The Portland daily press., 1883-05-10
All About Eyeglasses.
Why They Have to Great Extent Super
seeded Spectacles.


Four out of every five persons who wear
glasses wear eye glasses. The fifth wears
spectacles. Ninety-nine in every hundred
who consult either oculst or optlcian are
advised to wear spectaces. As a ruiz :, four
tifths of them refuse 10 accept the advice
given. The only reason given is that eye
glasses look more stylish than spectaeles.
The reason given is that ''the glasses fit my
eyes better than any spectaces | could find"
Some foolish young ladies and gentlemen
adopt eyeglasses because they think it gives
them distingue appearance. Their use
gives the wearer an opportunity to attseh to
the costume bit of jewelry they coald not
otherwise sport-a delicate gold chain, which
may be worn so that the ear is made a rest
ing-piace, for the connecting link between
eye glass and vest or dress. With this class
the eye-glass is of no earthly use, except as
means of injuring the eye. Such glasses
have no magnifying power, and are as value
less to the weak or deformed eye as the sin
gle eye-glass. Single glasses are worn only
by Euglishmen, Anglo.maniaes, and idiots.
The party who wears one--it is always q
man-may be at once set down as snob.
There will be no mistake. A sane man
needs single eye-glass about as much as c
cat needs two tails, or as tramp needs
Saratoga trunk. As few linen about
town. wear the single eye-glass and few
actors wear them on the stage, they have
attained certain amount of popularity,
mainly among the classes mentioned. The
idiots include the dudes So popular
have eyeglasses become among those who
are compelled to wear glasses TO aid defect
i've sight that the use of spectacles is con-
fined mainly to elderly people and to boys
and girls. The fact that young children who
are troubled with affections of the eve iuva-
riably wear spectacles is known to every OBJ
serving man. The fact carries with it les
son. That is that the child does what the
oculist tells it or its parents to do. The per-
son of maturer years, unless he or she is
blessed with an unusual quantity of CON-
mon sense, doesn't follow instructions. He
or she generally disregards orders and wears
the eyeglasses instead of spectacles. Fash
ioa's DEGREES that the former are the more
stylish oyerrule advice Of oeulist or physi-
clan. The advice is given because the spec.
tacle is very mnch better in every way for
The person afflicted with any disease of the
eye They are easier to wear, and do not
injure the nose in any way, which the pinch
ing of the eye-glass frame does sometimes.
The frame of the spectacle is desirable be-
cause it holds the glass firmly in its place.
The eye-glass is in constant state of I'M
rest. As a result, particularly where the
glass is either double convex or double
concave lens, the magnifying power is con-
stantly varying. The variation is slight, TO
be sure, but 1t exists to sufficient degree 10
cause injury TO the eye. That is one Of the
reasons why people who wear eyeglasses
find it necessary to purchase new glasses of
constantly increasing power They gener-
ally aseribe this result to old age. 1t isn't
advance IN years so much as it is eye-glass es
that causes the trouble
Fashions change in eye glasses and spec
tacles as they do in all other articles of per-
sonal use or adornment. 1t is even within
quarter OF century that eyeglasses be-
came so extremely popular. Five years will
cover the period within which they have
driven speetacles out of the field. A half
century ago the eye-glass in the shape of
lorgnette was fashionable among people who
were not Obliged TO wear spectacles constant
~. They had to be held to the ewes. and
were not intended to rest on the nose with
out being held in place. The lorgnette has
again come into fashion. The finest have
the glasses set in heavy gold frames, the
glasses being connected by stiff band in
stead 0f nv a Snrinp Tho UiasSas cI,,+ HE
knife into handle of tortoise she'll, horn,
or gold, these handles being sometimes elab-
orately decorated. In the matter of frames,
both for eyeglasses and spectacies, gold has
gone out of fashion, in measure, and tor
toise-shell frames for eyeglasses and fine
| steel for spectacles are the fashionable ma
terial. There is reason for the popularity of
tortolse-shell. Ii is the eleanest and least
/ Objectionable material ever used for the pur-
pose. So great has the demand for shell be-
come for use in combs and in other toilet ar
| ticles and knicknacks, that the supply does
not begin to equal the demand. The price
has more than quadrupled during the past
| five years. For this reason rubber, horn and
celluloid have been pressed into service for
use IN frames. None have satisfactorily
filled the bill, however. The unpopularity
OF eelluloid may be explained in this way:
a gentleman who possessed a pair OF eye
glasses set in celluloid frame was addicted
to smoking. To his Eyeglasses was attached
cord, which was in turn fastened to its
spring in his vest pin. The gentleman stood
at cigar stand lighting his cigar. The fire
touched the eye-glass cord. The cord burned
slowly until it reached the frame. Then the
frame caused very complete surprise to
the gentleman by taking fire and burning up
as completely as had the cord. CeIluloid
frames became unpopular with that gentle
man from that time forward, and with his
friends who had witnessed the scene or
| heard the story.
| A peculiar thing about The material for
frames is told by a large dealer in optical
| goods. Silver was at one time very popu-
lar and fashionable material for frames, and
| in some of the frames constructed quarter
OF century or more ago large quantities of
| the metal were used. This was especially
the case with spectacle frames. When sill
| yer came into use in place of shin-plasters as
''cnrrent coin of the realm" silver went out
| OF fashion in the spectacle-wearing world as a
material for frames. This was supposed to
be due TO the fact that people looked at a
trade dollar and saw the large quantity of
silver it contained and concluded that silver
was not as valuable as they had supposed.
| So those who cared for display, even in spec
| tacle frames, had their frames made Of gold,
| Most of the frames used, both for spectacles
| and eyeglasses, especially the fine steel
frames which, by the way, haye come into
fashion since the war, are imported from
France and England. From those two coun-
tries also large quantities of completed glass;
es are neutrality-suspicious. from England
and eyeglasses from France. English eye
glasses are too cumbersome for the Ameri-
| can market.
| Pebble is the best and most expensive ma
| terial used in the construction Of the glasses
themselves. These are ground in great
variety of shapes to secure desired results,
double concave and convex lenses, plano
convex and plano concave, and periscopic
being the commonest forms. The periscop-
ic lenses are now considered the most desir-
able, as by the peculiar method of grinding
the pebble or glass The desired result is OBJ
tanned from almost any line of vision. Now
adays the lenses are frequently ground to or