Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-01-05
WOklNSPENDS 1000
HOURS BEFORE MIRROR
A Frenchman Discovers Every
One of Fair Sex Uses That
Amount of Time.
THEY USE ANY REFLECTOR
From Shop Windows and Show Cases
to the Ordinary Pie Pan, Woman
Gazes Into Everything That
Will Show Her Face.

NJ. Bernard Carton, a Parsian philoso-
pher, writer and lecturer, and a student OF
human nature, has turned his attention TO
the fair sex and is making a study Of how
they spend their time.
He has found that 1000 hours or the
average woman's life are spent In viewing
heself, not only in ner mirror, but in the
surface Of all kinds of queer refectors'
And this between the age OF 6 and %. Ten
months or ffty-four years of her life are
given over to looking at the arrangement
of her hair, the tilt of her hat, the hang or
her skirt, the effect of certain %colors, the
makeup of her face-by which she
means, NJ. Carton states, the arrangement
of her features as made by nature-the tit
of her bodice, the adjustment OF her belt
and at her whole general appearance. AS
NJ. Carton states his observations they
are:
Approximately the extremist in this re
fector habit" stand before the mirror, or
some article with a shiny surface, three
hours out of every twenty-four, and she
acquires the habit at the early age OF 2
and continues to be a victim to II as long
as there Is a reflector and she Is about to
be reflected.
Working on this average, and I have
been moderate In my statement as every
society woman will acknowledge, this
woman at the top of the list views herself
for l.095 hours in 1865 days. II she lives
to be 65 and commences to try her dimples
before a pier glass at the age of 2, as she
undoubtedly will, in those GA years she Will
have gazed at her reflected image for no
less than s 1885 hours or 4,139. 100 minutes
by close calculation.
This startling array Of figures, put side
L.. - ,.stk tho GPfaan Yoinnfac a dow of
the very busy woman, totaled and divided
gives the average of 1000 hours to every
woman. A pretty good showing for such
~ occupation.
IT liz amusing to note the number of
queer things a woman will utilize as mir
rors. Of course there are the miniature
hand glasses carried in the purse, in the
muff, In the opera bag, worn on the chate-
laine st the side. attached to the fan and
even fastened in the lining of the hat, but
These | will pass lightly over in favor of
the cid substitutes for the bonaide mir
Tor.
All Sorts of Mirrors Popular.
The plate glass store window, especially
the one which reaches to within a few
inches of the ground, it witness to many
amusing evidences Of woman's vanity, If
this unconscious viewing of herself can be
termed vanity.
u LOOK my Sldlu III iiOhl Vi liASSN NAopo
one day and proceeded TO take notes. Nine
oft of every ten women that passed gave
~backwar chances to catch the hang of
their skirts. The entire ten gave them
selves a quick survey and six out of the
number walked deliberately up to the win
dow, patted their hair, smoothed down
their Jackets, gave their skirts a twist and
walked s~erenely on, seemingly unconscious
that they had given the onlooker the i'm
preston they were putting the finishing
touches to their toilettes, which should
have been attended to before their dress
ing tables, on the public highway.
Even the little tots, pirouetted, fuffed
their tiny skirts, twirled their cruls, smiled
and dimpled at their reflections In comical
imitation of their elders. A snap shot of a
mother and her two children made a funny
picture. The woman was carefully arrang-
ing the folds of her skirt, while the baby
put her curls first behind her ears and then
shook them front again. soberly studying
the effect. The older little girl craned her
neck to catch sight of herself, and for fully
two minutes the pantomine continued.
Then the funniest thing 1 ever yet wit
messed occurred. Two charming girls,
attired most alluringly, marched straight
up to the window and took a leisurely
view of themselves, from the plumes on
their new chappeaUx to the tips of their
patent leather boots: they smoothed here,
Strengthened there, r~earranged a side
comb, pulled out hat pins and put them In
again and as they seemed about to pass on
the climax came. 1t came and passed so
quickly / hadn't time to raise the shutter
OF my Gamers before they had passed and
I had lost forever my opportunity to pre-
serve this purely feminine act. Girl No.
stepped I'm front of beauty No. 2 while
the latter whipped the tiniest imaginable
powder puff from her pocket. and standing
on tiptoe to gaze in the surface of a plain
gold brooch which her tall friend wore at
her neck in the back, hastily busted her
nose and chin.
1t Is long In the telling, that cream Of
the mornings observations, but pin! 1t was
over In asecond. In the swapping Of a finger
and before 1 had come to do more than
raise the camera into position. / nave new
er overcome my chagrin at having let that
prize slip through my fingers.
But the law of compensat ton was at
work, for as l turned from the window
feeling confident that nothing half as de-
lightful as the incident OF the brooch
would take place there and hating to risk
an anti-climax, my eye caught a strange
maneuver on the opposite side Of the
street.
A delivery wagon, with sides smooth and
shining, had drawn up to the curb, and
posing directly in front of these same
shiny sides was a little slip Of a woman.
/ FASTENED across and cautiously walked
past the absorbed little woman. AS !
passed 1 glanced at the wagon, and there,
sure enough, on the side was the reflection
of myself and milady vanity. She was tilt
ing her hat to a more becoming angle and
/ caught her squarely in theact. The click
of the shutter drew her attention to my
poor unfortunate self and l wilted under
her indignant glance.
Although the wagon and I stood at at
tention for fully fifteen minutes nothing
of further interest happened. and / strolled
on looking for more worlds and refectors.
Anything That Reflects.
Show cases drew many of them who
did not even glance at the contents of
the case, but smiled or frowned at their
own reflections.
Walking through the music room of q
large department store I saw several
women use the polished surface of
pianos and stools as mirrors. Making a
note OF this / determined TO watch my
WI women folk about the house.
My sister gave me many eye openers
and frankly talked with me on The
subject, when / made some comment.
She told me why a oma eldom ob-
jected waiting outside a dutch door
with a curtain back of h glass half.
This affords an excellent means OF
viewing oneself, as do well polished
bells and name plates.
The metal tops of purses. eyeglasses.
watch cases. even broad-bladed PEN