

place i t was to throw the shoe,aimed toolow ,

so that

the shoe hi t the candid a te on the head , in stan tly kill inghim . ! fter th1s oc curr ence the pr acticefell in todis

'

repute .

I n E ngland it was once customary to b in d con trac ts

by the e! change of old shoes , while w e are a ll famil iar

with the practice of throwing an old shoe after a bridefor good luck ; but I wonder how many know what i t

originally signified . I t i s a custom that has come to us

from the Saxons , and with them denoted that the a u

thor ity under which the bride l ived while in her father’s

home was now delivered over to the husband,who was

privileged to exact implicit obedience from his wife .

Shoes have also had their share of superstit ion attachedto them

,i t being considered to portend great evil

,if by

chance one should put the righ t shoe on the left foot,

or v ice ver sa . Even one of the Roman Emperors is

said to have run the greatest risk from j ust this causealone.

! ugu stus hav in g by o’er s igh t,

P ut on h i s left shoe for h i s r ight,! a d l ike to ha ve been sla in tha t d ayBy sold ier s m utinyin g for thei r pay.

But in this day of button shoes the dangers to be incurred from this cause are very slight.