CONCERNING GLASSES

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 133, 2 December 1922, Page 18

CONCERNING GLASSES

DiscoismLng the subject of "Criglampd," a writer in "The Gentlewoman" discusses a current custom:—

In the old time before ua, when Mi\ Pickwick adorned these glimpses of the sup, the circular, hom-rimmed spectacles worn by elderly parish clerks and antique schoolmasters were the subject of some gaiety to the young and the smart. The quizzing glass was well enough. ,but spectacles ! Well, the word spectacles suffices. Minerva and Venus, however, eeem to have effected a- reconciliation to-day, for beauty no longer shrinks from the appearance of learning, the owl-like perspicacity, which the once despised "giglamps" confer. Can it be that intellect is fashionable, and defective sight a distinction, to bo advertised instead of concealed by invisible lenses? Has the tortoise indeed won the race, and shaE we see the learned stoop, and the subfuse garment come to complete the picture? Or is it possible that this new masquerade is one of fashion's ironical whims; an artifice to call attention to lovely eyes as the black patch once advertised the dimple? If so, the setting is not worthy,of the jewel, for eyes do not look better through glass. The true truth of this new mode, one fears, is not to be sought in the undoubted comfort iiiicl lightness of the objects themselves—if comfort alone were desiderated' we should all soon be frumps in low heels and thick stockings; indeed, fashion would cease to exist. I\ To! it is our delight in dressing up, our sense of the .' delicious incongruity nf a pretty face nnd a smart hat in juxtaposition with a pair of emphatic gosfrles, which affords the sophisticated charm that appeals to 'our complex mentalities. The. touch of the mandarin or the motorist, added to the. modish tonrnure which gives piquancy up to a point; let us hope that wo shall at. k'fi';t stop short, of respirators, and that the i windows o.f the soul may Komo day meet us \sithout other windows iv.torposßtl, aurlv.-jfli 110 uUipr f.nunu thai) Naluia's acUuuWe awn,