Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1886 — Children's Feet ami Small Shoes. [ARTICLE]

Children's Feet ami Small Shoes.

Too much cannot be said against the cruelty of forcing children’s feet into short and,narrow-toed shoos. A man in a large and fashionable shoe store said that he sometimes used ail his strength, that of a developed man, to force large feet into small shoes,» for grown folks, but when he was requested by mothers to put shoes too small on children, he objected. Many children, before they are ten years old, have incipient corns, bunions and callouses, caused by the foolish pride or carelessness on the part of the mothers. Many do not know that if a child’s foot is allowed to develop naturally, that when fully dev. loped, it can wear with ease a much smaller shoe than when crowded back and forced out of shape while growing so fast. The foot is one of the parts of the body that completes its growth early. The si/.e of the feet of a growing boy are sometimes noticeably ■large; when the. rest of the body has llnished it ; growth the feet are .proportionate. If a growing foot is crowded into short slides, ti c toes are pushed back and become tli'ck at the ends, 't hey are pressed up. against 'the top of tlie shoe and corn an* math . Thcv are • m,urged at the gi- at ami little toe joints causing bunion s which are more painful than corns. Marrow-toed slices cause lapping of the toes, callouses, and corns, especially cu the side of the large toe and under the widest part of the foot; ingrowing toe-nails are also produced. Corns cannot be cured so long as pressure is on them. This must first be removed. A man who suffered terribly with corns, said he would do anything to cure them. His friend said, “you are going up into the mountains; go bai’efootcd this summer.” lie did so, and his feet were entirely cured. Another cut the tops of the shoes away, leaving the soles and the leather back of the toe-joints and toes .—Pauline Adeline Hardy, in Good Housekeeping.