The Republican., 1889-07-20
ARTIFICIAL EYES.
Most of Thom Sold Are Blue or Blueish
Gray in Color.

Most of Thorn Sold Are Blue or Blueish
Gray in Color.
/ Idropped into an establishment to-
day where glass eyes are sold and
asked the ore.keeper to tell me what
he knew about glass eyes and about the
people who bought them; and in the
course of his conversation he said: alt
is singular fact that by far the greater
part of all the artificial eyes sold in the
country are right eyes, and blue, or
blueish gray, eyes. At first thought
that fact looks unaccountable, but to a
person in the business it is not so. So
far as Chicago and the West are con-
cerned the color of these artificial eyes
is due to the ethnology of the country.
The people out here. especially the
artisans, are all English or Scandina-
.vian, and belong to the blue-eyed
races. The Italian, Spanish and other
Latin races, with dark eyes, are in the
minority, and not addicted to danger
sous employments. 1t is still easier to
account for the fact that the artificial
eyes sold are almost all right eyes.
Nine-tenths of all the eyes destroyed
are destroyed by accidents, and not by
disease, and large proportion of
them are the eyes of artisans, and are
destroyed in their business. In all
sorts of mechanical pursuits the right
eye is the most used, and is the most
sppsed. A man aiming gun closes
h y left eye. and puts his right eye
elose to the gun. A boy about to fire
Percussion cap will instinctively turn
his left eye away from it, Perhaps
there is sort of connection between
the right eye and the right hand.
Comparatively few women lose their
eyes, but when they do they are often
times more anxious to get artificial
eyes than men are, and will make all
sorts of sacrifices to get one"
The conversation about glass eyes
was so interesting that l called in
again, in the afternoon, to tell my
friend that l had heard that it was q
dreadful job to insert glass eye in
the socket. and to ask him whether it
was true. Your informant" he said.
"was certainly in error in saying that
it was painful to insert an artificial
eye. Still, the impression has been
made, somehow or other, that it is very
painful, as painful as death. / remem-
Der that one day young man came to
me to get an artificial eye. and to have
me insert it for him. When he had
selected one he very solemnly stretched
himself out on the floor, and, clinch-
ing his teeth, said Go ahead l said,
What do you mean?' He replied, L
want you to insert that eye Imade
him get up, and in an instant l had in
serted the eye and did it so painlessly
that he didn't know it. and still stood
there waiting for me to insert it. He
then told me that he had worn a glass
eye before, and that when the other
was inserted, down in the southern
part of the State, the doctor laid him
, down on the floor, put his knee on his
Echest and got several stout farm hands
p hold his legs and arms. He also
A6s that it hurt him dreadfully. l
iave an idea that the doctor rolled up
lhe poor boys eyelids like coat sleeve
in the operation. l can't understand
how any one who knows any thing
about the business could represent the
process as painful, and l am sorry to
have it done, too, because it is apt to
increase the fears of those who need
artificial eyes, and who would have
them, but for the dread they have
of having them inserted. Chicago
Journal.