New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-12-04
So Costly To Wash
City Spends Millions = Il
Time-Ovcr Its Toilet.

Amateur statisticians are industrious.
now that the Census Bureau Is throwing
out facts about the population OF the United
States, and those OF New York City are
especially busy. One Of them buttonhoied
a newspaper man the other day and forced
diatribe into his not unreceptive ears.
IF time were money" he said. New
York City would go bankrupt In less than
no time. More time is wasted in a day
than one would imagine. We have pop
ulation tn It can roughly be called five mill
ion. At least once a day five million per-
sons wash their face and hands. thereby
consuming-granting nve minutes each for
the enthusiastically five million minutes,
or 41Ss66 hours and 40 minutes every
twenty-four hours At an average wage
scale of so cents an hour this time, If put
into endowment would fetch in the neigh
borhood OF s250. 000.
Then there is the matter of combing the
hair It's cinch-I beg your pardon. 1
mean it is easy to realize-that the same
amount of time is expended. with the same
approximate hypothetical sum of money in
volved. And the matter of dressing 1t
isn't stretching It particle to say that at
least ten minutes day is an average time
spent in dressing. undressing. putting on
coats and hats. and all that-eSpecially when
you consider the number of women in the
big town. That figure Just doubles either of
the previous accounts, with a resultant eX-
pense-hypothetical, of course-of half a
million dollars. Or, if you like to keep tally
as you go. you might say that washing,
combinE and dressing consume enough time
in New York City alone to amount to a
million dollars day if paid for at the
small rate-small. because New York City
is city OF big money-of so cents an hour
Take into consideration. too. the shaving
of men. Some men who shave themselves
may be able to make record of seven
minutes. but that is hardly possible. How
ever. every man in the city does not shave
every day-you can take an average of
every other DAY. which will give You a
figure based on half the men of the city
shaving every day. And ten minutes is a
quick time to spend in the chair or before
the glass: really, fifteen minutes would be
nearer correct However. in order not to
make the figures seem exaggerated. accept
ten minutes for the time of a shave, and
compute the number of daily shaves at the
number of about one-ffth the population
of New York City. thereby allowing for
the men who have to shave every DAY.
That means one million men a day, at ten
lay of another half million. bringing the
total thus far up to million and a half
dollars a day.
mo one looks neat with dirty shoes.
Permit me to remind you that much time
Is spent in the tootblacks chair or with
the foot on the kitchen chair. Some peo-
pie shine their shoes or have them shined
twice 8 day-in muddy, rainy weather.
more often. Still, as our money is run
ming away up, let us figure that four mill
ion pairs Of shoes are shined In the city
each day, thereby not including those be-
longing to the hundreds of thousands of
transients brought daily to the city by the
railroads. It's a quick shine that doesn't
take more than five minutes.
'In this manner 3533, 1888 hours a day are
spent, involving supposititious outlay-I'm
not counting the actual money paid for
the wOrk-of almost a sixth of million
dollars The time spent in busting the
clothes after the shoes are shined and in
searching the pockets for money to be