Silver Heels

“ Over my white tarletan ball-dress, I wore a domino of white silk, trimmed with heavy white fringe, and instead of the ordinary hideous black satin mask, a silver gauze before the upper part of my face, and a fall of white lace concealed my features entirely. The heels of my white kid boots were made very high, and that, together with the long sweeping dress, made me appear so much taller than usual, that that one circumstance would of itself have deceived almost any one. ”

“ They always wore red heels, at least all persons who pretended to gentility. The fronts of the gentlemen’s shoes were very high, and on gala-days or showy occasions, a buff shoe was worn. The ladies appear to have preferred silk or velvet to leather: thus fig. 10 is entirely made of a figured blue silk, and it has bright red heels and silver buckles. Fig. 11 is of brown leather, with a red heel, and a red rose for a tie above the instep. Fig. 12 is altogether red, in a pattern of different strengths of tint; the tie and heels being deepest in color. ”

“ The heels of the fashionable ladies' shoes at the present moment—quarter past three, P.M., August 4th, 1870,—are two inches high, and at the bottom not larger than an old-fashioned silver quarter of a dollar, if anybody can remember how large that was.
Need it be argued that this absurd fashion weakens the ankle, and jams the toes into the sharp points of the boots?
If a woman were to walk as much as her health requires, with those most unphysiological heels, her feet would soon be crippled. The ankle, the heel, the arch of the foot and the toes must all suffer. ”

“ In the reigns of the English kings Henry I and Stephen, the people of the court wore shoes with long points stuffed with tow and made to coil like a ram’s horn, and by the time of Richard II the points had grown so long as to reach the knee, to which they were fastened by silver or gold chains. In the eighteenth century ladies wore shoes with absurdly high heels, a ridiculous fashion which has come back within our own times. An improvement which was adopted in the early nineteenth century was that of making shoes right and left. ”

“ She would, unhindered, develop to a brilliant, sumptuous womanhood; proud, conquering, full-blooded, and deep bosomed—a passionate mother of men. Herein lay all her early wildness and strangeness. Herein lay, as yet half hidden, dimly sensed and all unspoken, the power of a mighty all-compelling love for one human soul, and, through it, for all the souls of men. All this lay growing and developing; but as yet she was still a girl, with a new shyness and comeliness and a bold, searching heart.
In the field of the Silver Fleece all her possibilities were beginning to find expression. ”

“ I've got a job—a good job, good enough to be married on—at a cigar stand down stairs under the sidewalk. The walk up above is studded with glass, and I listen to heels all day. And say—there never was any heels anywhere could click like yours. I aint strong on poetry or music or such things—I wish I was—maybe then I could describe how I feel about your heels. I've never heard a tune was sweeter. I've been a goner for five weeks. My heart's set on—you. I want you, Butterfly Heels. ”

“ Swift flights of birds and wandering craft of thistledown were mirrored for an instant upon the shining floor, and then forgotten, because of falling leaves.
Lines of transfiguring light changed the snowy softness of Miss Field’s hair to silver, and gave to her hands the delicacy of carved ivory. A tiny foot peeped out from beneath her gown, clad in its embroidered silk stocking and high-heeled slipper, so brave in its trappings of silver buckles that she might have been eighteen instead of seventy-five.
Upon her face the light lay longest; perhaps with an answering love. ”

“ The electric lighted Porcellian basement was a celestial apartment. Life was a marvelous experience. He had heard a pair of heels click—a pair of heels he felt must click thereafter at his side. Hope thrilled him. Optimism buoyed him up. Ambition flushed his cheeks. He would climb high in the city. He was in love.
All day he stood in a daze, picturing the girl whom those heels supported. Blonde, no doubt, with great blue eyes and a mouth that begged for kisses. At three in the afternoon Mr. Goodfellow passed Sammy's way, and the cigar clerk felt he could contain his secret no longer. ”

