Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

AI A ~F ID'err ~eraW iiee ESTABLISHED 1865. NEBERy S.C,FIA,-A-_,10? WC EK 8.0AY3 NE BRR ,S C,FRDY M Y161D nrnnum -_____ uiu yr iIDI aU1 DURING SCHOOL LIFE, AN INTEREsrINe PAPER READ oE. FORK THE IOUNTY TEACHERS' AS $U'R ATION. At the Urgent Request of Several Teachers Who Heard the Papor Read Dr J. r. Kibler Uonsente to its Publloattou. The following paper was read by Dr. James M. Kibler before the meeting of the County. Teachers' Association on Saturday, the 10th. inst., and at the urgent request of some of those who heard it, it is pub lished. - THE ADDREsS. I have been called upon to address you today upon a subject which un til quite recent years received no at. tention from any of our public schools, North or South. The hygt nic laws governing other organs of the body have justly re ceived proper consideration; and the industrial hygene regulating the school room and premises as to filth, ill- ventilated class room-, over heated rooms, draughts of cold air, accumulation of foul gases, etc., have commanded the closest atten tention of the public b'oards of all our schools. Advice as to an overworked brain, a frail body, a slowly developed brain or body; rules as to the best methods of imparting instruction to the pu pils; the question as to the number of school hours per day, and whether it is better to have one long session with intervals of two short recesses, or two sessions with a long interval for noon or dinner; the question of how many pupils one teacher can manage, or when a room may be considered overcrowded; the ques tion of co education etc., have all re ceived their due consideration from this association. Health rules as to the proper care of the mouth and teeth and skin, the proper clothing to wear in doors and out doors, food and diet, how to pre serve the throat and voice, how to keep good hearing, have been time and again given to all grades of school life from the elementary schools to the special technical col leges, but rarely ever does one see advice given upon the proper care of the eyesight during school life. No subject is of more vital im portance. Upon good eyesight often depends the success or failure of a pupil, not only during school-life, but also his whole life after wards. The child may have ever so bad vision and be b>ackward in learning, and fall behind his class nad become discouraged, and never know why he cannot compet-e with his fellows. When we 'remember that wvhatever he learns must be gotten from proper and careful reading, and this cannot be had with imperfect vision, we are not surprised at his fate. I shall offer a few suggestions for the proper guidance of the teacher, and hope that from them some good may result. B3efore doing so, however, it is necessary that at least an elementary knowledge of the anatomy and phy siology of the eye, and the sim~plest laws of optics be understood. The eyeball so delicately con structed and adjusted, resting in a honey socket for protection from outside blows, surrounded by fatty tissue and the muscles which control its movements, covered arnd shaded by its lids and lashes and brows to shield it from dust and an excess of light, bathed in its own tears from the lachrymal gland, p)laced in the forefront of the.head as pilot look ing out for the safety of the body, is one of the greatest wonders of Nature. It is nearly spherical in form and about one inch in diamet.er. For convenience of description it is sometimes spoken of as consisting of three membranes or coats and three humors. The external or fibrous coat is * strong, tough and elastic. It main - tains the form of the ball and pro tects its contents and furnishes the * attachments of the external muscles which mov-. rne sclerotic which forms about four fifths of this coat and the pos. terior portion of the ball is com monly known as the "white of the eye." The anterior one-fifth or cornea is transparent and joined to the sole. rotic very much as a watch crystal is set in a watch. On casually look. iug at the eye the observor does not notice it as the colored iris is seen through it on account of its trans parency. The coat may be plainly seen by taking a side view of the eyeball. The second coat of the eyeball from without is the vascular coat com posed of the choroid behind and the iris in front. The choroid is a net work of blood vessels and pigment cells covering the inner side of the scleroatic and posterior surface of the iris. The use of this dark surface is to absorb the excess of light that may gain entrance into the eye. The iris forms a curtain behind the cor nea, or front of the eye, to the mar gins of which it is attached, and con taiis the pupil or window through which light is transmitted to the re tina. It is the iris that. gives to the eye its color and beauty of ex pressions at, its marginal surface are attached two sets of muscles-the ciliary muscles-which contract or dilate the pupil and determine the amount of light admitted. The internal or third coat of the eye is known as the retina. This is the most important membrane of the eye, and in fact all the remainder of the