The great fault with modern shoes is that their soles are made too narrow.  If one would secure perfect healthfulness of the feet, he should go to the shoemaker and step with his stockinged feet on a sheet of paper.  Let the shoemaker mark with a pencil upon the paper the exact size of his foot, and then make him a shoe whose sole shall be as broad as this outlined foot.

Still more destructive of the beauty and symmetry of our women’s feet have been the high, narrow heels so much worn lately.  They make it difficult to walk, and even in some cases permanently cripple the feet.  A shoe, to be comfortable, should have a broad sole and a heel of moderate height, say one-half an inch, as broad at the bottom as at the top.

 [Illustration]

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Toilet Recipes.

TO REMOVE FRECKLES.

Bruise and squeeze the juice out of common chick-weed, and to this juice add three times its quantity of soft water.  Bathe the skin with this for five or ten minutes morning and evening, and wash afterwards with clean water.

Elder flowers treated and applied exactly in the same manner as above.  When the flowers are not to be had, the distilled water from them, which may be procured from any druggist, will answer the purpose.

A good freckle lotion is made of honey, one ounce, mixed with one pint of lukewarm water.  Apply when cold.

Carbonate of potassa, twenty grains; milk of almonds, three ounces; oil of sassafras, three drops.  Mix and apply two or three times a day.

One ounce of alcohol; half a dram salts tartar; one dram oil bitter almonds.  Let stand for one day and apply every second day.

FOR PIMPLES ON THE FACE.

Wash the face in a solution composed of one teaspoonful of carbolic acid to a pint of water.  This is an excellent purifying lotion, and may be used on the most delicate skin.  Be careful not to get any of it in the eyes as it will weaken them.

One tablespoonful of borax to half a pint of water is an excellent remedy for cutaneous eruptions, canker, ringworm, etc.

Pulverize a piece of alum the size of a walnut, dissolve it in one ounce of lemon juice, and add one ounce of alcohol.  Apply once or twice a day.

Mix two ounces of rose-water with one dram of sulphate of zinc.  Wet the face gently and let it dry.  Then touch the affected part with cream.

WASH FOR THE COMPLEXION.

A teaspoonful of the flour of sulphur and a wine-glassful of lime-water, well shaken and mixed; half a wine-glass of glycerine and a wine-glass of rose water.  Rub it on the face every night before going to bed.  Shake well before using.