“ Out of the shadows and hesitations of childhood they had stepped suddenly into manhood and womanhood, with firm feet and uplifted heads. All the day that was theirs they worked, picking the Silver Fleece—picking it tenderly and lovingly from off the brown and spent bodies which had so utterly yielded life and beauty to the full fruition of this long and silken tendril, this white beauty of the cotton. ”

“ Imagine drinking champagne out of a low-heeled mannish-looking shoe—not that anybody does that nowadays except in books, but you get the idea. Besides, high heels make your feet look littler and your ankles slimmer. ”

“ A French or spindle heel is absolutely inconsistent for any occasion when walking or standing is to be done and is certainly not artistic when worn with a tailored dress or suit. Vanity, gratified by a foot that seemingly is a bit smaller, should not compensate for the loss of good health, good sense, natural grace and efficiency. An elaborate evening dress may call for a higher heel than the one worn on the street, but it will not excuse the wabbly spindle heels sold girls by many ruthless concerns. ”

“ Those who saw her for the first time stared in wonder and admiration at the tall young woman in black, with the face and air of an Indian queen, and those to whom she was known thought that Miss Silver had never, since they saw her first, looked half as handsome as she did this day. ”

“ They wear enormous shoes, large, awkward, and heavy, made of the very thickest leather, and adorned with the eternal red frippery. The soles are an inch thick, with huge heels, stuck full of nails, and placed, not where the heel of the foot is, but in front, under the toes; and as these remarkable shoes lift at every step, the heels of the stockings are covered with leather. On Sundays, ample white shirt-sleeves, broad cap-ribands, and large wreaths of flowers are added to this singular garb, amongst the wearers of which pretty faces and laughing blue eyes are by no means uncommon. ”

“ Case! these are only Cuban heels,” cried poor Jess.
“That makes no difference. Some girls might be able to wear that heel with comfort. Not you, Miss Morse. Your instep is not high enough. You are cramping your foot. First thing you know your arches will begin to fall. Then you will know what suffering is, young lady. It is bad shoeing that makes so many people suffer from ‘flatfoot.’ Haven’t you a pair of comfortable shoes in your locker?” ”

“ But it is surprising how much of the sole of the boot you can see when behind a person walking—and it is equally surprising how much meaning you can read from that boot. It is said that to wear out soles and heels equally is to give evidence of business capacity and honesty; to wear your heels down on the outside means that you are a man of imagination and love of adventure ”

“ And believe me, those heels belong to a crook.”
Again Goodfellow laughed.
“I've got a little tip for the management,” he said. “They ought to put the guy that shines shoes here for a while. Something's got to be done to remind him there's such a thing as heels. The toes he shines beautiful to see. But the heels—say, he cuts 'em completely. They aint in his set.”
He held up a shoe in proof of this. A few minutes later he strolled away. At the cigar counter he left a thoughtful young man. Could he recognize professions by the click of heels?
For several days Sammy tried. ”

“ Can there be a more ridiculous appearance than to see a smart fellow within the compass of five feet immersed in a huge long coat to his heels with cuffs to the arm pits, the shoulders and breast fenced against the inclemencies of the weather by a monstrous cape, or rather short cloak, shoe toes, pointed to the heavens in imitation of the Lap-landers, with buckles of a harnass size? ”

“ High heels throw the foot into the front of the shoe, cramp the toes, and destroy the natural action of the foot. The French heel, so coveted by many ladies, is an abomination. It is not only too high, but, being placed under the arch of the foot, defeats Nature’s purpose in the construction of the arch. Children under twelve years should not wear heels. ”

“ But the lady of those days bravely trailed her long skirts over the dirty rushes in the hall, and picked her way over the muddy roads and tracks in long pointed shoes of some bright coloured material, stretching some inches beyond her toes and with ridiculously high heels. ”

“ No heel is ever attached. Around the man's waist, holding up his drawers and chiripa, is wound a long colored belt, with tasseled ends left hanging over his boot, down the right side; and over that he invariably wears a broad skin belt, clasped at the front with silver and adorned all around with gold or silver coins. ”

