Our Women's Toes

Car.ovi chose five hundred beautiful womn f rom whom to model his Venus, and aorongtheni all couldnotfind a decent set of toet. If he had lived now-a-days wbsl lonk ivould he have had under the dainty hule buttoned boots, with their shavp pointed heels ? If adult women, h o wever, choose to torture themselves, there i do reason why any one should remootrte, but the coudition of the feet of the children is becoming too seriou3 a matter to be passedby in silence. As toon at the helplesa baby can put its foot to tne ground, and before it can complftin in words, shoes are put on it by which the width of the toes is contracted Í iliy half an inch ; and usually a stiff counter is ordered in the heel with some vague dea of "strengthening the ankle. " iVom this time, no matter how watchful or easible its párenla may be in other respects, those instruments of torture almost constitute part of its dress. The toes are forced into the narrower space year by year, "to give a good sliapo to the foot," until they overlap and knot and knob themselves over with incipient oorns and bunions. Then the heel is lifted from the ground by artificial meann, and thus the action of the calf muEcle ! is hindred and the elastic cartílago of the whole foot is stiffened at the earHest and most tender period Oj' its growth. The results are a total lack of elasticity in the step and a foot iuevitably distorted and disensed. American -women are noted fqr tlieir cramped and mincinp; wnlk. Houtliern cïiildren are more fortúnate in tliiH matter than those in the North, as it is customary, even in the wealthiest clnsaes, to iet their feet go uncovered until the age jf six. Mothers in the North are not wholly ;o Vlame, howevor, as the climato rei;uircs that feet sholl be coverpd, and it is nlruost impossible, even in New York, to fin.l shoes properly mnde foi children, iiulöss a last is ordered for the foot. As a ïow last would be required evory inoi'.th or two, very few parents are ablo to giv9 tlie watchfulneaff and money requirod ; but if the proper shape wero inBJetnd upon by thoso buyinp, ,shoe dciüers -would quickly furnish thom. Nothtng is more prompt than the reply of trade to any hint of a new want of fasliioTl. ■ i - i - i i