Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1898 — TALK OF A BOOTMAKER. [ARTICLE]

TALK OF A BOOTMAKER.

Feet of English and American Women Put in Comparison. The agent of a firm of London bootmakers who is in this country taking orders told something about his business the other day. Among other things be said: “I have measured the Princess of Wales and her daughters for shoes. Yes, I was a mere lgd when I first paid a visit to Marlborough house, the town residence of the Prince of Wales, tn measure the Princess and her daughters, and very kind and affable they were, too. What sized boot does she wear? Oh, come now, that’s asking me to answer an embarrassing question. Well, let us say that her feet and those of her daughters are about the same size as those of the majority of English ladies, which, by the way, will average from one or two and a half sizes larger than those of American ladies. I have always supposed that the great amount of Avalking done by our ladies is, in a measure, responsible for this. About what you would call a five is the average thing for an Engiisn lady, rather larger than that, I fancy, if anything. And the width? About medium —a ‘C,’ I should call it, according to your measurement. “By the bye, I may as well say that in beauty of the feet the American ladies altogether surpass those of any other nationality. Perhaps the Spanisi ladies take as short a boot, but their feet are, as a rule, not nearly as sleud?. - , but more chubby, as it were. The Russian ladies also are the possessors of pretty feet, but hardly as much so as the Americans. As for the German I’d rather not talk about them. Their feet are—well, beyond comparison. “But don’t think that there are no exceptions to the rule among American women. Here is an exact sketch of the foot of a certain young New York lady. Whnt do you think of that? The size? Well, that foot, to be comfortably shod, would take a No. 11 boot. The lady is about 5 feet 0 inches in height, and is n member of one of the best families in NeAV York. And there is another, also. The lady is quite well known, not only in New York, but also out of it. Nature has been unkind enough to bestow upon her a stature measuring 7 feet 3 Inches, though unfortunately she is at the same time inclined to slimness. And what sized boot does she wear? Well, I have never exactly reckoned up her size, but my impression is that it Avould be in the neighborhood of a No. 13. But the foot is slender in proportion to its length. “Why is it that, with the tremendous success American shoe manufacturing machinery has achieA r ed in England, no more attempts have been made by American shoe manufacturers to secure a market there for their loAv-priced and medium-grade shoes? The low-grade goods in England are monstrosities — that’s all I can call them—not only in styles and shape and general make-up, but in last and comfort-giving properties. The low-grade goods that I have examined over here, some of them, at least, are made on as good a last as Is used for a boot three times its cost, and they look well. If the English ‘navvy’ had to choose betAveen them and an English boot for the same price—say 8 shillings—there would be but one result, the English manufacturer would be obliged to go out of business. Some of them see the handwriting on the wall already, and are getting over American machinery by the shipload.”