eye is subservient to it. For it is upon this that light impinges, and images are formed and we are caid to see. This membrane is only one one hundred-and-twentieth of an inch in thickness, yet it has been divided by the microscope into nearly a dozen layers, the most important of which are the internal and external. The internal is the conductive layer, while the external is the per cipient layer that receive the sensa tion of light and communicates it to the brain through the optic nerve. This nerve can take cognizance only of the sensation of light, and hence feels no pain. Any irritation of it produces a flash of light, and one may be made to "see stars" when the eye receives a severe blow. Here physiology and psychology are close ly allied. How can material sub stance communicate an impression to a material brain and psychological phenomena result? WVe shall now speak of the three humors of the eye. They are the aqueous, crystalline and vitreous. The aqueous humor is a watery fluid filling the anterior chamber of the eye, between the cornea and the crystalline or lens. Trhe crystalline humor, or ler.s, is a firm, transparent semi-solid sub stance, held in a transparent elastic capsule which maintains its form that of a double convex lens. It is upon the shape and density of the lens that accuracy of vision depends. The vitreous humor fills the poste rior chamber of the eye. It is color less and transparent and is well adapted to form a cushion for the dlelicaite retina, and preserve the firmness a[nd elasticity of the eyeball. "The eye is ~a wonderful example of skilful packing,._ combining firm ne8s, elasticity, compactness, mobility and safety in a degree of perfection that can never be approached b)y art and is perhaps scarcely equalled else. where in nature." Having given an elementary de scription of the anatomy of the dif ferent parts of the eye, we shall now consider some of their functions or physiology. Before the astronomer, Kepler, discovered that the eye is nothing more than a photographer's camera, the act of seemng was veiled in obscure mystery. In the camera the images of objects fall upon a chemically sensitive p)late, in the eye they fall upon the sensitively nerv mus retina. I[n the eye the sides of the camera are represented by the sclerotic, the darkened in ner su rface b)y the choroid, the opening l)y the pupil, the convex lens by the cornea and crystalline lens and the surface to receive the image by the retina. To understand the physiology of Dire Necessity Now Reigns in Martinique. BUtVIVOR8 OF TUI CATABTItOPEHE ARE IN UItOENT NKED. Prompt Relief Measures Taken. An Amor Ian Couneil Olves a Descript,ion of the Awful s0cen at St. PIerou. Fort do France, Island of Martini que, May 12.-It now seems to be generally admitted that about 30, )00 persons lost their lives as a re. mult of the outbreak of the Mont Pelee volcano, ' at St. Pierre, on Thursday last. Careful investigation by competent government oiicials show the earlier reports of the Asso iated Press were accurate. Briefly put, last Thursday morn ing the city of St. Pierree disappear 3d within live minutes in a whirl wind, fire vomiting from Mont Pu. ee; 30,000 persons were instantly md horribly killed and the volcano, whose crater for more than 50 years lad been occupied by a quiet lake n which picnic parties bathed, sud. lenly discharged a torrent of fiery nud, which rolled toward the sea, 3ngulfing everything before it. Then he last of cable communication was >roken, and the doomed city was solated from the world. The repair ship Grappler was lost with all on board, as was the Frenclh ressel Tamaya. There were .18 or 10 vessels in the roadstead at the ime of the disaster. The British iteamer Roddam had anchored but Japt. Freedman, although horri. )ly burned, managed to keep on t' e ridge of his vessel. Everybody )m the Roddan's dock was killed natantly, but with the assistance of 2is third engineer and a fireman, who were wounded, the captain >rought his vessel to St. Lucia. lZany persons tried to reach the Roddom, but in vain. The United tates vice consul at St. Pierre, &madee Testart, reached the deck >f the Roddam only to fall back in he sea dead. Three hours exploration of the -nins of St Pierrco resulted in the inding of no trace of the American lonsulate. Council Thomas 1'. Prentiss, his wife and two daugh era, are undoubtedly dead. That. Inarter of this city is still a vast nasB of blazing ruins. Nor has any race been found of James Japp, he British consul. Mr. Japp had large family at St. Pierre. CONsUl. AYME's STOaY. The American consul at Guade oupe, Louis H. Ayme, has reached he desolate spot where St. Pierree tood and confirm the awful story n all its essential details. From an interview with Col. Ayme, who is a trained American newspap)er nan, a correspondent of the Associa ed Press learned the following fact: Thursday morning the inhabit ants if the city awoke t.o find heavy clouds bhrouding the Mount Pelee crater. kll day Wednesday horrid deotona. ions had been heard. These wvere~ ichoed from St. Thomas on the iorth to Barbadoes on the south. ['he cannonading ceased on Wednes lay night