BOOTS AND SHOES. Boots and shoes are the two general terms denoting footwear or covering for the feet and lower leg. Specifically, a shoe is an article of footwear extending not above the ankle, while a boot not only extends above the ankle, but may reach the knee or even the upper leg. In women's footwear, this distinction is main tained, but, for men, as a general rule, any article of footwear, high or low, if buttoned, laced or otherwise closed, is known as a shoe, while boot is the term used to denote footwear extending to the knee more or less, without lateral opening and with a stiff top.
The sandal, the simplest and most ancient article of footwear of which we have record, was a protection merely to the soles of the feet, rather than an adornment. It is evidenced in the art, archeology and literature of all ancient peoples, and is found even to-day as the footwear in a great part of the Orient. As culture and esthetics in creased, ornamentation was added to the sandal, and, little by little, other parts were attached, until what was the original simple protection of the sole of the foot became the sole of the modern shoe or boot. It is true, however, that in the routine of every-day domestic life it was the general custom to go with the feet bare, as is shown by the sculptures, paintings and other records. But enough evidence is at hand to show that other kinds of footwear were known and worn by the ancients. On the walls of the tombs of Thebes are paintings of the different steps in the making of footwear— from the tanning and other preparation of the leather or other material to the finished sandal or shoe, as then known. The currying knife, awl, lapstone and other tools used by the Egyptian sandal-maker were not dissimilar to the tools used by the cobbler of to-day. The emblem of the trade was a prepared skin suspended with specimens of the finished sandals in view of the public. The sandal maker of Egypt was an important personage. Like the bootmaker of to-day, he had to cater to fashion. The Egyptians — a nation of great culture— paid great attention to the niceties of and distinctions in raiment, of which foot wear was an important element. The aristoc
racy, and women generally, wore a sandal with a turned-up toe, pliable to the position of the foot. The lower orders wore sandals with rounded or pointed toe, or following the form of the foot. They were generally held secure by a strap extending between the great and second toes and secured at the instep to a strap attacnea at either mac me materials used were generally woven palm leaves or papyrus stalks or leather, with coloring and ornamentation differing according to the social position of the wearer. Shoes of which many examples are found at Thebes — were of late date and are supposed to have originated with the Greeks. With the exception of the soles, which were thick, they were similar in appearance to the moccasin of the American Indian. The Assyrians had a sandal having a counter, attached to the foot with a number of laces tied across the instep, in some cases the sole extending forward barely to the ball of the foot. With the ancient Hebrews the sandal was likewise worn by all classes, and was made of leather or rawhide, cloth, felt or wood, secured to the feet by thongs or "latchets,r. as mentioned in the Bible, in which source are found many references to this article of attire, sometimes spoken of as shoe. In certain in stances they were mentioned for their beauty being dyed, embroidered and often ornamented with precious metals and jewels. With the Greeks, the usual footwear was the sandal, from which was evolved the shoe, of which there were many styles—each worn by a dif ferent order of society. The Spartan patrician wore a red shoe; courtezans wore a white shoe; tragedians, a buskin, known as a cothurnus; and comic actors a shoe called the baxa. Numerous art remains, along with the rich Grecian literature, indicate that almost every style of foot covering known to the ancients was worn at one time or another in Greece.