Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-07-30
4 Mathematical Mystery.

Every man who has intrusted to q
woman the work Of manufacturing q
shirt has had painful experience Of her
INABILITY q to comprehend the importance
q accurate measurement. Mr.. Smith,
ior, example; permits Mrs Smith to
maze !. Is g new aAiifr to be modelled pre-
.olsely after an Old one, which measures,
say fifteen inches round the neck.
Mhen the new garment is completed,
Mr.. smith finds that it chokes him, and
ne calls his wife's attention to the fact.
Sne declares that it measures precisely
the same as the model, and, appealing
% tape-measure in proof Of the asser-
ton, nnds that the new shirt measures
only thirteen inches around the neck.
IN these circumstances male shirt
maker would confess that he had made
9 2, mistake. Not SO, Mrs. Smith. She
e1claims, with every appearance Of tri-
umph, " Therel 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 A being
who believes that q thirteen Inch band
will fit q, fifteenrinch neck with as much
accuracy as if the band were two inches
longer is born without any sense of the
value Of linear measure. As rule,
women decline to recognize the atltho1i-
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-
tended that the upper joint Of the thumb
is exactly. an inch in length, and
that the width of three fingers is an
inch and half. - These are the only
measures which they will use when seek
ing to ascertain the length of piece OF
piping cord, or the width of a skirt
breadth. Tits needless to say that they
are thus led into constant error. The
female fingers and thumbs are not con.
slant quantities, so for as their length
and breadth are concerned, and to make
them standards of measurement is as
absurd as it would be to assume that the
human foot. is always twelve inches in
length, whether it be the New York o,
the Chicago foot. What is very odd is
the fact in the department. of cookery,
women! make an elaborate pretense Of
their regard for careful measurement
They have rules for. finding the exact
quantity Of each article that enters into
the composition of any particular dish,
For instance, their cooking iturgies
prescribe that in making cake one must
take q cup Of -four, six cups of butter,
two dozen eggs, three cups of salt, tea
spoonful Of indigo, q tablespoonful o.
starch, and three cups of molasses. But
do they ever follow this rule2 It is no
torious that they pay no attention to it
When a woman undertakes to make cake
she takes what she calls "enough
-four, and to this she adds ga little in
dgo, starch, and salt, and stirs into il
about as much butter and molasses Gas
is needed" Of course, the result is al
ways unforeseen. It may turn out thai
the compound thus made is cake, and il
may prove to be rice pudding. The
woman herself has not the least ides
what it will be. With, the printed rule
for cake manufacture lying before her
one would suppose that it would be i'm
possible for her to produce anything but
cake, but in actual practice she utterly
scouts the rule, and makes her mysteri
GUS compound by the light of nature
and humbly trusts that it will not come
out of the oven as sausage or boilec
ham.-Nelv YORK; Times.