One very important thing to be attended to, is, that the golashes and toecaps of all boots should come above or below the joint of the great toe. Very frequently the edge of the leather comes at the very worst part of the foot; and, strange enough, sometimes we see a hard seam put exactly on the corn, and running across the bunion. If no leather be put at all, the boot or shoe being made entirely of stuff, frequently a secret enemy lurks between the outside and the lining, in the shape of a leather side-lining; weeks pass on perhaps without your being aware of its presence; at last, from the heat and perspiration of the feet, this side-lining becomes as hard as horn, and great pain is the consequence.

Shortly after the elastic boot was brought out, I made a little improvement in shoes, which are now made wholly or partially elastic. They are well suited for ladies whose feet swell, or whose insteps rise very suddenly, as they accommodate themselves to those changes. Morocco, prunella, and leather shoes, may all be made comfortable by attending to the instructions contained in the previous chapter on the proper forms of lasts.

The elastic clog is another improvement on the old mode of fastening with straps, buckles, and buttons; clogs on this principle are put on and taken off without any trouble or fastening, and by

a very simple arrangement of a plush back, all chafing of the boot is avoided and great firmness secured, without a chance of their slopping.

Ladies should always have a pair of these clogs ready to slip on-as they wonderfully save the boots in dirty weather; and, after having worn the elastic boot for some days and found the great support it gives to the ankles, how easily it remedies undue swelling and enlargement of the veins, and prevents frequently that serious disease, varicose veins, no one would like, nor is it advisable, immediately on returning home after a dirty walk, to throw off the boots; the remedy is then found in the clogs or golashes; you put them on over your thin ordinary boots, and thus protected, you may go where you please, and taking them off on your return home, walk in on the finest carpet without a chance of soiling or injuring it.

CHILDREN'S BOOTS AND SHOES.

The attention of every mother should be given to the state of her child's feet. How much subsequent pain, distortion, and lameness, might be spared, if a little consideration were given in time to the child's shoes and boots. As a general rule, if proper length and width be given, all will be well;

but this must be seen to frequently, as little feet soon grow larger.

If shoes are worn, they should be easy across the toes, and of good form in the sole, hollow and arched at the waist, and snug at the heel-if boots, then the elastic the same as ladies'.

If the ankles are weak, a surgeon should be consulted without delay. I have benefited many children by making an elastic lace boot, which, from the support it affords, compressing the muscles of the foot, and by bearing well up by means of a spring under the arch of the foot, has prevented lameness, and restored the feet and ankles to their natural form.

GENTLEMEN'S BOOTS AND SHOES.

The foregoing remarks on ladies' boots, apply equally to gentlemen's half-boots, the same materials being used for dress or summer walking; they need, therefore, only to be referred to in their proper place, and the remarks and illustrations, pages 105-108, will convey all that is necessary to know of the proper shape and true principles of fitting, sufficient length, straightness of form, and the room in the right place, being the chief points to be attended to.

Shoes are now very little worn; boots of some

kind or other being the general wear. At present, says the author of "The Shoemaker," we are emphatically a booted people; so are the French and the Americans; the fashion goes onward with the great progress of civilization; it is as it were its very sign. Homer has applied to his own far-famous countrymen, the epithet of the well-booted Greeks, a somewhat singular coincidence at first sight, though doubtless he meant no more than some sort of stiff leg-covering, as a protection necessary to the warriors of whom he sang, and bearing no likeness to the gay delicate boot of later. times.

The fame of the English in this way is not, however, altogether new; though from what the present generation must have observed since the introduction of the Wellington, it may seem to be otherwise. We were, it appears, a booted people before, or at least were so considered.

"I will amaze my countrymen," said Gondemar, Spanish ambassador, to the court of James I., “by letting them know on my return that all London is booted, and apparently ready to walk out of town." The reflection certainly is curious; the old poets and heroes were booted, and the hero of Waterloo has given as proud a distinction to our own boot. But then people in past days, when they had their

boots on, were thought to look prepared for a journey, whereas, at present, the boot is almost as domestic a thing as the slipper. We go to the ballroom in it, the theatre, the houses of parliament, and even royalty itself is approached in the boots!

The Wellington is unquestionably the most gentlemanly thing of its kind, and all the attempts of the Bluchers, Alberts, Clarences, Cambridges, and such like, to rival it, most signally fail. Its wellknown character for style, wear, and facility of repair, has stamped it the boot of the present day.

A good Wellington boot of the softest calf-leather, the sole moderately thick, the waist hollow and well-arched, firm and yet flexible, cut to go on without dragging all your might with boothooks, and made with an intermediate sole of felt to prevent creaking, is the best boot for general wear that can be made.

The varnished or patent leather Wellington, is a handsome article of the same class, and is generally made with a tongue, the legs being of colored morocco leather. It is now brought to a great state of perfection, and our bootclosers are the most perfect in the matter of fancy-closing and stabbing, in Europe.

For many years, this department of the trade has been quite distinct from shoemaking, or boot