Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-27
Aged English Widows
Record Breaking Diary
Special Correspondence of The Star.


LONDON, January II, 1907.
60 great task is the keeping of a con-
~ secutive diary that few of the millions
of people who resolve each year to
keep complete record of their doings from
day to day. carry out their purpose AS II
| is about this season that one is likely to let
his New Year resolution slide and blank
pages begin to appear in his journal, the re-
| markable story which has just come to light
Of the record kept by an old woman in Eng
land should prove some stimulant to the
| careless diarist. Widow Roffey of Newdi-
| gate, near Dorking, possesses detailed
| record of everything she has done since she
learned to write in the ninety-two years she
has lived So accurately has the record been
kept, that the old woman can tell to a penny
how much money she has spent, how much
she has eaten, how many times she has
washed her hands and face and bathed her
feet and various other things that ordinary
folk never keep track Of. For the historian
of thousand years hence, who will doubt
less regard our much-vaunted civilization
as barbaric, this amazing record will con-
stitute a veritable bonanza Of statistical in
formation.
Widow Roffey has just passed her ninety
second birthday. On the anniversary, she
was entertained at dinner by a friend and
hgures to date. The cost of maintenance
from birth to her ninety second birthday
she figures to be 50. 58s-an average expendi-
ture Of about 50 week.
Songs which were sung at her birthday
dinner-"A Hunting We Will Go" and my
Old Gray Mare''-she records as having sung
1,1O6 times since her father taught them to
her when a little girl.
~
The inventory Of clothing which she has
worn would make an interesting COMPARE
CIV xxyifh tie
the extravagant class. She has had only
forty-seven pettcoats during her life, forty
one dresses. eighty pairs OF shoes and 274
pairs OF stockings-only three new pairs q
year. In bonnets and hats she kept down
to the modest number Of 1855, or less than
two year. OF aprons she wore flfty-three,
shawls and wraps, thirty-four; gloves and
mittens, thirty; corsets, sixty-three; hair
nets, sixteen, and hairpins, just 1000. Many
Of these articles were made by her own MIN
bic fingers.
Mrs. Roffey says she has eaten 4,7S4 fishes
ana but little meat, which would indicate
that piscatorial diet is conducive both to
longevity and firm adhesion to good reso-
lutions. Her daily bread amounted to II,
$50 loaves, and she has eaten 80. 100 pota-
toes and 1876 cabbages.
In tea drinking the widow did not come
up to what Is probably the normal figure
among the gentle sex. but she credits her.
self with having drunk 134,32O cups of the
beverage. besides 67,10O glasses Of milk
anu oHiy oosOcU glasses or water.
The old woman was married but once
and In that instance she walked to London
and back to have the knot tied, adding
hfty-four miles to the 221. 428 she figures
out she has walked during her lifetime
-
The now wrinkled face she has washed
$1,000 times: her hands. 123, 424. and her
feet. 2,2OS times. She has slept 902. 22C
| hours of her life away. drawn 1854 buck
cts Of water from the well in her garden
cut her finger nails ], 656 times and her toe
nails TOO times. Dressing, undressing and
arranging her simple toilet accounted for
81, 100 hours OF her ninety-two years. She
has done up and taken down her hair 53,
40 times. She has wrung the necks OF
$500 chickens. fattened 1873 pigs and writ
ten 1,104 letters. Her cottage floor she has
scrubbed 3.906 times. and mas dug up hez
little garden 40 times and trimmed the
hedge surrounding 1t 1873 times.
Only one night has she been away from
the humble cottage In which she lives
That was the night following her flight to
London to get married. She passed 1t In
her husbands arms beside q haystack She
l In wonderfully hale old woman. and IN
her neat. round hand she still continues to
set down daily the story Of her simple life.
| She has accomplished something absolutely
unique. Never surely. since Adam delved
and Eve span, has there been produced
such minute record of q human life.