the line ashes fell like rain mn St. Pierre. The inhabitants yere alarmed, b)ut G*ov. Mouttet, vho had arrived at St. Pierree the ivening before, did everything pos lible to allay thn panic. T1he Brit, sh steamer Roraima reached St. ?ierre on Thursday with l(0 passen gers, among whom wvere Mrs. Stokes md her three children and( Mrs. 7-. J. Ince. They wvere wvatching he rain of fashes, wvhien, with a rightful roar and terrific electric lischarges, a cyclone of fire mud1( md( steam swept doewn from the trater over the town and1( bay, sweep). ng all before it and dlestroyinng the leet or vessels at anchor oli the ihore. There the accounts of the stastrophe so far obtainiablo cease. THlE DEAD) IN T HiE SEA. Thirty thousand corpses atre strewn ibout, buried in thme ruins of St. P~ierrce, or else floating, gnawed by iharks, in the surrounding seats. Vwenty-eight charred, half dead rmnman bodies were brought here. Bixteen of them are already dead, imd only four of the whole number are expected to ecnver. vision, however, one must have a knowledge of the laws of refraction of light. It is a well known fact in optics that a ray of light penetrat ing a medium of lesser or greater density than the one from which it emerges changes its directions, or is refracted, A number of parallel rays passing through a medium of differ ent density are refracted, but emerge still parallel. But if the surfaces of the medium are curved the rays emerge divergent or con,7ergent, just as the priam is concave or convex. Hence, rays of light passing through the crystalline lens of the eye are brought to a focus on the sensitive retina behind. Here the image of the external object is made in an in verted position. Thus you observe we do not see objects, but their images; and we leara from experience that the ob. ject is not upside down, but only the image. The more convex the lens the shorter will be its focusing power. The ciliary muscles have the prop arty of rendering the lens more con vex or less convex according as we are looking at near or distant objects. This is called power of accommo dation. The abuse of this faculty is one of the most fruitful sources of evil in school life. In the above remarks we have been speaking of the perfectly formed, or emmetropic, eye-one that is able to focus parallel rays of light accurately upon the retina. There are a great many optical defects that arise durings chool life which should be readily recognized by the teacher, and recommended for correction. The most common of these are long sight., or hypermetropia; short. sight, or myopia, and astigmatism. Long-sight is produced by the axis of the eyeball, the distance from the cornea to the retina, being less than the focal distance of the eye, and hence the image falls behind the retina. This condition is known as "flat eye." The same results are seen in old age, only the cause is due to an increased density and convexity of the lens. This condition can be relieved by a convex glass, which will bring the rays of light more quickly to a focus. Just the opposite condition is met with in near sight. Here the oxis is too long and the image is focused in front of the retina. Of course a con cave lens will correct such malforma.. tion. This is one of the moat seri ous conditions in errors of refraction. If allowed to go on unaided most appalling results may happen and the child's vision become a wreck. It is the most frequent defect met wvith in the young, and as the eyes are soft and elastic, the distortion grows worse and worse as work is imposed upon them. T~Ihe increase in such cases is very rapid from the elementary to the high schools. Inl some countries, as Germany, it is more often met with than in others, and mocre often seen in cities than in towns or rural districts. In the remarks upon long sight and short-sight it was assumed that the eye remained stationary. But this is not true in nature, as the ciliary muscles are constantly at work rendering the crystalline lens more or less convex as the case may need or the distance of the object looked at may require. This brings about the strain upon defective eyes, and a train of symptons such as headache, pains in the eyes and gen oral fatigue followv. There remains yet one other con dition common among those who have dlefective vision. This is known as astigmatism. The normal shape of the cornea is that of a section of a sphere, and1 any variation from this nniformit.y in curvature brings about aist igmatism, or different focal dis tances for the different meridians. The troub)le can only be corrected by glasses made fromt a cylinder and set in frames so adjusted that the merid inns will all he b)rought to the mame focus. If I have spoken at length and proved tiresomte I have no apology Concluded on 4th page. A VISIT TO THE 80ENE. 