The Press., 1895-12-12
EYEGLASSES FOR NEW WORKERS.
The Costly Oculist, Cheaper Optician and
 Cheapest Corner Stand.

The Costly Oculist, Cheaper Optician and
 Cheapest Corner Stand.
 Opticians crowd this town almost as they crowd Boston. You may count six or eight in two blocks of East Twenty third street, and there are scores up and down Broadway, while dry goods shops and corner stands sell eyeglasses to those that will buy. It costs from 75 cents to nearly as many dollars to be fitted with k first pair of eyeglasses. Those that go to the oculist for prescription as pre- Gminary to putting on glasses must pay him from $1O to &25, or if the eyes need treatment from $25 to $100, according to the nature and length of the treat ment and the accustomed charges of the r1culist.
 When the patient is ready to buy his glasses, he takes the prescription of the oculist to an optician and orders them, Being made to order especially for the patient, they may cost anywhere from @. 50 to $15. Persons with complicated disorders of the eye really wear from two to five pairso glasses in one. Some prescriptions call for two separate pairs, and no prudent man is content to have only one pair of glasses by him, since the loss of his single pair may mean the loss of 8 days work or considerable in- jury to the eyes. =:
 The most careful opticians refuse to examine the eyes of persons that come after eyegl glasses, perhaps because the ocu- lists do not send patients with prescrip- l tions to opticians that undertake to per form the work of the oculist The most expensive way to purchase glasses is through the oculist and the Optician. Some very careful persons always visit an oculist before makinga change in the power of their glasses. Others simply go on increasing the strength as need seems l to direct. It is good deal cheaper to buy of the oculist-optician, and some persons believe it to be quite as safe as l the more expensive method. It is entire ly probable that for ordinary conditions of the: eye the oculist-optician serves we'll enough. Most persons that do not guess at their own needs in the matter of glasses either go to an oculiSt- -optician and have him 1t them out at from $2. 50 to &15 or consult @ friend. This last is the cheapest method, and it is 8 favorite one, with thousands. The friend, who wears glasses, learns that the other is having some difficulty of sight and offers serve the need, the borrower goes to an optician or some other dealer in eyer glasses and gets a like pair He thus saves the fee of the ocuHst or that of the oculist- -optician.
 Many persons buy eyeglasses of the dry goods shops They sell them at from 50 cents to $1, and they look. just like those that; the opticians sell for $2. 50. They are perhaps as safe for those whose affections of the eyes are not complicat- ed, but they do not last so long as those of the opticians, They break at the del- tcate joints. ~ The frames, if they have any, are brittle, and the tiny screws are weak or are put in so badly that they crack the lenses, The dry goods shops, however, cannot compete with the cor ner stands for the trade of a great many persons, There are plenty of old fellows that have been buying their glasses for almost nothing at corner stands any time these 40 years. They never spent 8 penny on oculists, and, they tfespise opticians. The fact is that science of the eye, has grown mp since they began to use glasses, and having started with out it's aid they keep on in like fashion. It is only because they are not troubled with complicated affections of the eyes that they are able to preserve their sight incdefiance of the modern special New Y OrkrS Sun. s. G&4 ! 't ,%+ss .;%