U.S.A. PRESIDENTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1941, Page 6

U.S.A. PRESIDENTS

FOOTSHAPES IN A LONDON BASEMENT. Wooden models of the feet of many of the most prominent citizens of the British Empire lie in a London basement as yet unharmed by Nazi raids. Bombs have fallen all around, but these 20,000 boot and shoe lasts, from which footwear continues to be shipped to the world beyond Europe, remain a unique library of the feet of the great and wealthy. The craftsmen who have built up this collection of footshapes, founded exactly 150 years ago, have been sending their representatives overseas since 1899. Almost every year since then these pioneering bootmakers have visited the United States and studied the footwear idiosyncrasies of three presidents, as well as of such noted characters as the late Price Collier, Payne Whitney, August Belmont, Gouverneur Morris (who referred to the makers in his writings), John Drew and the Barrymores, Foxhall Keene, Governor Beechman, General Pershing, Clarence Moore, Jay Gquld, General Andre Brewster and many others. Every graduate from West Point during the last 20 years has been interviewed for the supply of his boots. Although kings, princes and presidents do visit headquarters, many clients have never even seen England. They rely upon the reputation for workmanship and the good opinion of the great. One single order from an Indian prince was for 167 pairs of boots and shoes, each pair different and provided with a leather box. The invoice was just sent along in the usual way,