Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-07-24
DANGEROUS TINTS.
Some Colors That Will Eventually
Drive a Person Mad.

From Tit Bits.
If purple walls and a red-tinted window
surrounded you for a month with no color
but purple around you, by the end of that
time you would be a mailman. No matter
how strong your brain might be 1t would
not stand the strain, and 1t IS doubtful if
you would ever recover your reason. For
purple is the most dangerous color there is
in its effects on the brain, which it
reaches by way OF the nerves Of the eye.
A splash or two Of any other color in the
room would save your reason for some time
longer; but dead purple would kill you
eventually, as surely would foul air.
Scarlet is as bad, but scarlet has DIFF
homicidal mania-a madness that drives
its victims to kill his fellows, especially his
nearest relatives. Even on animals scarlet
has this effect. 1t will drive a bull or a
tiger to charge a naked spear. But purple,
on the contrary, brings on melancholy or
suicidal mania.
Blue, as long as there is no trace of red
in 1t, stimulates the brain, and helps 1t;
but its effect on your nerves, if You are
saturated with 1T and cannot get away
from it, is terrible. Scientists class blue
kind of drug in it's effects on the
brain. 1t eXciteS the Imagination and gives
craving for music and stagecraft, but 1t
has reaction that wrecks the nerves. If
you doubt it, stare hard for few minutes
at large sheet of bright blue paper or
cloth-not flowers, for there is good deal
of green in their blue-and you will find
that it will make your eyes ache and give
you restless, uneasy feeling.
Green, on the other hand, is the king of
colors, and no amount of 1T can do any
harm. On the contrary, 1T soothes the
whole system, and preserves the eyeSight.
II you were shut up in artificial green
light for a month it would develop your
eyesight immensely; but it would be fatal,
because when you returned to the world
you would be utterly unable to stand ordi-
nary lights and colors, and you would GER
tainly contract ophthalmia, or possibly de-
stroy the optic nerve altogether, unless you
were very mindful to take great care.
Most people imagine the sky in clear
weather, to be blue. 1t Is really white.
tinged with green. 1t is only the distance
and clearness that make 1t seem blue.
Green is SO soothing that it makes a big
difference in the length of an illness. help
ing the system to fight the disease. and
nearly all hospital wards have every pos
sible detail about them colored green: Sage
green Is the most soothing tint of all: me-
tallic green, however, is by no means 50
good
Solitary confinement in yellow cell for
six weeks will hopelessly weaken any sys-
tenn and produce chronic hysteria. A long
enough course of it will produce foolish
lunacy, and even on a guinea pig or a rab-
bit will drive the animal at last to either
bite and wound itself. or reduce 1t to such
state of nervousness that It will die of
sheer fright II suddenly startled On the
other hand, If you are not smothered with
1t, yellow Is the healthiest, cheeriest color
there is. and will make a dark room bright
and habitable, when even green would be
cold and depressing. But to be well