Formerly the great majority of ladies’ shoes and gaiters were made upon lasts that were _straight_, and the same is true even yet. Almost the whole of the cheaper kinds of work got up in the manufactories is of this style. Slippers are hardly ever seen made upon other than straight lasts. The whole custom is a wrong one, for this reason; the middle of the toe of shoes made upon straight lasts is nearer to the outside than it is in those made on rights-and-lefts. Hence they draw the great toe farther toward the outside of the foot than do those of the latter kind, _and have a greater effect in producing all the evils that go with deformed toes and joints_. No woman ought to be asked to wear them, nor should she allow herself to do so if those of another form can be obtained. Girls whose feet are growing cannot have them forced into straight shoes, especially if tight, without perpetrating a kind of tyranny very similar in character to that of the Chinese. Right-and-left boots and shoes are the natural right of all men, women, and children. Men and boys have, in this respect, the advantage over their sisters, as their foot apparel is almost wholly of the better shape. There is no reason why women and girls should not have the benefit of the improvement in form, though it is only a slight one, and they are counselled to take it whenever they can. In fact, there is no excuse for straight shoes, except that they can be made a little more cheaply—that is, there is a little less expense for the lasts used. They do not wear more evenly than the others—on the contrary, they are quite as liable, if not more so, to tread over at the heel. They never fit the foot so well in the hollow, at the instep, or on the side. There is no _necessity_ for their existence, for there is no form of foot-covering but might be made on crooked lasts with equal facility. Ladies’ slippers are believed to be the only article that is _always_ made straight, and for these, right-and-left lasts, properly adapted to the purpose, might be used without the least difficulty. Considering these facts, and that there is but a slight advantage to the manufacturer, and to him only, in their production, and that the children and poorer class of women, who wear them—the most helpless classes in the community—are almost compelled to deform their feet in doing so, it becomes a disgrace to the shoemaking profession that straight shoes are not abolished.