The Greeley tribune., 1904-07-14

Guessing the time of day Ia an
amusement for some and almost pro-
fession for others. The best guessers
are not those whose occupations re-
Quire them to be most scrupllous In
the matter Of time. Railway employ
ees, especially conductors and engi-
ncers, are 30 much men Of the minute
and the second and have so learned to
trust to their watches that they do not
Of guessing time by various natural in
dications or by a sort OF mysterious
knack.
The labOrer who does not carry
watch can often guess within ten or
fifteen minutes Of the time at any hour
Of his working day. 1t is not uncom-
mon even in New York for a laborer
on the street to inquire the time of day
Of passerby. but the query is oftenest
made near the noon hour. and the IA
bOrer, if asked to guess could probably
come very close to the very minute in
dicated by the length of shadows. the
position of the sun and the quantity
Of light falling into the street. Men
working underground or at night guess
the time much less closely than those
who work by daylight and in the open
air.
Many men 20 by the "hunger clock
and can guess very close to the hour
for quitting work whether ut noSn or
toward the close of the days work In
shops where there are no clocks hun
a.,
from mouth to mouth as those hours
approach. The signal for quitting work
seldom comes as a surprise to the ordi-
nary hand worker.
Brain workers and men whose trades
require delicate manipulation do not
guess time so accurately as unskilled
laborers, because they become so alb
sorbed in their work as to be oblivious
to the flight OF time. A hardworking
business man Of New York used to
I keep an alarm clock on his desk which
went Off at the hour he should make
ready to catch suburban train. The
alarm literally walked him up out Of
thought. Sometimes, so to speak. he
slept through the alarm and missed his
train Without this reminder he would
overstay his time at the office an hour
or more.
Some men have really uncanny
power of guessing time. They do it ap-
parently without the aid Of natural in
dications and by means of some inward
monitor which goes on measuring OF
| the hours like a chronometer. There
are men who can ordinarily guess the
time within ten minutes at any hour Of
their waking day. 1t is suspected that
such men rarely become deeply absorb
ed in their work, though the faculty
often accompanies fine intellectual pow
ers.
A much rarer power than that OF
guessing the time at a given hour or
the day is that Of guessing the elapsed
time in short periods. Hardly one man
in ten can come within five minutes OF
guessing the elapsed time in periods of
less than half an hour and more than
a quarter, and very few can tell with
in n minute when period of ten min
utes has elapsed.
The most difficult feat in time guess
ing is to wake from sound sleep in
!
bed before midnight and guess within
half an hour of the time. Most per-
sons, unaided by natural indications
such as moonlight the first signs OF
dawn in midsummer or the profound
quiet of the house in winter. cannot
under these conditions guess within
two hours Of the time.
Persons ordinarily underestimate the
time they have slept at night and over
estimate the length of daylight nap.
The cat nap Of two or three minutes ap-
pears TO most persons to have lasted
from fifteen minutes to half an hour.
In fact, some persons seem to get TO
sleep all over and through and through
whenever they lose consciousness and
are thus utterly oblivious of the flight
of time, while others seem never, even
at night, to be thoroughly saturated
with sleep. Persons of the latter class
wake at any moment of the night in al
most full possession of their faculties
and can usually form a pretty good
notion of the hour.
Public speakers are proverbially BAD
cuessers of the elapsed time when they
speak eXtemporaneously. Clergymen'
through habit, however, can guess pref
tv close as to the length of an extern
poraneous sermon. and the clergyman
who breaches beyond his usua! time
gets many hints that he Is talking TOO
long from the conduct of his hearers.
When n preacher sees his usually wake
full hearers noddins and the younger
members of the congregation more than
usually uneasy in their seats he knows
that he has passed his usual limit.
Women and children are bad guess
ers of time because they tend to be pre-
occupied with the matter OF the mo-
| ment, so that they are oblivious to all
else. Men who have the habit of keep
ing their watches accurate and OF not