Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1892-01-07
READING BY LAMP-LIGHT,
Pertinent Points on This Pernicious
Practice.

On the Scare of the Eyes" was the
title of an article | was much inter
ested in recently, says Robert J. Bur-
dette in the New York Herald. My
memory is neither so accurate nor SC
imaginative as it was score of years
ago, but the article in question runs,
as near as can guess by memory,
something like this:
''Have a reading lamp for night
use." There is great deal of wisdom
in this. In brightly lighted room
at noon, or as late as 3 o'clock D. m.,
If the room be on the sunny side OF
the house, person with strong eyes
may be able to read coarse print with.
out injury. But after 9 o'clock at
night, and in very dark room, most
people will find lamp indispensable
to comfortable reading, especially in
fine print or paper The learned
physician who writes the article does
not say that the lamp should be
lighted, but, speaking as layman,
should certainly advise lighting the
illumination. l may be wrong in this,
but nevertheless such has been my
own custom, and | can now read a
circus-poster in two colors without
the aid Of glasses, that is.
'Hold the book at your focus. {"
This is rule that any person able to
read should commit to memory. Very
few people realize the importance of
this aid to preserving the eyesight.
Until L read this valuable rule / used
to prop my book up on the other side
of the room, where could not distin-
guish the print from the margin, and
try to read. l did not suppose it made
any difference about the focus. And
many people, | have no doubt, who
supposed they were blind because they
could not see to read book at dis.
lance of $50 yards, will, upon learn,
ing this rule and putting it into prac-
.tice, soon find that they can read
quite well enough to drive everybody
out of the room. The medical pro-
fession has been very remiss in it's
duty that it did not publish this rule
long ago.
Reading in bed is strongly advised
against; it is injurious" I should
say so. / have always found it so. If
you get comfortably fixed you read
about one page and then find the
blooming book isn't cut, and the pa
per-cutter is downstairs, and your
pocket-knife is in the pocket of your
trousers, hanging away over near the
coolest window. The colder the night
the more the book is not cut. You
get settled down again. and the lamp
smokes. You fix it and drop back
again. The pillows you piled up have
fallen down and your head comes
crashing back against the headboard
of the bed. 1t is late at night and
the bang brings somebody out into
the hall with a shrek of ''What's the
NATTER" After awhile order is re.
stored and you get quiet, then inter
ested, finally absorbed, and then some.
body comes out into the hall crying
''What's the NATTER" again. You
say, Nothing; it's all right"
"But your lamp is burning"
EYES," you say, 81 am reading"
A wall of dismay and rebuke fol.
lows this confession. "What! in
bed?"
1t is a matter of quarter of an
hour before the book tastes right
again, and then once more the ap-
pealing voices comes drifting from a
distant room.
''Are you going to read all night?"
You say-but it doesn't matter what
you say; the public is not interested
in your commonplace remarks. But
whatever you do say elicits pathetic
sigh that makes your heart ache and
secures you quiet for yourself and
your book once more. And then,
just as you get to a place where you
just couldn't stop for anything in the
world the beggarly lamp falters, turns
yellow, grows black in the face, and
goes dead out, dry as bone. There
is no fun and no good reading in bed.
1t doesn't help matters much to sit
up in your den, or, if you prefer, your
study, and read. 1t annoys the rest
of the family. / have tried it, and
always experience great difficulty in
getting to bed quietly after o'clock.
One or two challenges in quick, fright.
ened tones that always thrill me with
terror by their very earnestness, I am
sure to encounter. Sometimes re.
move my slippers and glide along the
hall with the stealthy tread of ghost
that has intentions on the hat-rack.
The very quiet is startling and the
challenge comes:
"Who's there?"
And 1 have to say cts me-"
never think to say cit is /" and ex
plain. On the other hand, 1 some.
times seek to avoid unpleasant
notoriety by walking boldly down the
hall, with the tramp of policeman.
Then the voice, or it may be two OF
three voices, says or say:
"What's that?"
| Which is still worse, because the
| implication is that l am not human
being, but a thing"