Page:Why the Shoe Pinches.djvu/41

 enveloped in a tightly fitting stocking, and in this case the direction of the great toe is always oblique, because, from the constant pressure of the shoe, this obliquity comes to be assumed so readily, that the very moderate force exerted by a stocking is quite sufficient to bring it about. The foot is consequently drawn with the toes unnaturally pressed together. A drawing taken from the nude, with a knowledge of the anatomy of the foot, is the only one that will give the correct form of the sole of any foot.

But while a drawing of the naked foot is unnecessary, it might still be of some advantage, and might be used to some purpose by a shoemaker who knows and is willing to apply the true principles on which a sole ought to be constructed, for it would do away with the necessity of sundry individual measurements, and give him exact copies of minor defects which must always be taken into consideration in the construction of the shoe. Most shoemakers, however, use such drawings in order to find out how they will be able most conveniently to squeeze the foot into the smallest possible compass; and as long as the shoemaker persists in this endeavour, as long as he recognises as his chief aim the symmetrical squeezing of a foot round the axis of its sole, so long will the most exact copy of a sole afford no guarantee to the employer, that he will get a more comfortable or even a better fitting shoe than that in ordinary use.