Cruel shoes stomped onto my computer screen while I was looking at a 100-year-old replica of the Arkansas Democrat. Cruel shoes and women's scorn for wise advice.
This was while I was reading the first example in the archives of 1921's Sunday morning Democrat: the Aug. 21 edition.
Sunday morning was new for the Democrat that year. From its birth in 1878, the Little Rock afternoon paper only appeared six days a week (with exceptions in 1903-05 and 1906-10). But in 1921, publisher Elmer E. Clarke added Sundays — in February, actually.
For reasons unknown, his first five months of Sunday papers were not archived.
As a veteran newspaper ... person, I can guess that they were saved, but somebody stacked them separately from the daily editions and then forgot to tell the mailroom to add that stack to the stacks of dailies sent to the book bindery for binding into the big bound volumes from which (unbenownst to anyone in 1921) digital archives would eventually be created.
Another possibility is that the advertising manager in 1921 swiped the mailroom's stack of Sundays to show off to potential advertisers.
So, anyway, there I was, with "News of Interest to Women of the City and the State" in big letters at the top of my screen when my 30-something niece wandered in from the kitchen, barefoot, her eyes still a little bleary in the morning's red glare. She paused to read over my shoulder in that endearingly intimate way of housemates everywhere, who are lucky that the person holding the paper does not have a flyswatter close to hand.
"Wait," she said. "They had a section just for women? I don't know how I feel about that."
Nobody does, my dear. Nobody does.
THIS
This, for instance, is what led that Sunday Democrat's women's news. Everything that follows until you reach "Email" is copied from Aug. 21, 1921:
"Possessor of Perfect Feet Declares High French Heel Holds No Terror for Her"
It remained for Miss Florence Porter, daughter of R.W. Porter, 2008 Center street, to upset the most stoutly maintained precepts of the foot specialists of the world. In the recent health program physical examinations held at the local YWCA she nonchalantly bared the only perfect pair of feet ever found in Little Rock and then knocked the foot specialist for a goal with the declaration that she has worn high-heeled shoes ever since she ceased wearing her hair down her back in braids.
It was astounding! It was without precedent! It was inexplicable, but true, nevertheless. There under the astonished gaze of the specialist was the naked truth — and an absolutely perfect pair of feet. He was completely baffled and he submitted the owner of the prize winning feet to a grueling cross-examination.
No, Miss Porter had never given any special thought to foot hygiene. She had almost invariably worn French heels and actually taken long hikes with her feet so equipped.
Had she ever worn the low-heeled, broad-and-unlovely shoes popularly supposed to be essential for the well-being of the pedal extremities? Yes, she tried them once, but they made the calf-muscles ache so that she soon discarded them in favor of the daintier if less hygenic foot covering.
Now the foot specialists of this great land of ours have unanimously put the ban on high-heeled shoes. Time and again they have sounded the dreadful warning to beware of the stylish, trim-heeled footwear. Behold the terrible examples, they exclaimed, and displayed photographs and X-ray pictures showing the sickening deformities that are caused by the toboggan effect of French heels, which cause the foot to slip forward, crowding the tortured toes into the narrow vamp.
Not alone misplacement of the bones of the foot is the result of the pernicious high heels, but other even more painful ills, such as corns and bunions, they declared, were the inevitable result of the tabooed shoe specifications.
Experts' opinions
Here are the specifications for a good shoe laid down by the best foot specialists in the country and adopted as the last word by the bureau of social education of the national YWCA board:
1. Straight inner border, because the foot is by nature straight on the inner side.
2. Room for the toes by having an outside curve following the lines of the toes.
3. Broad, low heel, not higher than 1 ¼ inches.
4. Flexible shank, allowing free circulation and use of the foot and ankle muscles.
This was the solemn edict set forth by men who had made feet a life study, but if the shoe salesmen are to be credited, Milady snapped her prettily manicured fingers at it and continued to crowd her presumably dainty toes into the instruments of torture decreed by whimsical, illogical Dame Fashion. The retail merchant who stocked up with the "health shoes" to the exclusion of the toothpick-toed, stilt-heeled products of the manufacturers of "fashionable footwear" would soon go bankrupt. His establishment would be about as popular as a museum of aetiology.
It would require a vivid, strong imagination to picture the agonies the fairer sex have suffered for the sake of appearing to have pretty, small feet, but they have accepted the pain without an outward whimper, in the sweet consciousness that their feet looked neat and trim.
Miss Porter No Exception
Miss Porter has been no exception to the rule so far as "fashionable footwear" is concerned, as has already been indicated. Occasionally she has felt a twinge of alarm upon reading of the terrible effects of French heels as published in the leading magazines for women and on the woman's page of the daily papers. At such times, she would try on a pair of low-heeled shoes, but only once did she go so far as to purchase a pair and wear them. And they soon were laid aside to collect dust in the closet.
Perhaps the chief reason why Miss Porter has escaped the ordinary evil effects of high heels is that she has never worn tight shoes for the sake of making her feet appear smaller than they actually are. She has no false pride on this score. In selecting a new pair of shoes she has always chosen a pair that afforded room to move her toes. "Comfort first and style next" has been her motto.
She wears a 5-EE shoe, which fits perfectly. She is 5 feet, 6 inches in height and weighs 136 pounds. She is 28 years old. She was graduated from the University of Arkansas six years ago.
Her feet never have given her any trouble, she says, and for this reason, she has never thought much about her feet, and when the foot specialist who made the examination at the YWCA informed her that she had the only perfect feet among the 4,000 women he had examined in his professional career, she was as much surprised as anybody.
One in 4000
The examinations were held for the purpose of calling the attention of members to any obscure physical defects they might possess, and at the same time recommending corrective measures. Dr. C.A. Dodson made the general physical and medical examination. Dr. F.D. Woods passed on the teeth, while the foot specialist was O.V. Smith of the Poe shoe store.
Mr. Smith has made a specialty of scientifically examining women's feet for many years. Prior to coming to Little Rock, he made thousands of scientific examinations in Dallas and Chicago. His records indicate that he has made over 4,000 foot examinations, and he declares that he has never seen a perfect pair of female feet until Miss Porter removed her stockings.
Step by step he went over the tendons and muscles. He made careful measurements and centered each item on the standard chart used. Not a trace of a defect was found.
Every detail was 100% perfect. An imprint of her foot made with the full weight of the body upon them also produced a 100% score.
"Here," he exclaimed to himself, "is a girl who has never abused her feet for the sake of fashion's whims."
But when he questioned Miss Porter as to the care she had given her feet and the kind of shoe she had worn, he gasped in amazement. All his preconceived notions were smashed.
Miss Porter, while a student at the university, was an ardent dancer, and she is of the opinion that dancing may have had something to do with the perfect development of her feet. She says she also walked a great deal, and had a natural love for outdoor exercise. ...
The foot specialists are baffled, and regard Miss Porter's feet as the exception which proves the rule, declaring that their perfection is not because she has worn high heels but in spite of it.
In the general physical examination Miss Porter also scored high. She scored 37 points on physical and 36.9 on medical, out of a possible 40 each. Her lung capacity was nearer normal than any other person examined. Not a single girl or woman examined had a normal lung capacity indicating that the women of this section do not practice deep breathing exercises and do not take sufficient outdoor exercise.
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