Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1911 — Keeps His Timepiece Fast [ARTICLE]

Keeps His Timepiece Fast

British Monarch Deliberately Has Watch Set Ahead—Father Addicted to Same Habit. London. —Modern human beings have an extraordinary predilection for "fast” time. Even the late king gave way to this little weakness, and every timepiece, including the church clock, at Sandringham, was kept deliberately half an hour fast. This custom, in fact, still Is kept up by King George. This "fast” time habit is, in the opinion of a well known medical man, a form of self deception and "a praiseworthy, but often unconscious, attempt to rectify a veryr common fault —unpunctuality.” “The number of clocks and watches in England that are kept fast 1b extraordinary,” he said; "A slow watch or clock Is uncommon, and usually the result of an accident. But everywhere fast time is to be seen —outside railway stations, In railway refreshment rooms, in public-houses, and in private residences. "In my opinion the psychology of this habit Is as follows,” continued the doctor. "A man distrusts his ability to be punctual, and to rectify this advances his watch, or allows It to remain fast, deluding himself that after a short time he will have forgotten that his watch Is fast, and so will unwittingly be punctual. "Again, a man acquires a sort of subconscious feeling that he could never hope to be punctual unless *his watch were fast He feels that he can keep up to time when he Is calculating by a fast watch, but never If be has to calculate by a correct watch.” Numerous persons admitted hav-ing-batches that were fast 'Said one man: "I always keep my watch fast—anything from live ■up twenty minutes —as I am terrified It may get slow should I put it back to the right time." , Another: "My watch always gain* a few seconds a day, and I let It go on

gaining for about a month or so. Then I-put it back to the right time. Why don’t I always try to keep It right? Because it is too/much bother, and because I have grown accustomed to having It fast and feel strange when it is right.” A well known business man said that he always kept his watch exactly two minutes fast, first, because it had S tendency to lose, and, second, because it made for greater punctuality and avoided the risk of missing trains by half a minute or so. Most business men of his acquaintance did similarly, he added. The secretary of the Magneta Time company, limited, which has control of CO,OOO clocks in the United Kingdom, said that in his experience almost eyery one preferred to keep their clocks fast and requested that they should be set for this purpose.