164 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



can stand and admire a swagger machine for a 

 long while at a stretch. After dark that same is a 

 terror to me. This story, scarcely new, is all the 

 same worth re-telling because of the fearful 

 nuisance and danger caused by the very excel- 

 lence of the means adopted mostly in the cause 

 of safety itself. With one of these monstrous- 

 eyed machines coming at you out of the dark 

 you are blinded and paralysed for action. Not 

 only do motors' big lamps act in this way, but 

 the humble cyclist's acetylene lighter-up, if you 

 happen to catch its glare full. All you know is 

 that you think yourself in danger, whether you 

 are so or not, and are pretty much unable to 

 help yourself in getting out of the way, because 

 the fierce white light cuts through the air like a 

 guillotine. Inside the edge of its rays you might 

 be in the limelight. At a line outside is created 

 an artificial darkness that can be felt, and makes 

 unknown territory. Quite unsuccessful are my 

 best endeavours to mend this trouble for myself ; 

 the only way is the old-fashioned one for a 

 traveller on a very dark road — viz., getting out of 

 the way when you saw a lighted trap coming 

 (they used not always to be lighted up, you know, 

 till recent Acts), and shutting your eyes till the 

 machine had gone by, so preventing them from 

 getting out of focus. I do wish for someone to 

 experiment with an apron shade to send the 

 bright white rays out ahead along the road 

 instead of straight away into your brain. Under 

 this arrangement the lamps would be twice as 

 efficacious for the drivers' purpose as they are 

 now. 



Talking about seeing, those who believe in 

 funny birds cropping up only when you have 



