The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-28
W0MAN'S MIRROR SENSE.

Women have at least one sense
which men do not possess said Prof.
Otis I. Mason. of the Smithsonian In
stitution, to the Washington represent
tative of the Philadelphia Record. ct
might be called the mirror sense, mas
much as it enables them to see them
selves without a looking glass, and
even gives them a sort of conscious
ness of what is behind them. Beyond
this, they have a kind of vision in their
finger-tips, as one might say, the sense
of touch being to them almost a form
of sight.
women are constantly working
small miracles. Take for example, the
tying of knot in a thread with the
fingers of one hand A woman does it
off-hand and as a matter of course.
That there should be any difficulty
about it never occurs to her until some
man comments with establishment upon
the feat which she so unconsciously
executes. Then she. in her turn, ex-
presses surprise at learning that he
cannot do the same thing himself. Why,
it is nothing! She cannot remember
the time when she could not tie a knot
with one hand. The thing to her is
mere instinct.
Instinct means inherited experience,
and women have a lot of it. The young
lady who threads with such wonderful
ease the needle which has no eye that
you can find is exercising a faculty
which has been handed down to her
through a thousand generations. She is
not merely her mothers daughter, but
the child of long line of grandmoth-
ers, running back to the Age of Stone
and beyond.
This same girl can beat raw eggs in
a bowl for an hour without firing in
the least. You offer to relieve her, and
in five minutes your wrist is so lame
that you find it almost impossible to
continue the task. OF course, lacking
practice, you waste energy, but the
chief disadvantage under which you
labor is that the muscles of your arm
are not adjusted properly for welding
a spoon in that fashion. The young
woman's forebearS on the distaff side
have been cooks for centuries, and
therefore it is that she is anatomically
modified, so to speak, for beating eggs.
"A woman may almost be said to see
with her hands. To the dry goods
clerk she says: Let me see that piece
of goods but when it is placed before
her she feels it with her fingers. hardly
| looking at it. She puts up her back
hair, smoothly and beautifully, without
seeing it at all, though when it is fin
ished she contemplates the result in a
| looking-glass. No mere man could ac-
| complish such a feat which may be
| said to illustrate the possession by the
female of our species of a very peculiar
faculty-a faculty that might appro-
priately be called the mirror sense. To
a certain extent apparently, a woman
can see herself without looking in the
glass.
ITO a man the whole art of pinning
things is a mystery. Apparently there
can be nothing to 1t beyond the in
sertion of the pieces of fabric which
are to be temporarily and mutually
attached. Any fool can do that. and
II is noticeable that the male person
does the job in a careful and even
scientific fashion which ought to rep
resent the highest degree of effective
ness. But somehow it doesn't. The
pin comes out. and 'cuss words are
liable to follow. oh, John, let me.
says the mans wife. She takes the
same pin and. without making any
apparent use of the divine gift of rea-
son, inserts it. She does not even be-
gin at the natural place OF beginning,
but executes a sort of overland move
ment. takes a species of double-hitch.
and with a wriggly thrust the thing
Is done. II holds as If 1t were sewed
THE hairpin of course is only
modified pin made double As every
one knows. q Is a womans favorite
utensil-a whole tool box i'm fact. IL
is TO her master-key to all mechani-
cal problems. And how is il that
woman is able to tie ribbon bow.
and that a man cannot? He can make
a bow out OF ribbon. Of course but Il
Is an altogether different article-a
product essentially masculine. She
gives the ribbon a couple OF twists
with her fingers. adds two dexterous
Jerks and a pat 10 right and left. and
10! the miracle--it IS nothing less
from your point OF view or mine-ls
accomplished. You could no reproduce
~ 10 save your life.
speaking ~ making knots. reminds
me OF an Eskimo woman I once met.
who FOR ms edihcaton tied N her