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Show IF YOUR FEET HURT , YOU'RE ASHOE PULLER Brand New Disease of Women That Is Baffling the Doctors and Rattling Shoemakers. CNow York Journal,) "AY," said the manager of a fash-lnable fash-lnable shoe store on Fifth ave-ij ave-ij nue to a customer who was waiting for hl3 bundle, Vhavo you seen any of theai shoe-pullers yet?" "Shoe-puller3?" repeated the customer. custom-er. "What's that some new kind of animal?" "Not exactly. It's But here comes one now." Tho door of tho store opened and a young woman, stylishly dressed and who would have been Very pretty but for a look of agony that suffused her face, limped In on one foot. Before a clerk could come to her assistance she reached a bench and plumped herself down, raised one little foot and literally ripped the shoe off, toveral buttons flying off In her hayte. Then, with the same look of agony on her face, she grabbed her stockinged foot in ono hand and rocked to and fro. A clerk by this time had come to her aid with a glas3 of water, which the young woman drank at a gulp and seemed to be relieved. "Are you In pain, madame?" asked tho clerk, politely. "Dreadful!" exclaimed the young woman. wo-man. "I don't know what it was, but I suddenly got the most awful cramp in my foot, and it seemed as though I I wish you would cee what Is the matter with the shoe. I bought thlo pair here the other day, and they'ro loose Instead of being too tight. But though they feel all right when I start out, they begin to hurt terribly In a little while, and yesterday yes-terday I had to take this ahoo off right in a street car." A Mysterious Epidemic. The clerk smiled. '"Madame," he said. "It Is not the shoes that give you that cramp. You have simply Joined the grqat army of women who suffer with a mysterious epidemic." And he went on to explain further to his customer. "She's a shoe-puller with a vengeance," ven-geance," observed the manager to the man he had 'first addressed, "but by no means the first one today. I should say that she was about the fortieth who has come in here with the same story. The clerk will fix her all right, by putting a steel lift In tho inetep of her shoe, but she'll be back again In a few days, and we'll probably have lo build a .pair of shoes for her. "But," said the customer, "I don't understand un-derstand it." "No?" laughed the manager. "Neither "Neith-er docs any one else. It's a fact, though, that in the past live years a painful affection in the shape of a sudden sud-den cramp of the toes, has overtaken the feminine population of New York and other cities?, till almost every woman wo-man Is a victim of It. We began to get ca&es of It from the first In few numbers, num-bers, but ever Increasing, till now It is no uncommon thing for ua' toi'Kave1 to - . . treat a hundred a 'day. See, here comes another." This time the newcomer was a heavy woman, of fashionable appearance, who hobbled Into the store and sank into a seat next to the lirot sufferer. A clerk removed her shoe, and the succeeding conversation was much like tho previous one the customer had overheard. Pains Like Hot Needles. "It's terrible," said the heavy woman. "No matter where I go I am liable to have to stop and take off my shoe. It feels as though hot needles were being pressed through my foot, and the pain is unbearable." "I'm Just that way. too," said the other. oth-er. "Why, when I go to the theater I have to take along a pair of slippers to wear after removing my shoes. And, at a card party, the other night, I had to slip off my boots and sit In my stockinged stock-inged feet all the evening." "Me too," said a third woman who overheard the dialogue. "I've been a terrible sufferei' from the tame thing, and at a dinner party, when I had to kick my shoey off under the table, they got lost and I had a terrible time finding them without letting the other guests know what was the matter. What do you suppose the trouble Is?" "My doctor oays It's nothing but what Is commonly known as 'flat foot,' " said tho nist woman, "Five years ago, he tells me, the thing was hardly ever iivuiu vi, uui iiowuuays every one nas it, and there seems no way to stop it. It is caused, he says, by a weakening of the muscles In the sole of the foot, which allows the Instep to sag down, bringing a pressure on the front of the foot and causing the nerves at the base of the toes to become pressed together, making thc'blood congest, or something like that, I've spent I don't know how much on hygienic shoes, but nothing seems to do much good." "And I," said the pretty girl. "Why, for a year I went without a heel on either ahoe, thinking that high heels caused the trouble. But I was Just as badly off. My doctor says the asphalt pavements cause the trouble more than tight shoes or high heels." All in Samo Boat. Whereupon all agreed that they were a most unfortunate trio of women, anyway, any-way, and went out together. "They come In by the dozen," continued contin-ued the manager. "At first we began to think that we were making bad shoes and had the last examined with a view to changing It. But we found that every one's shoes, seemed to cause the same trouble. Finally I asked a doctor about it myself and he explained it very much as that woman did Just now There seems to bo no cure for it. though in some aggravated cases physicians have removed a small bone or two from the foot of a patient. "Hygienic shoes, of course, prope'rly and carefully constructed, will relieve the trouble, but after it has once got its ; hold on a woman nothing appears to 1 completely cure her, and I have some of i them return here after we have done ; everything that a shoemaker can to ease : her pain, with the cramp driving her ; nearer crazy that ever. I don't know what the finish will be, but It's up to ! some phj'slclan to find a cure for the ', woman of today or we'll have them run- c lng around barefooted or in carpet slip- H pers." c R |