The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1880-07-15
AMathematical Mystery.

Every man who has intrusted to q
woman the work Of manufacturing a
shirt has had painful experience Of het
inability to Comprehend the importanee
of accurate measurement. Mr.. Smith;
for example; permits Mrs: Smith to
make a. new shirt, to be modelled pre-
-cisely after an old one, which measures,
say, fifteen inches round the neck.
When the new garment is completed,
MI. Smith finds that it chokes him, and
he calls his wife's attention to the fact.
She declares that it measures precisely
the same as the model, and, appealing
to a tape-measure in proof of the asser-
ton, finds that the new shirt measures
,hly thirteen inches around the neck.
In these circumstances O. male shirt
fiaksf wot1d confess that he had made
a mistake: Not So, MIS-: Smith: Hhe
exelaiiis, with every appearance Sf tn
imph; aThere | what did I tell you?
One is almost exactly the same size as
the other. There isn't two inches OF
difference between. them" Nothing
could more forcibly illustrate woman's
total incapacity to grasp the Importance
of accurate measurements. A being
who believes that q thirteen-inch band
will fit a ffteen-inch neck with as much
accuracy as If the band were two inches
longer Is borh without any Of the
| valie Uf linear measure. AS d fdle,
women decline to recognize the aithori-
ty of yard-stick. measuring-tapes, and
other standards, and place a pathetic
faith in their personal fingers and
thumbs. They have constructed for
their own use certain tables which. pre-
ko-Jol 41~o4 4bo ,.o,1nr ,o.p% ~ tho fhT1rnh
is exactly an inch in length; and
that the width Of three fingers is an
inch and q half. These are the only
measures which they viii Use wiet seek.
ing to ascertain the length of a piece OF
breadth. It is needless to say that they
are thus led into constant error. The
female fingers and thumbs are not con-
slant quantities, so far as their length
and breadth are concerned, and to make
them standards of measurement Is as
absurd as 1t would be to assume thatthe
humat1 foot is always twelve inches ii
length; whether it be the New York O.
the Chicago foot. What is very odd il
the fact in the department. OF cookery,
women make an elaborate p~retensel o.
their regard for careful measurement
They have rules for finding the exact
quantity of each article hat enters intt
the compassionate any particular dish
For instance, their cooking liturgie'
prescribe that in making cake ole mus
take a cuprof -four, six cups'of butter
two dozen eggs, three cups of salt, atea
spoonful of indigo, a tablespoonful o
starch, and three cups of molasses. Blu
do they ever follow this rule? It is no
torious that they pay no attention toit
When a wommundertakes to make ecak'
she takes what she calls "enough
-four, and to this she adds "a little in
digo, starch, and salt, and stirs into j
about as much butter and molasses ga
is needed. OF course, theresult is al
ways Unforeseen. 1T may turn out tina
the compound thus made Is cake, and i
may. prove to be. rice pudding. TIL
woman herself has not the least ide
what it will be. With the printed ruI
for cake manufacture lying before hei
one would suppose that it would be i'm
possible for her to produce anything bu
cake, but in actual practice she utterl
scouts the rule, and makes her myster
GUS compound by the light of nature
and humbly trusts that it will not com
out of the over as sausage or boile
ham.-New York Times.