The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-10
EVENING CHAT
BIZ RUTH CAMERON.

If you had ten thousand dollars
given you when you were born would
you begin to waste it and misuse it
without getting half the possible re-
turn from it. as soon as you were old
enough to do so?
I'll answer for you: No, of course
not
Now would you sell your eyes for
ten thousand dollars?
I'll answer again, No, most emphat-
| ically, of course not.
Why, then, do you foolishly waste
and misuse and spend without getting
half the possible return, these little
| organs which you acknowledge to be
a heritage worth more to you than
ten thousand dollars?
[ wonder if I have a single reader
who does not in some way or other
abuse his eyes occasionally.
| I doubt it.
For there are so many ways of care
! 1essly mistreating these extremely del
icate organs.
Reading or working in the twilight
of these all too short winter after
moons is probably the most common at
this time of year.
A close second at any time of year
| is the habit of reading about a lamp
so improperly shaded as to let the
light fall on the eyes as well as on
the book or work.
In buying a lamp for the family
reading table one should be most care
full about this detail. Many expen-
sive lamps have shades that do not
come down nearly far enough.
know a girl who bought lamp of
this description for her room at col
lege and lost six months of her col
lege career and nearly ruined her eyes
! from the trouble that set in before she
realized her mistake.
In buying reading lamp it is WELL
too, to remember that green is much
the most restful color for the shade.
If children were only trained as
carefully as they should be to always
sit at work or reading with the light
falling over the shoulder, and never
coming towards them we should have
another bad source of eye strain re-
moved.
Reading when lying down is apt to
be bad for the eyes, but it can be
done without injury if the reader is
careful never to place the book SO that
he will have to look up. Les him turn
on his side so that he can look down,
and if the light is good and he does
not read too long at stretch, there
should be no trouble.
Eye glasses which are allowed to
get bent and out of focus are another
foolish waste of eye energy. No mat
ter how good your glasses they Will
not do you good if they do not rest
on the nose just right, and it is the
get out of place
To get the full eye rest from glasses
one should go to an optician at least
once in three months and have glasses
adjusted. Your regular optician will
doubtless do this free of charge.
One more eye hint that I have
found almost invaluable And that is
the habit of bathing the eyes IN hot
water when they are tired or strained.
INothing-except sleep. perhaps
freshes and rests the eyes like five
minutes of bathing with cloths satur-
ated in water as hot as one can stand.
A prominent physician says that if
we only realized how many headaches.
| how many battling nervous disorders
| and stomach ailments, how much
pessimism, melancholia ana general
| 'scranlziness''-so called-were trace
able to some trouble with the eyes we
would be more careful of these Won
derful little organs.
wish, then, there were some way
we could be made to realize it.