Shoe Hieroglyphics

Feople often ask me the meaning of the apparently crazy hieroglyphts and figures that are stamped on the inner Bide of tbw uppers of ready made slioes nowadays, " said an F street shoe dealer. "As every shoe mannfactory has a Becret stamp oode of its own and there is, therefore, no possibility of the general publio learning morethan thatsnch codes exist, I may as well teil yon that the vanity of modern xnortals, and especially women, is at the bottom of these peculiar stamped characters and figures. Yon'd be surprised to know, for instance, how many women thera are who imagine that they wear a No. 8 shoe when in reality their size is a couple of figures larger. A shoe salesman who understands his business can teil precisely the number of the shoe a woman customer wears at a glance. But as often as not a woman whose foot is a No. 5 calis for a shoe a couple of sizes smaller, and the mysterious stamped hieroglyph scheme was devised for the purpose of encouraging her in the belief that her foot is a couple of sizes smaller than it really measures in shoe leather. "When a woman. calis for a No. 8 to fit a No. 5 foot, no shoe salesman of this era who cares anything for his job is going to say, 'Madam, your foot requires a No. 5. ' He simply breaks out a shoe of the style she requests that he feels confident will fit her comfortably and Iets it go at that. "A woman rarely thinks to inquire if the shoe is really of the size she asked for, for she takes it for granted that the salesman has given her what she demanded. But when a woman does ask, for instance, 'This is a No. 3, is it?' it's the salesman's business to unblushingly reply, 'Yes'm, it's a No. 8.' The woman customer might examine the hieroglyphs inside the nppers for a week without finding out any different, and even if she had the key to the puzzle it would only make her feel bad; so what would be the use?" -