The evening times., 1899-10-16
The Abolition of Darkness.

A New Orleans architect has advanced
the novel idea that within the next fifty
years the people of every large Southern
city will do most of their sleeping by day.
The reason of this is the increasing cheap
ness of artificial light and the peculiar eli
matte conditions of the South, which
make the night the coolest and most
comfortable time 10 work. The author of
this idea claims that darkness is one OF
the forces of nature. against which civil
iZation wages war: that it facilitates crime
and impedes travel. and puts arbitrary
limits on human exertion.'
This may come to pass-it is hardly safe
to call anything impossible in these days
of leaping progress-bUt il sounds rather
apocryphal and somewhat undesirable 1t
would certainly be undesirable IN any but
a tropical or semi-tropical climate In
such an environment night is the only COM
Portable time fer serious work during a
great part Of the year, and the midday 81
esta becomes a practical necessity. Man
NAL creation, which, in a tropical forest
is awake and alert all night, and retires
into its hiding place during the day. AS
artificial light has grown cheaper and more
agreeable, this habit has increased. ker-
osene lamp on a warm night is so unpleas-
sitiye nerves would rather work in the
daytime Its odor is unbearable and the
heat which it gives forth is considerable
Gas also increases the heat of a room
quite perceptibly. But with electric light
there is little or no difficulty of this kind,
and the light is so brilliant that one may
work at a considerable distance from the
bulb. The result has been that in many
cities the streets are as brilliantly lighted
at night as in the daytime, every nook and
corner being illuminated, and night travel
is made much safer, especially for women.
In fact, this little matter of lighting streets
at night has probably had something to do
with the increased demand for womens
work. In the days when a woman who
worked until after dark had to take a
long, lonely walk by herself, with the
possibility of being attacked by some
prowler, both the woman and her employer
were subject to many limitations. The
humane employer would not ask service
which compelled woman clerk to go
home by herself after midnight nor would
a timid woman take position where this
might oe necessary. But in well-lghted
streets the possibility Of annoyance is min
imized till it need hardly be considered.
In many ways, therefore, it is well to
have the city, out of doors at least, bril-
lianfiy lighted from sunset to sunrise.
But as for the idea of transferring the
bulk of ones work from day to night. the
consequences Of any such action on the part
of a whole community would probably he
very bad. The first and most marked re-
suit would probably be an immense increase
in the business of the opticians. To do
artificial light for several hours a day is
almost certain to cause in time eye troubles
of one kind or another, and sometimes,
when the light is not well placed, IL results
in total blindness. In community of night
workers the babies would probably have to
wear sptcidIits DeloIt lAey Couiu ieaTn 10
creep. The next result of such a system
would be an increase in nervous troubles.
This would be due to the continuance of
noise during the whole twcnty-four hours,
for there would always be some noise in
the daytime, even II most OF the people
were asleep. The never-ceasing racket of
eur largest cities is already responsible for
much nervous prostration. Nature knew