HUNGARIANS’ BOOTS

Evening Star, Issue 22460, 3 October 1936, Page 11

HUNGARIANS’ BOOTS

TELL NATION'S STORY Because the Hungarian peasant loves to work barefooted in the warm soil, shoe sales are low in this country. So low that the Hungarian shoemakers’ organisation recently has complained and cited statistics. In contrast to the United States, where every citizen buys three pairs of shoes yearly, and to Great Britain, where the per capita rate is about 11.25 pairs, they say that in Hungary the figure is only 0.48, not oven one shoe iu a year, and only about one pair of shoes per person in every third year. Hungarian shoes are very well made, and cheaper than in some other countries, but most of the peasant population of the plains goes barefoot. They may possess a pair and cherish them, but they do not like to’ wear shoes except when they must. Those who work in the fields, moreover, earn very little cash. Their wages are in kind —wheat and bacon, etc.—and it _is nearly impossible to pay the high price of a pair of boots, which they wear instead of the more urban shoes. These boots are made nearly the same shape for men and_ women. The chief difference is that in some parts of Hungary women still wear the attractive red boots, made of soft morocco leather. Another slight difference is in the shape of the heels. Those meant for women’s boots are a bit higher and more shapely than those meant for men, and naturally smaller in size. The women walk barefoot to church, dressed in their richly-embroidered Sunday attire and carrying their boots, tied together with a string, across their shoulders. They put them ou, only in the churchyard, for they want To walk in as cleanly and neatly as possible.. Again, as soon as they start home they take them off, especially if they are new. ,

GET SHOES IN SCHOOL. There are children in Hungary who have never had a pair of shoes. They got their first pair only when they have to go to school, where it is compulsory to wear them. If they cannot buy them they are given some. Actually the boot appears more often in the songs of the peasants than on their feet. But their boots are so cherished that it seems rather natural' that they should put them into their songs, as they do other beloved possessions, such as *a pockctknife, handkerchiefs, and flowers. Country people love to buy their boots and shoes at the village fairs, when they think they can get them more cheaply than in the ordinary shops. They enjoy “ shopping ” by going around the tents where boots are displayed and trying on every pair until at last, _ after a good deal of hearty bargaining;, they buy a pair. Buying boots gives them a good opportunity to talk politics, too, as the price of boots is always being compared with that of wheat. Now it is as high as five centners of wheat—about Bdol to lOdol. And is not the price of wheat connected with the political situation ? Is not a party always responsible for both the low price of wheat and the high price of the boots? The cost of living and the political situation are thus interwoven in Hungary. If the price of boots is high, which means low-priced wheat, then anything might happen. Revolution might break out. New parties might be founded if the situation lasts long. Or, on the contrary, everybody is satisfied if the boots are to be had at a normal price, which means high price for wheat or an abundant crop. The booted citizen of Hungary, although he buys only one pair of boots every three years, which is not enough to give the bootmakers a large income, is making the whole machinery of Parliament revolve around him. The man in the boots, whether he wears them or just leaves them at home when he goes to a mass meeting, is the central power of Hungary, the hub on, which turns the wheel of national affairs. There have been in the hear past .some very fine pairs of boots, entering the Parliament. But you never can tell, . looking at them, whether those boots were bought three years ago or just to-day. They are always shining and clean, no matter how deep the dirt was on the road through which they came. They give.no clue in themselves to political opinions. Yet the two are clearly related, so that the statistics of Hungarian shoe sales are not without importance.'—‘ Christian Science Monitor.’