Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-08-05
DANGEROUS TINTS.
Some CoIors That Will Eventually
Drive a Person Mad.


If purple walls and red tinted win
dow surrounded you for month, with
no color but purple around you, by the
end of that time you would be mad
man. No matter how strong your brain
might be it would not stand the strain
and it is doubtful If you would ever
recover your reason. For purple Is the
most dangerous color there is-in its
effect on the brain, which it reaches by
way 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 as
would foul air. Scarlet Is as bad, but
scarlet has a different effect. 1t pro-
duces what is called homicidal mania
a madness that drives its victims to
kill his fellows, especially his nearest
relatives. Even on animals scarlet has
this effect. It will drive bull or
tiger to charge a naked spear But
purple on the contrary. brings on mel
ancholy or suicide mania.
Blue, as long as there Is no trace
Of red in 1t, stimulates the brain, and
helps it; but its effect on your nerves,
If you are saturated with it and can not
get away from it, Is terrible. Scientists
class blue as a kind Of drug In Its ef-
fects on the brain. 1t excites the I'M
agination and gives a craving for music
and stagecraft, but it has reaction
that wrecks the nerves. If you doubt
it, stare hard at large sheet OF bright
blue paper or cloth-not flowers, FOR
there Is a good deal of green in their
blue-and you will find that 1t 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 it can do
you any harm. On the contrary 1t
soothes the whole system, and preserves
the eyesight. If you were shut up IN
an artificial green light for month
it would develop your eyesight I'M
mensely; but 1t 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
certainly contract ophthalmia, or pos
sibly destroy the optic nerve altogeth-
er, unless you were very mindful to
take great care.
Most people imagine the sky, in clear
weather. to be blue It is really white,
tinged with green. 1t Is only the dis
tance and clearness that make it seem
blue. Green Is so soothing that IT
makes a big difference in the length OF
an illness, helping the system to fight
the disease, and nearly all hospital
wards have every possible detail about
them colored green. Sage green Is the
most soothing tint of all, metallic green,
however, is by no means so good.
Solitary confinement In yellow cell
for six weeks will hopelessly weaken
any system and produce chronic hys-
teria- A long enough course of 1t Will
produce foolish lunacy. and even on a
guinea pig or a rabbit will drive the
animal at last to either bite and wound
itself, or reduce it to such state of
nervousness that 1t will die Of sheer
fright If suddenly startled. On the
other hand. If you are not smothered
with it, yellow is the healtiest. cheriest
color there Is, and will make dark
room bright and habitable, when even
green would be cold and depressing.
But to be we'll "soused" with yellow.
day and night and to be unable to get
away from it, would bring you to nerv-
Gus madness inside Of two months at
the outside.
Sheer dead white, unbroken will de-
stroy your eyesight as surely as a
cataract" would If you are exposed to
it for a few days-a week at least. 1t
kills the optic nerves and the sight
goes out like a candle. while the effect
on the brain is so maddening that
blindness Is almost a relief This Is
why Arctic explorers have to wear COL
ored goggles of green tinted glass;
otherwise snow blindness" as it Is
called, and which Is really white blind
ness" Is almost certainty. Even In
the polar regions. though the white Is
not complete. The sky breaks 1T. If 1t
did not, no man could keep his eyesight
there without glasses.-Tit Bits.