The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-11-16
THE RISE OF TIE MIRROR.
HOW IT HAS INFLUENCED THE
HUMAN RACE THROUGH AGES.

its Part I'm the History OF Mankind
Mirrors In Early Times-Iisnd Mirrors
Used Before the Time OF Christ-The
First Glass Mirrors-How Made.
In the Vice Presidents room In the
White House hang two mirrors, one MS
toric, the other philosophical, II you
happen to look at IL that way. The his
toric mirror is an old fashioned gilt
framed glass, about two feet by fourteen
inches, bought in Van Burens time
This mirror cost the sum OF S2b, and sucn
q storm of protest against such extrava-
gance was raised when the purchase was
made as would have given Senator hoi-
man large and luminous points on tho
management OF his own economics. One
Congressman even went SO far as to de-
clare on the floor of the House that he
had combed his hair for fifty years before
Ave by eight inch glass, and had lived
to have voice in the ruling OF nations,
and that neither he nor his constituents
would lsubmit to be taxed to support 70
worth of vanity in q Vice. President.
The philosop bic mirror hangs opposite.
Il was bought recently and cost twenty
times as much as the first one and not a
protest was made when the bill was PAID.
This Is what makes the mirror philo-
sophie. 1t reflects the higher estimate
put on personal vanity as men and women
grow wiser. The philosophy can also be
extended to cover some consideration OF
the part that mirrors have played In the
history of the human race. Those peo-
pie who lived before the days OF ANAL
gam backed glasses must have had con-
sidera BILE intellectual exercise thinking
out substitutes. No doubt this was what
Pharaoh's daughter was about when she
went down to the Nile and picked up
floating Moses. IL poor Narcissus had
lived in those days ten-cent mirror
would have taken the place OF the pooi
into which he fell and sad calamity
would have been averted.
1t was probably because OF such incon-
venient occurrences as these that people
began to employ metallic surfaces instead
of CLASSY pools OF water for purposes OF
reflection. At any rate, they soon got to
using shields and other highly FURNISHED
su rfaces, and one of the principal toilet
articles among Egyptians came to be
mirrors of mixed metal, chiefly copper,
and attached to richly ornamented han
dies representing beautiful or grotesque
figures.
A historian has it that as early as four
centuries before Christ these metal
mirrors were in such common use among
the Romans that any maid-servant could
have as many as she could hang at her
yirdle, which probably accounts for the
fact that they gradually fell into desue-
tude among ladies' OF the higher classes
and led to the introduction of substitutes.
1t is hardly to be supposed, however, that
il was this fact which induced some IN
genious person SO to cut and burnish the
inside OF drinking cups as To reflect the
face of the drinker many times in hig hly
warning manner.
In addition to the small hand mirrors
| which il used to be the particular duty
| of some unfortunate young slave to hold
before her mistress, there were panels oil
stone set in the walls and SO highly pol
ished as to serve as mirrors.---it was this
| use of dark stone that first suggested the
use of glass for rejecting purposes, which
| according to Pliny, was first manufac-
| tured at the glass works OF gentleman
| named Sidon. Black glass was first used
afterwards clear glass with black foil or
the back replaced it. Pliny tells us al
about this, and from this time no mentor
is made of glass mirrors until the thir'
teenth century, when Franciscan monk
Johannes Peck ham, speaks OF mirrors
not only Of polls he'd marble and steel
but also OF glass covered with lead on th'
back. BY this time the amalgam used II
making glass mirrors was much like tha
of to- day, the difference being in TIT
method of its application. The process
was TO spread tinfoil on plain surface
to pour mercury over that and rub TIT
two together with the hand or with
hare's foot. The amalgam thus formed
was then covered with paper, over whicl
glass was laid. The paper was then with
drawn and weights pressed on the glass
pressing out the excess of mercury.
The Venetian mirrors OF the sixteenth
century are the most celebrated ones
These were of the finest glass, with set
tings of silver and gold richly chased an'
set with jewels.
1t would be interesting to conside
some of the effects upon the world / a
large IL mirrors had never been invented
1t is certain that the mortality by drown
ing would have been increased, such l
the vanity OF the human breast. There !
no doubt that the present fastidiousnes
in matters OF dress is largely the result o
the faithful reflection of the looking
glass. How could a woman bother her
self about the set of her gown in the bacl
il she had no looking glass to tell her sh
had a back-a thing which, being hersel
in front, as the little girl in Punch use
TO say, she would not otherwise sus
| xo.. WnrId