Daily globe., 1883-08-03
Spectacles and Eyeglasses.
New York Times

l4NCn 1OIh 44IucSs
Four out of every five persons who wear
glasses wear eyeglasses. The fifth wears
spectacles. Ninety-nine in every hun
dred who consult either oculist or optician
are advised to wear spectacles. AS a rule,
four-ffths of them refuse to accept the ad-
vice given. The only reason given is that
eyeglasses look more stylish than specta-
cles. The reason given is that ''the
glasses fit my eyes better than any spec
tacles could find" Some foolish young
ladies and gentlemen adopt eyeglasses
because they think it gives them a dis
tingue appearance. Their use gives the
wearer an opportunity to attach to the
costume bit of jewelry, they could not
otherwise sport-a delicate gold chain,
which may be worn so that the ear is made a
resting place for the connecting link be-
tween 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 valueless to the weak or de-
formed eye as the single eye-glass. Single
glasses are worn only by Englishmen,
Anglomaniacs, and idiots. The party
who wears one-it is always a man-may
be at once set down as a snob. There
will be no mistake. A sane man needs a
single eye-glass about as much as a cat
needs two tails, or as a tramp needs a
Saratoga trunk. As few ''men about
town" wear the single eye-glass and few
actors wear tEem on the stage, they have
attained certain amount of popularity,
mainly among the classes mentioned.
The idiots include the 'dudes." So pop
ular have eyeglasses become among
those who are compelled to wear glasses to
aid defective sight that the use of specta-
cles is confined mainly to elder people and
to boys and girls. The fact that young
children who are troubled with affections
of the eye invariably wear spectacles is
known to every observing man. The fact
carries with it lesson. That is that the
child does what the oculist tells it or its
parents to do. The person of maturer
years, unless he or she is blessed with an
unusual quantity of common sense,
dosen't follow instructions. He or she
generally disregards orders and wears the
eyeglasses insted of spectscles. Fash
ions decress that the former are the
more style stylish overrule advice of ocu-
list or physician. The advice is given
because the spectacle is very much better
ID every way Tor the person afflicted with
and disease of the eye. They are easier
to wear, and do not injure the nose in any
way which the pinching of the eye-glass
frame does sometimes. The frame of the
spectacle is desirable because 1t holds the
glass firmly in its placd. The eye-glass is
In constant state of unrest. AS a result
particularly where the glass is either a
double convex or double
concave lens, the magnifying power
is constantly varying. The variation is
slight to be sure but it exists to sufficient
degree to cause injury to the eye. That
is one of the reasons why people who
wear eyeglasses find it necessary to pur.
chase new glasses of constantly increasing
power. They generally ascribe the resuli
to old age. It isn't advance in years SO
much as it is eyeglasses that causes the
fr0uhIa