An Important Point

1916

It always seems unfortunate for a boy to have to wear spectacles. It holds him back from the rough and tumble of boy life. If the other boys pick on him, he can hardly retaliate until he has put his glasses away. By that time he may be sent spinning in the dirt, his glasses broken and perhaps an unreasonable punishment is awaiting him at home. But lifelong trouble may result from failure to wear them. Teachers and parents should look carefully for early indications of such defects, and get good advice about them. — East St. Louis Journal.

Glasses for Players

1910

A recent instance of American ingenuity is afforded by the device of an optician for the relief of stage folk afflicted with defective eyesight.

Glasses fitted with tiny lenses are now made for the use of the actor so afflicted, who, in deference to the character he is enacting, may not wear the regulation eyeglasses or spectacles.

These special glasses fit close to the eyeball, and are hardly discernible from the front of the house, except when the footlights are at their highest point of illumination. The nosepiece, or bridge connecting the lenses is covered with flesh colored material which aide the illusion.

Why They're Called Tumblers

1896

Every day we drink out of a tumbler. Why is the large glass that holds our milk and water so called? Years ago Professor Max Muller was giving a luncheon at All Souls' College, Oxford, to the Princess Alice, the wife of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt and the second daughter of Queen Victoria. There were not a dozen guests besides the Princess and her husband, and a very agreeable luncheon we had, with talk on all kinds of interesting subjects.

But what excited the curiosity of all strangers present was a set of little round bowls of silver, about the size of a large orange. They were brought round filled to the brim. Those, we are told, were tumblers, and we were speedily shown how they came by their names — a fitting lesson for the guests of a philologist. When one of these little bowls was empty it was placed upon the table mouth downward. Instantly, so perfect was its balance, it flew back to its proper position as if asking to be filled again. No matter how it was treated — trundled along the floors, balanced carefully on its side, dropped suddenly upon the soft, thick carpet, up it rolled again and settled itself with a few gentle shakings and swayings into its place, like one of those India rubber tumbling dolls babies delight in.

This, then, was the origin of our word tumbler, at first made of silver, as are all these All Souls' tumblers. Then, when glass became common, the round glasses that stood on a flat base superseded the exquisitely balanced silver spheres and stole their names so successfully that you have to go to All Souls' to see the real thing. — Jeweler's Circular.

Women First Forbidden To Wear Glasses

1896

Roger Bacon was the first to suggest the use of spectacles. When they came into use in Italy about the year 1825, on the recommendation of Allessandro di Spina, a monk of Pisa, women were forbidden to wear them, because it was thought such facial ornamentations would make them vain.


Trivia

The king of beasts in his native wilds often lives for 100 years. A lion in captivity in the Tower of London lived there seventy years, and his age was unknown when he was captured.

Sitting Bull's pony, which was in his possession when he was shot on the Standing Rock Reservation some five years ago, is now owned by a farmer in Stanley County, South Dakota.

Poland in the fourteenth century had a pigmy king, Ladislas the Short, who won more victories than any other northern monarch of his time, and who left a great name as a jurist, statesman and ruler.

The claim of being the youngest mother in the state of Oregon is made for Mrs. J. F. Magee, wife of the marshall of Mitchell Township, who is a little over fifteen years old and has a handsome and healthy boy baby.

Cherryfield, Me., has a fire company bearing the odd name of the Egg-Beater Fire Company. It appears to be a good company, too, for the citizens of Cherryfield have just presented to it a silver trumpet in recognition of recent good work in fighting a fire.

Monocle Fad Revived

1902

Single Eyeglass Habit is Coming In Again In London

A London Express representative has discovered the interesting fact that the monocle is slowly coming back again. Not since the days of Major Pendennis. and the Iron Duke, whom the old soldier tried to copy, has there been anything like the vogue which is now setting in in single eyeglasses.

Some who claim to know trace the origin of the new fashion to the fact that officers serving in South Africa have found them very serviceable; others put them down to a revival at Oxford and Cambridge.

At the establishment of Messrs. Ross of Bond street, who for years have supplied the elite with monocles, the reporter was informed that the new craze has been in progress for some time. It is an undoubted fact that there is a growing demand for a particular type of eyeglass manufactured in America which is peculiarly adapted to sensitive eyesight.

To a question whether the wearing of the single eyeglass was not so much a necessity as a foppish fad the reporter received the reply that of 100 men wearing monocles there would be perhaps about twenty wearing plain non-magnifying glasses — window pane — purely for ornament. The rest would require the use of the monocle to help the defective sight of one or the other eye.