THEY HAVEN'T SEEN THEMSELVES IN YEARS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIV, Issue XX, 19 May 1900, Page 931

THEY HAVEN'T SEEN THEMSELVES IN YEARS.

Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless the stern truth that many people have allowed months and even years to elapse without looking at themselves—that is, in the orthodox manner by the aid of the mirror, ami they have ns good eyesight as the majority of their fellow beings. Simply they decline to see themselves. If a victim of this peculiar malady encounters in his perambulations a shop resplendent with mirrors he is in a state of nervous dread till he has passed safely out of range. Shouldi he find himself, assuming fon convenience sake he is of the male persuasion, in the hands of a strange barber, with refleetions on all sides of him, his modesty is most touching. Even in the privacy of his own room, sttys “Pearson's Weekly," he only proceeds to brush his hair when tin* looking-glass- if indeed he does not dispense with one altogether is tilted up to embrace nothing lower than the extreme top of his head. Of course, where a man of these queer tendencies is not actually insane he has something* approaching* a reason for all this. One gentleman, for instance, whose bright presence and face used to be welcomed in the best of met ropolit a n drawing- rooms, was one day showing some fair friends over one of his factories, when he tripped, and. before he could right himself, the greater part of his fare became momentarily immersed in an open vat of raw sulphuric acid. He miraculously saved Ids eyesight, but the first view it afforded him of his features turned hjni so sick at heart that he has never since, though a year or two have passed,, braved the distressing sight again. There is an elegant mansion not ffar from Liverpool which, though owned by a man of great wealth and of generous rather than miserly habits, is in its interior one of tin* most sombre and forbidding’ residences in the country. The visitor, short ot callinga,t the servants’ quarters, will find it almost impossible to obtain even tinmost meagre glimpse of himself the very furniture being shorn of a glim mer. The odd thing is, the proprietor, instead of being afflicted with any facial deformity, has regular and pleasing features, but he is consumed w’.ith a fear that he is the victim of a mysterious disease which is ravagng his appearance, and is in dread lest some day he may encounter his re flection and have his fears confirmed.