(3.) It is usually the custom to soak the corns previously to cutting them. As this is not always convenient, the following method of rendering the corn soft well serve instead. Take a strip of wash-leather, of size sufficient to cover the corn, and a strip of oiled silk rather larger; wet the leather and apply it to the corn, then cover it with the oiled silk, which will prevent the leather from becoming dry. Keep this on for a few days, wetting the leather two or three times a day. This will render the corn so soft that the razor may be applied without causing pain. CHAPTER VII. HISTORY OF BOOTS AND SHOES IN THE UNITED STATES. The first settlers of New England, Virginia, and other British colonies in America, brought with them to this country, the fashions of dress which were prevalent in England at the time of their emigration, being the same as described in the preceding pages, with regard to boots and shoes in use in the seventeenth century, in the reigns of the Stuarts, or under the dominion of the commonwealth, when Cromwell was at the head of affairs. New England being settled by the puritans, the dresses of the first English inhabitants of that section were of a plainer character than those of Virginia and other colonies, where the first settlers were cavaliers, or adherents of the house of Stuart. The dress, particularly the boots and shoes, worn by the earlier settlers of New England, are thus described by Miss Caulkins, in her “History of Norwich, Connecticut.” “The shoes worn in 1689, were coarse, clumped, square-toed, and adorned with enormous buckles. If any boots made their appearance, prodigious was the thumping as they passed up the aisles of the church; for a pair of boots was then expected to last a man’s life. The tops were short, but very wide at the top; formed, one might suppose, with a special adaptation to rainy weather; collecting the water as it fell, and holding an ample bath for the feet and ankles! “It is uncertain whether the small clothes had then begun to _grow_, so as to reach below the knee, and to be fastened with knee-buckles or not. The earlier mode was to have them terminate above the knee, and to be tied with ribands. The common kind were made of leather. Red woollen stockings were much admired. Swords were customarily worn when in full dress, by all the earlier settlers of New England, both in a civil and a military capacity. Hats were at that time made of wool; perhaps two or three at the church door reverently took off a black ‘beaverett,’ though that was a costly article in those days. The coat was made with a long straight body, falling below the knee, and with no collar. The waistcoat was long.”