Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1869-09-09
Eminent Blind Men.

| have been numerous enough. Among 9TH
ers, we may mention Milton: Delille, the
translator Of Virgil; Blackjack, the divine;
Avisse, Kozlor, Louis Egloff, and others.
The elder Disraeli, towards the close ola
useful and laborious life, suffered from an
ophthalmic disease, which checked him in
the prosecution of his literary labors.
Saunderson, the mathematician lost his
eye-sight when only a year old, but con-
HE is not" says the author of the "Pur-
suit of Knowledge ''the only blind
mathematician on record. The writer
of his life mentions Diodotus the
Stole, Didymus of Alexandria, Eu.
sebius, and Nicausius de Voerda." -
The Count de Pagan, the ''father Of the
modern science of tortifcation," lost his
left eye before he was seventeen, and was
totally deprived of sight when hut thirty
eight. Euler. the celebrated mathemeti-
clan, was struck with blindness in his fifty
ninth year, but continued to calculate and
dictate books as actively as ever. Prescott,
the author of the Conquest of Mexico, :"
and other works, long suffered from a pain.
full affection of the eyes. Orestes A. Brown
son, the great American reviewer, had to
get out the last published numbers of his
Review by the aid of an amanuensis. Aug
Justine Thierry, the distinguished historian
of the mormon Conquest, was blind, par
alyzed, incapable of movement.
Sanderson. to whom we have already
alluded, is perhaps the most remarkable of
those blind men who have made them
selves name for scientific excellence. He
lost his sight in 1683-when only one year
old-atter severe attack of smallpox.
But, spite of his complete blindness, he
gave himself up to the assiduous duty of
the sciences, and finally lectured at the
University Of Cambridge, on the mathe-
mates and optics with wonderful success.
His sense OF touch was exquisitely fine,
thus in collection Of Roman medals, he
could distinguish the genuine from the
false, although often the latter were so ad-
mirable counterfeited as to deceive those
who examined them with their eyes. By
the different feeling Of the air on his face,
he could tell when an object was placed
before him. And his hearing was so &C.
curate in selling and approaching the
slightest sounds, that he could determine
the height of any chamber into which he
was introduced, and his distance from the
wall.
There have been blind warriors, who
have not the less controlled tho motions of
their armies. Such were Henri Dandalo
and Jean Zislza. The first, Doge of Ven.
ice, was one Of the leaders of the Latin ar
my which captured Constantinople in 1904
Jean de Troczow, better known at Ziska-
the Bohemian for one-eyed, name he re-
ceived after losing, while yet child, IN
eye in childish sport-was the instigator,
the life, the soul, of the terrible Hustle
war, which lasted more than half a centu-
ry. He lost, in 1920, at the siege of Kaby,
his remaining eye; but it was after this ter
rible accident that the ''Old Blind Dog"
as he called himself, gained his most bril-
liant victories.
CATER he lost his sight, says L'Enfant,
his biographer,, 'they were accustomed to
standard, and explain to him the order of
battle, the situation of places, the valleys
rocks, mountains, hills and forests, and &C.
cording to these instructions, he arranged
| the disposition Of the forces, and gave them
his orders"
One evening, when he was about to give
the signal for battle, his attendants inform
ed him that the darkness would prevent
his soldiers from fighting. Immediately
he had fire set to neighboring village to
afford light to his army, which then, ac-
| cording to custom, was victorious.
He died of the plague at the siege of a
town called Przibislaw, in 1924.
Historical students will recollect the glo-
rious death Of John the Blind, King of Boz
hemia, who fell in the fight Mt Crecy, in
1916. Being informed that the battle was
lost, he bade his knights conduct him into
the thickest of the fray. '.And," says
quaint cid Froissart, she rushed so brave
| " on the enemy that ut each sweep of his
sword down went a foeman, and those who
attended him fought, so that on the NOR
row their bodies were found piled around
! their lord, and their horses all close to-
gether."
A considerable number of blind princes
is furnished by the history Of the Greek
| empire and the Mussulman states, where
the hideous punishment of putting out the
eyes was very Western Monthly
| for September.