The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-11-17
A Mathematical Mystery.

Every man who has intrusted TO
woman the work of manufacturing a
shirt hns had painful experience of her
inability TO comprehend the importance
Of accurate measurement Mr.. Smith,
for example, permits Mrs. Smith to
make n 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,
Mr.. Smith finds that it chokes him, and
he calls his wife's attention to the fact.
She declares that it measures precisely
the sc g the model, and, appealing
TO tape-measure in proof of the asser-
ton, finds that the new shirt measures
only thirteen inches around the neck.
In these circumstances a male shirt
maker would confess that he had mHde
a mistake. Not so, Mrs. Smith. She
exclaims, with every appearance of til
umph, "There! what did | 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 womams
total incapacity to grasp the importance
OF accurate measurements. \ beng
who believes that thIrteeu-inch band
will fit a fifteen-inch 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 a rule,
women decline to recognize the apthori-
ty of yard-stici1. measuring-tapcs, and
other standards, and place a pathetic
faith IN their personal fingers and
thumbs. They have constructed fol
their own use certain tables which pre-
tended that the upper joint OF the thulnl
Is exactly AN inch IN length. and
that the width of three fingers Is az
inch and a half These are the only
measures which they will use when seek
ing to ascertain the length of Il piece of
piping cord, or the width of n skirt
breadth. 1t Is needless to say that they
arc thus led into constant error. Til,
female fingers and thumbs are not CON
slant quantities, so far as their length
and breadth are concerned, and to make
them standards Of nccsurenltut Is n
absurd Us it would be 10 assume that the
human foot Is always twelve inches in
length, whether it be the New York on
the Chicago foot What is very odd Ii
the fact III the department OF cookery,
women make an elaborate p-etense 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
prescribe that in making cake one must
take a cup Of -four, SIX cups of butter,
two dozen eggs, three cups Of salt, a tea
spoonful Of indigo, tablespoonful Of
starch, and three cups Of lnolasses. But
10 they ever follow this rule? 1t is no
torious that they pay no attention to it.
When woman undertakes t. make cake
she takes what she calls * enough
-four, and to thi She adds Z" a little in
digo, starch, and salt, and stirs into il
about as much butter and molasscs 'sas,
IS needed" OF course, the result is al
gays unforeseen. 1t may turn out that
the compound thus made is cake, and il
may prove 10 be rice pudding. The
woman herself has not the least idea
what it will be. With the printed rule
for cake manufacture lying before her.
one would suppose that it would lie i'm
possible for her to produce anything but
cake, but IN actual practice she utterly
scouts the rule, and makes her mysteli-
ous compound by the light Of nature,
and humbly trusts that it viii not come
out Of the oven as sausage or boiled
ham.-Nc7O York Times