In times past, people paid their shoes no particular attention; all that concerned them was that the feet remain comfortable inside simple, easy shoes... And they rarely noticed that these feet are not merely a means of getting about, but a seat of beauty, in which a woman's beauty shows at its most radiant.

However beautiful a woman may

... The lady given to extremes of elegance loves the shoe with many openings.

be, that beauty remains lacking and incomplete if the feet are neglected and the shoes do not express the personality of their wearer and reflect her spirit. It has been observed that women's feet are, on the whole, more beau-tiful than men's — and this, of course, has its reasons: a woman's coquetry, her care for her feet, her fondness for light shoes

with many openings, and her inclination to change her shoes twice a day — this inclination in a woman, besides conferring beauty upon her, confers health and vigor as well. That is why we find that women in general, in the beauty and health of their feet, come far closer to perfection than the feet of men; for a man keeps to a single pair of shoes, which he seldom changes all day long, and so, as matters stand, he prevents the feet from breathing and refreshing themselves.

Women are reproached for their care in keeping three secrets: their age, their weight, and the

And the slender lady of little height inclines to "toilette" shoes with high heels...

size of their shoes. That is because the measure of beauty for a woman's feet, in the recent past, lay in their smallness...

Today, however, there is no longer any reason to keep this last secret, for the feet of the modern woman are a good deal larger than they were in past ages. The reason is her devotion to athletic life in the open air, and her greater consumption of calcium-bearing foods and vitamins — all of which help the bones to grow and increase in

And the conservative lady likes shoes bearing the marks of modesty: few openings, a moderate heel, black in color.

size. And once this defect became general, it was no longer a defect in people's eyes; rather, it became something charming!

The fashions in women's shoes change with every passing year. But it is agreed that the best shoes are the simple ones, and that nothing displays a woman's elegance like her shoes!