'T'he Associated Press steamer, 3hartored in Guadeloupe, near Mar. binique at 6:80 Sunday morning. rhe island with its lofty hills was iid behind a huge veil of violet, r leaden colored haze. Enormous :luantities of the wreckage of large mnd small ships and houses strewed :he surface of the sea. Huge trees md too often bodies with flocks of iea gulls soaring above and hideous ;harks lighting about them, were bating here and there. From be linn the volcanic veil came blasts of lot wind, mingled with others ice sold. At be Precheur, live miles north f St. Pierre, Canoes with men and womn, frantic to get away, begged or a passage on the steamer. The whole north end of the island vas covered with a silver gray cost. og of ashes resembling dirty snow L"urious blasts of fire, ashes and mud wept over the steamer but finally it. Pierre was reached. The city of St. Pierre stretched icarly two miles along the water 'rout and half a mile back to the liff at the base of the volcano. The iousos of the richer French families vere built of stone. The still smoking volcano towered ibove the ash covered hills. The ruins were burning in many places ind frighting oders of burned flesh illed the air. With great difilculty a landing vas oelcted. Not one house was oft intact. Viscid heaps of mud, of )righter ashes or piles of ovlcano itones, were seen on every side. The itreets could hardly be traced. Here md there amid the ruins were heaps >f corpses. Al;,.ost all the faces wvero downward. In one corner 22 bodies of men vomen and children were min ;led with in one awful mass, arms and legs protruding as the hapless ing fell in the last struggles of ioath's agony. Through the middle of the old Placo Bertin ran a tiny stream, the remains of the river Gayave. Great reos with roots upward and scorched wvith lire, were strewn in every di rection. Hugo blocks and still hot 3tones were scattered about. From lnder one largo stone the arm of a yhite woman protruded. Most no able was the utter silence and the 'wful, ovorpowering stench from he thousands of dead. DEA'II FOTM S11'FoCA'ION. Careful inspection showed that the liery stream which so completely de stroyed St. Pierre must have been 30m posedi of poisonous gases, wvhich instantly sulftocates every one who in bales them, and of other gases burn. ing furiously, for nearly all the vie tints had their hands covering their mtouit Ihs or were int some other atti. tutde, shoing that they had souight relief fromt sulfocation. All the bod ies are carbontized or roasted. A. G. Austen, the manager of the Colonial Banik of Barboioes, landed at St. Pierre with a party from the British royal mail steamer Solent. HeL found the bank clock stopped at sonme minutes befoere 8 o'clock. A horse and a buggy andl a policeman wet-c ill a (lead groupj at the (leor. C(INoRFEss APPiIoPIt!ATI:s $200,000 Fton iEi,i:iiEF 01' DEs'TIUTE -Pa1E81 DENT NAMED $500,000. Wsington, May 1 2.--The house todIay ptassed by ant overwhtelmning vote a bill granting $500,000( for the relief of the sufferers in the great clamtity ill the WVest lIndiw, The b)ill wais a sublstitulto to the relief meiasnuro passed by the senate, which carried $100,000, the increase hav ing followed t he recoipt. of a message front the president setting forth the mtagnitude of the calamity and urg inig ant appropriation of $500,000. A speocial meeintg of the appropria tion comm-ittee was held to facilitate action ont the bill and it was re Ported to thte house within a short time after the receipt of the Presi dent's message. In presenting the measure, Mr. Hlomenway, the actintg chairman of the appropriation com. miittee, explainied that the amount was limited to $200,000, owing to TEXT OF FINDING IN THE DOMINICK CASE. OFFICIAL REPORT FILED WITH TUE GOVERN019 TUESDAY. Rumnaty of Foots Presentod--Oommittee Tell why it Held Mr. Dominick Guilt. less of Wrong Doing. [The State, 13th.] The documents giving the find ings of the legislative investigation committee in the case of Represent ative Dominick of Newberry was yesterday filed with the governor for transmission to the general as sembly at its next session. The document is given herewith in full so as to complete the record. It reads as follows: To the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Repre sentatives of the State of South Carolina : The sub-committee of the judi ciary committees of the senate and of the house, to whom was referred the investigation pursuant to a con current resolution passed on the 22nd day of February, 1902, which provides: 'Whereas it appears from the statements of the conferees on the part of the senate upon the differences between the two houses upon a bill to amend an act entitled 'An act to provide for the county government of the various counties of this State,' approved on the 6th day of March, 1899, that the report of the committee on free confer ence upon said bill was signed under misapprehension induced by misrepresentations made to them by one of the conferees on the part of the house of representatives ; now be it resolved by the senate, the house of representatives concurring, that it be referred to the judiciary committees of the senate and of the house or a sub-committee appointed by them to inquire into and inves tigate the circumstances surround ing the report of said conference committee on said bill, with power to sit during the recess and to send for persons and papers and exam ine the same, and to employ a sten ographer ; and that said committee do report