“Not I,” said Mrs. Sharpless, after reading it. “Nor in the place itself. I called there yesterday. It is a beautiful room; everything as shiny and clean as a pin.”
“Yesterday was cloudy,” observed the Health Master.
“It was. Yet there wasn’t a corner of the place that wasn’t flooded with light,” declared Mrs. Sharpless.
“And on a clear day, with the sun pouring in from all sides and being flashed back from those shiny, white walls, the unfortunate inmates would be absolutely dazzled.”
“Do you mean to say that God’s pure sunlight can hurt any one?” challenged Mrs. Sharpless, who was rather given to citing the Deity as support for her own side of any question.
“Did you ever hear of snow-blindness?” countered the physician.
“I’ve seen it in the North,” said Mr. Clyde. “It’s not a pleasant thing to see.”
“Glazed white walls would give a very fair imitation of snow-glare. Too much light is as bad as too little. Those walls should be tinted.”
“Yet it says here,” said Mr. Clyde, referring to his circular, “that the ‘Misses Sarsfield will conduct their institution on the most improved Froebelian principles.”
“Froebel was a great man and a wise one,” said Dr. Strong. “His kindergarten system has revolutionized all teaching. But he lived before the age of hygienic knowledge. I suppose that no other man has wrought so much disaster to the human eye as he.”