San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-09-12

ne whole prescrrpy1on rcads. II ooes not
90 to take half of it alone. II we were TO
see the morning star properly. the eve
ming star must draw on our night cap
with it's own.
The dawn then is protected from the
throng of sacrilegious sightseers by a
great barrier That barrier is the diff.
Guilty of going to bed. Our civilization
has become a gaslight civilization. We
try to turn night into day, and only sue.
ceeded in turning night wrong side out;
getting the harsh and wiry side that rasps
the faded nerves, in place of the gentle
touches of 1.-THE welcome, the thrice
prayed for" mantle of peaceful dreams.
For my part, should be glad If l could
go back and cut away from my life all
that ever occurred in 1t beyond early bed
time, as the cook goes round q pie plate
and shears off the outlying dough. Mere
ragged and formless shreds of existence
these gaslight hours have been, contain
ing, on the whole, far more evil than
good; far more yawns and the dreadful
pangs of yawns suppressed than refresh
ing eye beams and voices.
Then there is another thing: Could not
the act of going to bed be made, from
childhood up, less depressing operation?
The one daily torture of my own other
wise kindly handled childhood was the
going to bed in the dark hated the
dark and have always hated it. Why
could not some softly shaded light have
been left for me to 60 to sleep by, and
then withdrawn, instead of crashing down
on my wide awake eyes that horrible club
of blackness? Or how much the better to
box cd xr,,o in ha fain W
glimmering twilight and let the slowly
coming starlight draw the child to sleepi,
ness and softly kiss his eyelids down."
And why must one assume garb for
the night that even the child feels to be
ridiculously unsuitable! To take off ones
warm and comfortably fitting garments,
of the limbs with some brief apology of
tapping inadequateness-it Is an insult to
the angel of sleep. They do this better,
a night suit of entire and comely gar,
ments. He does not unclothe and then
half clothe himself, and sneak In mortified
helplessness underneath weight of vein
COMPRISING sheets and blankets and un-
him out as if he had covered himself with
t(lc uUOT ne LIES UOWu Ia COul-
plete warm suit, and throws over him
some light affair of gosssmer silk. 1t
only needs sudden cry of fire" in the
house to make us realize the preposteroUs
condition we are every one Of us in.
The time of going to bed ought in some
way to be made the pleasantest and most
decorous, and most dignifed, even-if you
like-the most picturesque, and certainly
the most comfortable hour of the whole
twenty-four. Then it would need no po-
lite euphemism of retiring" to veil its
horrors. Then the child would no longer
hold back from it, as II he were being
thrust into hideous cave Of darkness,
TO be seized by all the Nightmares of
dreandom. And then, best Of all we
should be ready to rise at the whistle Of
the first chipping bird, perfectly rested,
thoroughly refreshed. with the brain vocal
only with light echoes of the wholesome
day before. instead of still jangling with
the cult red rumpus of social evening"
OF an evening of amusement. or the IN
csnny, fev-red' visions which are only such
evenings gone to observation-disclosures
Club" in The Atlantic.