“ One thing alone lay in her wild fancy like a great and wonderful fact dragging the dream to earth and anchoring it there. That was the Silver Fleece. Like a brooding mother, Zora had watched it. She knew how the gin had been cleaned for its pressing and how it had been baled apart and carefully covered. She knew how proud Colonel Cresswell was of it and how daily he had visitors to see it and finger the wide white wound in its side.
"Yes, sir, grown on my place, by my niggers, sir!" he assured them; and they marvelled. ”

“ Provided every one is in the fashion, everything goes on in the age of high heels and gowns tied back precisely as it did five-and-twenty years ago, when people wore flat shoes, and when gloves with three buttons had not been dreamed of—when a woman of most moderate dimensions occupied three or four square yards of space upon a ball-room floor, and men wore peg-top trousers. ”

“ A pretty face and worn-out soles are a signal for those who would save girls from the perilous path, whereas an anæmic face in a stylish coat and a pair of polished French heels can go far unmolested.... ”

“ There are but two styles of hats—the tile hat and the sombrero. Every woman powders—lays it on in chunks—and wears the high heels known as the French opera heel. The style extends even to the men. One of the easiest ways to distinguish foreigners from natives is to look at their feet. The native has a neat shoe, with heels from two inches up, while the foreigner has a broad shoe and low heel. These people certainly possess the smallest hands and feet of any nation in the world. Ladies wear fancy shoes—entirely beaded, bronzed, colored leather, etc. ”

“ I have always had a very great interest in the shoes of women, particularly in slippers with high heels, which is always connected with the thought of being trod upon, or of submissively kissing the foot. ”

“ Still, a moderately high one is not so obnoxious as to be worth disputing about. If the height were limited to an inch for the heels of a lady’s boot, and an inch and a quarter for those of gentlemen, as a general rule, in both cases, the disadvantage of such heels would be so trifling that they could hardly be objectionable, provided the length was sufficient. But a short heel, however low it may be, is a villainous thing. ”

“ White Shield had never heard any of those tales of civilized men whose hair has suddenly turned gray from the effect of terrible fright or severe suffering. If he had read them, he would not for a moment have believed that any thing could change the long and waving masses of Silverspur’s brown hair to those thin gray threads. ”

“ Those who are incapable of getting into a shoe compared with which Cinderella's glass slipper would appear gigantic, have recourse to the stratagem of wearing a similar model fitted with a high heel set in the middle of the sole. ”

“ Women usually wore white shoes, until Aurelian allowed them to use red ones, forbidding all men, except the royal family, to wear the same color. The fashionable wore them very tight, with high heels, to give them a majestic appearance. ”

“ Then there are the miseries that come from the wear of the sole. There is the ricked ankle because the heel has gone over, and the sense of insecurity; and there is the miserable sense of not looking well from behind that many people must feel. It is almost always painful to me to walk behind girls who work out, and go to and fro, consuming much footwear, for this very reason, that their heels seem always to wear askew. ”

“ The chief points to be observed in getting boots or shoes are that the toes should be broad, to allow full play to the toes of the foot; the heels, if any are worn, should be low and broad, and under the natural heel, instead of being a sort of peg pushed forward right into the middle of the foot, like the fashionable Wurtemburg heels. ”

“ Nor is the male sex behindhand in its love of ornament; the broad breeks are clasped at the waist with broekstukken, huge silver buttons larger than our crown-piece, some of them handed down from generation to generation. The men also affect silver chains bunched up like skeins of wool as a neck ornament. In some parts, especially in Friesland, silver shoe-buckles are still to be met with. ”

“ Nine out of every ten older women look better in a comfortable straight heeled shoe or slipper, than they do in high French heels. Very high heels are apt to throw the body forward and out of its natural graceful poise. Naturally, an older woman tires easier and slumps into this unbecoming posture sooner than a young girl. If you want to dress for an enduring smartness that will last a whole afternoon or a whole day, wear comfortable clothes. ”