Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 April 1892 — The Effect of Tight Boots. [ARTICLE]

The Effect of Tight Boots.

This is what a physician says about tight boots and shoes: “It is impossible to stand or breathe aright if the feet are pinched. When correct posture and "breathing are Interfered with, the circulation is impeded, rnd deleterious substances in the blood tend to make the complexion bad. This is one of the many evils of tight shoes. To be well shod has a marked influence on style. The feet symbolize the body in their way as much as the hands. A clever shoemaker says that in a well-fitting shoe the human foot feels like a duck’s foot in the mud; it is held firmly in place, but nowhere compressed. Nothing can exceed the vulgarity and hygienic wickedness of a shoe that is manifestly too tight. For misery-pro-ducing power*, hj’gienically as well as spiritually speaking, perhaps tight boots are without a rival.” Here, again, we learn on high authority how important a factor in human existence and human happiness is the foot-gear of mankind. Some one may say, “We breathe with our lungs and not with our feet.” That may be, but I have myself observed how tight boots control the breathing arrangements of men and women. Instead of drawing a full breath with expanded chest, the sufferer walks humped-back, and gasps at every step, “Ah!” “Oh!” “Ugh!” etc. I don't know about the blood making the .complexion bad, but the pain of the toe makes the face long and painfully serious. Then on the spiritual aspect of the question the doctor is also right, for it is hardly conceivable that tight boots can tend to spirituality, whether in or out of church. I commend tl e extract quoted to bootmakers to VUt in their window as a reason why the public should only -buy their own particular good-fltt?ng boots as tending to physical, moral, spiritual and eternal welfare. Bui you must use your own discretion as to the inelegant metaphor of tie duck’s foot in the mud.