San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1896-12-06
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1896. .
WE ALL USE SCREENS.

The Light preacher was IN COM
pany of particular people some even
ings since, when, by one of those ac-
cidents that will happen in well regu-
lated families, the conversation turn
ed upon the drinking usages of the
day and the convivial life of the peO-
pie, and as was to be expected the
saloon came in for its share of criti-
cism. Not the least Objectionable
feature about it in the minds of some
present, was the screen at the door,
the general verdict being that it was a
bad thing. 1t was thought that if the
screens were removed, so that all who
passed by could look in and see who
were there, there would be fewer
around the bar. The conversation be-
came general, other matters came in
for a touch of recognition, the saloon
and its screens passed out Of the reck-
oning and that was an end of the mat
ter for that time.
As the Light preacher wended his
homeward way, bordering on the con-
versation of the hour, it became a
question in his mind how far the
structures upon saloon screens were
wise; whether the open door and the
unscreened entrance would not be an
evil rather than a good, placing before
the eyes of the young and the unac-
quainted with those things object les
sons that on the whole would not re-
suit in any benefit, but rather the re-
J verse. This train of thought led to
a wider range of observation, to an
enlargement of the screen idea, to a
conception of the uses Of screens, to
a recognition of the moral and social
value Of screens, and finally to the con-
clusion that the world would be much
worse off without the screen than
with it.
So concluding the Light preacher
comes before his congregation this
morning with the usefullnes of the
screen for his text. Screens are a
necessity of civilization. The educa-
ted and the refined in the arts Of do
nestle life, the true modern, the peo-
pie who live up to date, the men and
the women who are really abreast Of
this age, all these use screens. When the
mosquito screen was first invented,
and the denizens Of the mosquito
countries, New Jersey for instance, re-
tired at night beneath the projections
of their mosquito screens they gave
themselves up to peaceful dreams and
undisturbed rest, knowing that they
were secure against the pestiferous
attacks of these night decorators,
who make sleep a burden and dark
ness terror. Ask Jerseyman il he
thinks the mosquito screen a bad
thing and he will look at you in as
constituent as one born out of due
time, or gone daft without remedy.
But the suffocation of the netting
around the bed grew tiresome to those
who had large ideas of free breath
and pure air. Besides, it did not pre-
vent the mosquitoes who infest the day
from getting in their work, nor the
gnats and flies from making the sui
try summer afternoon a burden. Then
the screen was removed from around
the bed and framed and put into the
windows and doors. Comfort took on
new satisfaction, life had an added
blessing, defiance was bid to the night
serenaders and to the day distractions
and old men and maidens, children
and babies, mothers and sons all rose
up and blessed the screen and the
man who invented ii. Thus a new
value was given to life and a new
comfort to existence and new pleas
ure to slumbers.
But the dwellers in the city noted
that the passersby upon the pave look
ed boldly in as they passed and took
note of the domestic economy. The
young people would gladly have lit
tie respite from the eys of the cur
ious, that thereby they might escape
the tongues of the envious or the saln-
derous, but the open window with its
plain screen was there and it might
cause remark were it closed. Then
came the inventive genius who put in
the screen through which you look
out, but through which no one looks
in, and the pious lips of lovers gave
thanks that the evil was removed from
them, that each by their opened case
ments could sit in the growing sum
mer night, equally free from the mos
quito who buzzed without and the
prying eyes Of the lnquisitive who