Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-11-25
MIRRORS ON rHE BAN LIST.
Convicts In Drltish Prisons Are De-
nied the Use OF Lookin;s-
GInsscs.

1
"What!" eXclams the astonished
reader, lis it possible that there are
any civilized persons on the face of
the earth who are not in the habit of
beholding their visages reflected from
time to time in mirror of some
kind? Surely this cannot be So"
Wrong, quite wrong, gentle reader,
for at the present time, strange as it
may appear, there are hundreds of
men and women in the United King
dom who have not gazed into a mir
rcr for years, says London TitBits.
The convicts confined in her maj
esty's prisons form members of this
community. From the moment of
convict's entrance to Jail to the mo-
ment of his exit he is not permitted
to have the use of a mirror of any
kind, the smallest piece of glass be-
ing rigidly denied to him. To the
women convicts this absence of a
mirror forms one of the chief hard
ships of confinement, and many fe-
male warder can tell piteous tales of
women who have actually fallen upon
|
for the loan of a morsel of mirror
Just for second" All these en-
treaties have perforce to be disre-
garded--and it therefore comes about
that many a female convict passes
three or four years without being
permitted to gaze upon her own feat
ures.
1t must not be imagined, however,
that it is merely wearers of the gov
ernment broad arrow uniform" who
are thus deprived of the pleasure of
scanning their faces in the glass. for,
incredible as it may seem, there have
been many instances of eccentric in
dividuals who, for some reason or an
other, have vowed never to look into
mirror as long as life endured
Such case occurred some years
ago at Carcassonne, in France, where
young and beautiful widow, much
given to frivolities, lost her only
child, boy of three, while dressing
her hair before the mirror for a ball
to which she was about to wend her
way The child, left to himself, wan
dered into the roadway and was run
over and killed by passing dray and
the mother, heartbroken by the
shocking affair, which she attributed
to her own neglect, vowed that she
would never again look into mirror
She kept her word and until the day
of her DEATH. which occurred about
three years later, she did not behold
her face on single occasion Every
mirror was removed from the fiat
which she occupied-nor were silver
dishes brought to her table, lest she
should see her features reflected
therein.
In one of the Midland counties of
England, not so very long ago, there
passed away farmer who had not
beheld his own face for nearly Is
years. The farmer in question was
superstitious to the point of credul-
ity, and on a certain occasion a gypsy
informed him that he would die while
gazing into a mirror. Terrified by
this weird prediction, the weak mind
ed man resolved that he would never
again scan his features in the glass
and rgidly kept his word, dying
eventually at the ripe age of rs.
A young italian peasant woman
who welded sailor told him on the
eve of his departure for a long vow
age that she would not look upon her
features in the mirror until he re-
turned to her, safe and sound. The
unfortunate mans vessel was wrecked
in the gulf of Mexico, all aboard the
ship being drowned, but the distract
ed widow refused to believe that her
husband was dead and vowed that she
would adhere to her resolve regarding
the nonuse of mirror for another
year. AS each year passed the vow
was renewed, but eventually a new
suitor came upon the scene and paid
court to the woman, with the result
that she married him in due course
and looked once more upon her come
ly face after lapse of six years.
FOrgiving FidO.
The eccentric John Randnlnh 1y,s