ON THE SCALES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 14 October 1922, Page 7

ON THE SCALES

| HOW MEN AND WOMEN BEHAVE

How do yon weigh yourself? If you are a man, in one way, if a woman, m another; so Emily Z. Eriedkin points out. in the. New York Herald, after •walehing the performance foi leu minutes one afternoon in a street near hrcatlway. . A man, she writes, weighs himseit with solemnity and his bundles. A woman dispenses with both these. Not so many of her is deflected from her course by the sign of the scale, but invariably -nl we use any random ten minutes to i cjm.K-r.t every ten _ minutes, as the geninotrjf?ts’ method is—invariably, I not ie ed. she smiles, giggles, laughs outright! I lay this down as a rule, oven l!mngh 1 have no exceptions with which to prove it.

TllK SOLEMNITY OF THE MALE

Now, with a man it is different. Abruptly but very precisely ho steps on the -scale—all his feet on the floor of ,t. heels clicked, ankles touching, insteps on a line, ami one shoe tip not a ’teenth of an inch ahead _t other. Me nukes this adjustment rapidly, stands still an instant, then cocks his head to read. Many of them squint or close an eve to look' at the big-round, numbered, 'but somehow very blank, faec of tho scale. Infrequently a man is incredulous. so he glances hurriedly and angrily to the ground. Maybe one ot 1 1 10 gamin shoeshiners is weighing down the scale with his foot —hut no; guess he docs weigh that much ; off he steps ami goes, very serious withal. And if it happened ’ that a man was carrying a package he’s carry it with him'to the scales and be altogether'non-i-halani about it, except a labourer, who had a pair of giant garden scissors with him. lie weighed himself with and without. CONTRAST FEMININE FRIVOLITY The women who do stop to weigh themselves do it in groups, the men are usually alone; but whether or no they stand one behind another, single file, to wait their turn. (Here, again, you see woman’s disruptive influence.) Weil, iho Indies cttrtrlo and hesitate, hesitate

The women who do stop to weigh themselves do it in groups, the men are usual!v alone; but whether or no they stand one behind another, single file, to wait their turn. (Here, again, you see woman’s disruptive influence.) Weil, the ladies giggle and hesitate, hesitate ami giggle, during which tune they transfer such things as purses and small boxes, which weigh, at the outside, a quarter of a pound. They ascend the scale, hut without the nice neatness of the men. They 100k —and laugh. Evciy blessed one of' ’em ! ' One woman was accompanied by her husband, whom she loaded with three really sizeable packages and a compe-tent-looking pocket book. Then she weighed herself—and smiled. _ . I ,io not make these generalisations rashly; they are scientifically arrived _at by experimental observation, watching ten minutes by the watch.