Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 160, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1918 — Indians Best Walkers. [ARTICLE]

Indians Best Walkers.

■When it comes to feet civilized man has a thing or two to learn from the dog eating Igorrote or the pigeon toed American Indian, says Prof. L. J. Richardson in a bulletin entitled “The Soldier on Foot," and issued by the University of California. Becoming a patron of the long abused pigeon toed man Professor Richardson says that the normal gait of man is exemplified by the American Indian, who walks with his feet set parallel or even with the toes turned slightly inward. In this way all the toes function and the lifting and propelling power of the foot is at its maximum, he says. While deploring the army regulations requiring a soldier to stand with his toes turned out at an angle of about 45 degrees, because of the tendency to cause eversion of the foot and weakness of the posterior arch, Professor Richardson is sufficiently optimistic for civilized man to conclude that in spite of the inherited and acquired bad habits he can reform and “learn to walk” with fair results. Walking in tight shoes generation after generation is the cause of nearly all the foot troubles of civilized man, the professor says. This -condition, he says, has left but a single strong toe on either foot, the others being in some measure atrophied. Frequent washing, trimming the toe nails and an avoidance of change from high to low heeled shoes are suggested as a means of obviating much foo* trouble.