Adapt Your Shoes to Your Feet.
WHY it should be desirable to have a small, weak foot, any more than a small and weak brain, is not easy to conceive. For the purpose of having such small feet, not a few wear boots one or two sizes too small, and about two-thirds of the width of the foot as it would be at the ball if allowed to spread as it does when standing without the confinement of the boot. As a natural and necessary result of such pinching confinement, the foot becomes deformed and larger than it would naturally grow, with enlarged joints, the toes turned from a line parallel with the foot, to say nothing of the troublesome corns so annoying and crippling to a large class of young women. The worst results of this crippling custom of wearing small and narrow boots is felt by children when allowed to outgrow their boots. It is poor economy to allow the young to wear boots when the feet have become too large for them, since deformity of the feet is easily produced at this time. When the boot is too short for the wearer and the heel too high, the ingrowing of the nails is a perfectly natural result.