Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1854-06-15

THE BLIND ScuLProR.-Tbat IS n
very touching picture which is drawn
BY a modern traveller, of blind sculp-
tor, whom he fell in with at Innspruck.
in Tyrol. His name was Kleinbans;
and this is a brief synopsis of his his
tory:
When Eve years of age he was at
tackled with the small pox; it affected
his eyes, and finally made him entirely
blind. Before he had lost his sight, he
had often played with those little wood
en- figures, which are so skilfnHy carved
by the inhabitants of Tyrol, and had
even attempted to handle knife, and
to form statue himself
When no longer permitted to behold
the light, his Thoughts increasingly turn
ed to those images he was want to con-
template with so much pleasure, and
which he would gladly have initiated.
Then he would take them between his
hands, feel them, and try to console
himself for not being able to see, by
measuring them with his fingers. Feel
ing them again and again. and turning
them over in every way, he was able,
by degrees, to comprehend from the
touch, the exact proportions of the tig-
ure; anatomizing upon wood, marble or
bronze, the features of the face and
the different parts of the body, and
thus to Judge of the niceties Of the whole
art.
When he had acquired the skill, he
one day asked himself whether he could
not succeed in supplying the loss Of
sight by the keen sense of touch, with
which he was gifted. His father and
mother were dead; he found himself
alone and destitute, and rather than
beg he resolved to make out, through
his own exertions, a means Of subsis-
tance. r.
Taking a piece of wood and a chisel,
he at length began to work. His first
attempts were very troublesome and
very trihiug. Frequently did the un-
conscious blind man destroy, by one
notch made too deep, piece of work to
WHICH he diligently devoted long days
of labor. Such obstacles would have
discouraged any other, but his love for
the art induced him to persevere.
After many efforts, he at length sue
ceeded in using his chisel with steady
hand, and so carefully would he exam
inc every fold of the drapery, one af-
ter another, and the contour of each
limb, that he saw, as it were by means
of his fingers, the figure he intended to
copy.
Thus Ire proceeded by degrees, until
he attained to what seems an almost
incredible perfection, for he is now able
to engrave from memory the features of
a face, and produce a perfect resemb-
lance.
He is now seventy years of age, but
robust, and works every day as in youth.
During the course of his career, he has
sculptured several hundred figures
He lives alone in his humble depart
ment, and supplies his wants from the
produce of his sculpture. He is of
disposition; no VAN desires
agitate him; no ambition for honor or
riches trouble the dreams of the blind
artist. He commences his work in the
and as it advances his face be-
comes more animated, and his soul ex-
pands-'I feel,' he says, each piece
that / carve, even to the very minutest
part, and | am content with it as if |
had beheld it with my own eyes,
What forcible illustration is this of
the beautiful sentence of Sternei God
tempers the wind to the shorn lambP
Here it is seen the true compensation
in the dispensations of Divine Provi-
dence; like the light and life, into the
dark recesses of poor Laura Bridgman,
who seemed shut out from the world,
and almost from her Maker, being deaf,
dumb, and blind.