The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1912-07-16
BY ESTHER GRIFFIN WHITE
"Something new every day."

So said a reporter in reply to a
question asking what he found so fas-
cinating on a newspaper.
1t is this that holds the newspaper
man, or woman, in its grip.
No matter how dull the assign
ment" it will develop some phase that
will interest.
The world is a stream which flows
through a newspaper Office in slow
or quick current.
Sometimes almost stagnatingly.
Again furiously.
Butt flows.
And action, is, after all, the natural
habit of man.
We must move In some direction.
But we must move.
And we thus fit into the flux of the
universe.
For all life, as has been said here
before perhaps. is fluid. Like the tide
of which it is a part-it ebbs and
flows.
And we only live as it sways and
eddies
When sensation ceases, life is gone.
Sensation is life. Life is sensation
They act and react.
1t is because of the variety of SEN
sation, therefore, that once drawn in
to the newspaper whirlpool, no egress
is possible.
Possible, perhaps. Rather undesired.
While seething round in the froth
and foam you get many points of
view
And every time it's the point of view
of the other fellow.
No-one can be long connected with a
lie outlook Without becoming able to
see all around an object-and some
times through it-instead of merely a
surface.
And you get. as nowhere else, the
relativity of all human activity.
Yesterday, in instance, the writer
attended a meeting of the Indiana
Optical Society which met here for
one all-day session.
Very few people, it is probable, give
this branch of scientific business, if it
may be so termed, much attention.
They will have their eyes tested
and glasses fitted, giving little thought
to the professional training necessary
for the successful treatment of the
eyes.
! And yet this profession has it's own
nomenclature, it's societies, both local.
national and international and its sci
entific investigators.
In clever and entertaining post.
prandial talk Mr.. Jordan of the Com.
mercial Club stated that the optom.
etrist was one of the greatest benefac.
, tors of society.
That it was his study and his intent
to give perfect physical vision to the
fessional ambition.
Sight is the most superlative and
the most important of all the senses
And that which gives the greatest
pleasure. For it's repertoire, so to
speak, is far more varied than that OF
the other five sensational conductors
But the physical vision of the world
is distorted
Very few persons have perfect eyes
two see an object or a scene, or a col
lection of either, alike.
Persons suffering with myopia, OF
what is commonly termed "near-sight
edness," do not see with the normal
ordinary vision.
They get effects. Not details.
They are, if it could so be put, i'm.
~
masses. And, since the theory of the
| impressionists is that the thing itself
| is not seen at close hand but only
takes shape and form through the
medium Of the TRANSMISSION of light
the near-sighted may, after all. get the
best view, the real, the actual.
If this may be thought to be a
somewhat fanciful idea it can be poin.
| ted out that it has, in substance, been
entertained by some distinguished per.
sons, among them Lafcadio Hearn
who, himself, was myopic of vision.
/ Be that as it may. the optometrists
are doing a humane work in the prac.
tice of their profession and in seeking
! to evolve it into some far more per
! feet system.
The unfamiliar word "optometrist'
is scientifically and linguistically ac
curate.
| "Optician" is a mis-nomer
1t is applicable pore to the pure
mechanics of the profession and it is
not inclusive of the latter's science.
1t is interesting to know that this
word was originated. or. rather. coin
ed" by John c. Eberhardt, of Dayton
one of the PROFESSIONS most distin.
guished representatives in the United
States, who yesterday addressed the
convention.
| Mr. Eberhardt, in a short after lun.
| cheon talk. gave an interesting &C.
count of the way II originated In its
present application and use. stating
that it was not of such recent origin
as might be thought by the average