Morning journal and courier., 1882-06-23
The FOotIights' Glare.

How it Affects the Eyes of Actors and Actresses.
 It is said, says the New York Sum- that Mir Delaunay, an old actor, who has been for thirty five years a member of the Comedie Franchise, is about to retire permanently
 from the stage because his sight has been
 ined by the glare of the footlights. Instan- ces of such serious injury from that exact cause are not at all common, and in this country are hardly known.
 An actor. whose attention was called to the subject, said ''Much depends on how close one has to act to the lights. In a theater where the front of the stage is a great pro- iecting horseshoe, with the footlights follow ing it's line, one does not have to act right down to them and, even when one has to be
 far down the center, there seems to be sufi- cient side light from these to neutralize the effect of those in front to great degree. l don't know how that explanation would hold good with scientific professor of the art and mystery of optics, but know that it holds good in fact, for on such stage the fcotlights do not hurt my eyes, nor have heard others complain about them, unless it might be some one who had exceptionally weak eyes. But on small stage, the front of which is
 straight line, the effect of the footights is sometimes very painful. It is not simply
 their dazzling glare and heat from them that
 seems to dart right up into the eyes and dry
 
 them to act, or even wherever one may get during a scene in 'one'-that is, where the stage is closed in by flats in the first groove but there seems to be fiery, shifting mist that lifts and waves and quivers over them,
 an effect of the ratification of the atmos. phere by heat that is almost binding for the time. Thsre Is no question about 1t that eyes do suffer very severely from lights on the stage, but not so much from the foot lights They are but 8 trivial circumstance compared with the fierce, deadly glare of the calcium light and the injurious changes of
 colored lights. Joe Jefferson was almost blinded by the calcium light, into which he has to look steadily, with his eyes wide open, for tue desired effect in one scene of Rip Van Winkle.' Keeping that up for year after year at length affected him that he had to retire for year and give his exclusive, un- divided attention to getting his eyes fixed up again for service. And have known a num- Der of stage people to be very seriously hurt | by that light, though in a less degree than he was Actresses suffer more from 1t than ao- tors, for they have more occasion to pose in affecting attitudes of prayer and grief and | ecstacy in the moonlight than men have. During transformation scenes the scantily draped young women who lie on ferns and in | lily bells and swing in golden chariots, and | float down on parallels and twirl around on | pedestals, suffer good deal of annoyance and | even pain from the constantly changing col
 ors of fierce light thrown upon them-one ! moment white, the next green, then red or | blue, CT purple or gold, all effected by the l change of colored glass mediums before the
 calcium light. But the run of a spectacle is
 seldom long enough to do them much serious
 harm from that cause.
 "Among the men of the profession there
 is another cause that hurts eyes more than | the footlighss do. I need not specify it more
 definitely than by reminding you of a scrip | tural conundrum and the answer to it which, | as near as I now remember, runs: Who i hath redness of eyes? He who tarrieth late
 over the wine cup If they would go home
 earlier when performances are over, they | would have less reason to complain of sand
 in the eyes' in the mornings. In old times, | when theaters had stock companies aud the | bill was constantly changing, great deal of | hard study was necessitated-study that the
 actors of today would feel themselves killed | by, if put to it-and that study through the
 long hours of the night, when nature de-
 manded rest. and often, by the poor light of
 a single candle or a smoky oil lamp, did much
 more harm to the eyes than the footiights 1 did. The remedies common in the profession | for inflammation of the eyes, whether caused | by lights or anything else, are very simple; l primarily, of course, bathing them with cold | water, and, after that, with milk or tea, a strong solution of Rochelle salts, which is
 best of all. Put dimes worth of Rochelle
 salts in a half pint of boiling water. When
 the solution becomes thoroughly cold bathe | the eyes with it, and, on going to bed, lay on l the eyes a linen cloth soaked with it. It will ] take out the inflammation and soothe as neth- | ing else can.''