their findings to the next general assembly," respectfully re ports that the judiciary committees of the senate and house met and ap pointed a sub-committee of six members, three from the judiciary committee of the senate, consisting o Senators -lay, Graydon and Mauyfield, and three from the judi ciat.y committee of the house, con sisting of Representatives Bacot, Croft and Gaston. That sub.com mittee called a meeting to be held at 12 m. on Wednesday, the '7th day of May, 1902, in Columbia; and pursuant to said call, said com mittee organized and took the tes timony of all members of the senate and the house who were on the con ference committees, toget her with the testimony of such other per sons who knew anything of the matter, so far as said committee could ascertain, which said testi mony is herewith reported. That puirsuant to said resolution, we find that the free conference committee rep)ort was not signed because of any misrepresentations made on the part of any member of said com. mittee, or ot'her member of the gen erail aesembly, or any other per'son, buat that two members of the sen ate free conference committee did( not understand the scope and ex tent of the amendments which were p)roposed to the bill, as p)ro vided in the free conference comn mittee re port ; but that no one imn puated unworthy motives of Mr. Dominick, who secured the signing of the report. That as to the circumstances suir rounding the report of the said con ference committee on said bill, we respectfully report that we find that a bill was pending in the gen eral assembly in the session of 1901 to amend section 15 of what is commonly known as the dlispensary bill, so as to "prevent the manu factur-e and selling of liquor within two miles of any church or public school house,'' and that on a free conference committee a proviso wa added so as to amend said bill, to give the power to the State Board of Directors to grant "privileges for the erection and operation of breweries, distilleries and establish ments for the bottling and sale 6f beer, styled beer dispensaries, in cities of over 2o,ooo population, to be o be operated as now provided by law," and that said reports as ap pears on the house journal, Febru ary 15, 1901, page 6o5, was adopted by the senate and by the house; that during the interim between the sessions the bill was not found to be operative so far as it affected beer privileges in some cities, and that this was an attempt made by some members of the general as semby to amend the dispensary bill, so as to allow beer dispensaries to be operated within the cities of 20,00o population, and to enlarge the powers of the board of direc tors. Mr. Dominick took the coun ty government senate bill (No-531) and, ifter having stated his purpose to amend this particular bill by en grafting on it a provision to carry out the desires aforementioned,with others secured a conference com inittee report whereby the commit tee failed to agree, and called for a free conference committee, and on the said free conference committee there was appointed on the part of the senate W. C. Hough, Wm. El derton and J. T. Douglass, and on the part of the house, W. 0. Ta tum, Fred. H. Dominick and Thomas Butler. That said Representative Domi nick took the printed copies of the bill which had formerly been in troduced in the senate and pasted them on blanks used for conmmittce reports. so as to have duplicate cop ies, one for the senate and one for the house, as was customary, and took said free conference report as thus amended, having stricken out the title of the bill as originally in troduced, and all after the enacting words, and inserted as the title the following: "A bill to authorize and empow er the board of directors of the State dispensary to grant permits for the establishment and operation of dispensaries for the sale of beer by retail or otherwise, in cities of over 20,000 population, and to provide for the bonding of the holders of such permits, and to ap point said dispensers." And the following after the en acting words: "'Section i. That the boar.d of dlirectors of the State dispensary be, andl they are hereby authorized to grant p)ermnits for the establish mnent and operation of dispensaries for sale of beer by retail or other wise, in all cities in this State of over 2o,000 pop)ulation ;and they are further authorized and empowered to app)oint the dispensers who shall conduct the said establishments. Sec. 2. T[hat said permit shall continue and be of force for a term of four years, unless revoked for cause by the State board of direc tors. And the holders thereof shall have power to manufacture, bottle and sell, by retail or otherwise, beer according to the restriction now providled by law. Sec- 3. T1hat the holders of such permits shall be required to give bond in the same amount and to be applrovedl in the same manner, as is now provided by law for bonds of county dispensers." And p)resented said free confer Concluded on 4t,h page. ROVAL Baking Powder~ Makes the breatd more healthful. Safeguards the food against alum. Alum baking powders are the greatest mienacers to health of the present day.