Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-07-17
EYEGLASSES FOR NEW YoRKERs,
The Costly OcuIist, Cheaper OptfSiai and
 Cheapest corner Stand:

The Costly Oculist, Cheaper optiSfaf and Cheapest corner Stand.
 Opticians crowd this town almost as they crowd Boston. You may coIIiit 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 sei1 eygglasses to those that will buy. It costs from 75 cents to nearly as many dollars to be fitted with Q first pair of eyeglasses. Those that go to the oculist for prescription as pre- iminary to putting on glasses must pay him from $10 to $25, or if the eyes need treatment from $25 to $10O, according to the nature and length of the treat ment and the accustomed charges of the oculist.
 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 $2. 50 to $15. Persons with complicated disorders of the eye really wear from two to five pairs of glasses ill 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 a days work or considerable in jury to the eyes.
 The most careful opticians refuse t6 examine the eyes of persons that come after eyeglasses, perhaps because the ocu- lists do not send patients with prescrip- 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 making change in the power of their glasses. Others simply go on increasing the strength as need seems to direct It is 0 good deal cheaper to buy of the oculist-optician, and some persons believe it to be quite as safe as the more expensive method. It is entire ly probable that for ordinary conditions of the eye the oculist-optician serves well enough. Most persons that do not guess at their own needs ill the matter of glasses either go to an oculist-optician and have him fit them out at from $2. 50 to $15 or consult friend. This last is the cheapest method, and it is favorite one with thousands. The friend, who wears glasses, learns that the other is having some difficulty of sight and offers his own glasses on trial. If they seem to serve tho need, the borrower goes to an optician or somo other dealer in eye glasses and gets q like pair. He thus saves tho fee of tho OculiSt or that of tho 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 arc not complicat- ed, but they do not last so long as those of the opticians. They break at the del icate joints. The frames, if they have any, are brittle, and tho tiny screws are weak or are put in so badly that they crack the lenses. Tho dry gonds shops, however, cannot compete With tho cor ner stands for the trade of q great many persons. There are plcntynf old fellows that havo been buying their .rlasses for almost nothing at cO!rcr sta1;lS any time these 40 years. Tl:cy never spent q penny on Oculists, and they Gespise opticians. The fact is that science of the eye has grown up since t'.':y began to use glasses, and having started with out its aid they keep on ill like fashion. | It is only because they are Eot troubled with complicated affections Cf the eyes that they are ablo to preserve their | sight ill defiance of the modern special iSt.-New York Sun.