Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-01-30
"EYEs AND NO EYES,"

LIN ia Sho way Ah AAiSs
People Use Their Visual Organs-The
Lucky and the "Unlucky'' Boy.
Did it ever occur to you what a diff
ference there is in the way in which
people use their eyes? 1 do not mean
that some people squint, and some do
not, that some have short sight. and
some long sight. These are accidental
differences; and the people who can not
see far, sometimes see more, and more
truly, than do other people whose Wis
ion is as keen as the eagles. No, the
difference between peoples eyes lies in
the power and the habit of observation.
Did you ever hear of the famous con
jurer, Robert Houdin, whose wonderful
tricks and feats of magic were the as
%tonishment of Europe a few years ago?
He tells us, in his autobiography, that
to see everything at a glance, while
seeming to see nothing, is the first
requisite in the education of Il "ma-
gician,' and that the faculty OF MOTTO
ing rapidly and exactly can be trained
like any other faculty. When he was
fitting his little son to follow the same
profession he used to take him past Il
shop-window, ut a quick walk, and
then ask him how many objects in the
window he could remember and de-
scribe. AT first, the child could only
recollect three or four; but gradually
he rose to ten, twelve, twenty, and, in
the end, his eyes would note, and his
memory retain, not less than forty
articles, all caught in the few seconds
which it took to pass the window at a
rapid walk.
1t is so more or less with us all. Few
things are more surprising than the dis
tinct picture which one mind will bring
away from Il place, and the vague and
blurred one which another mind will
bring. Observation is one of the valu-
able faculties, and the lack of it a fault
which people have to pay for, in various
ways. all their lives.
There were once two peasant boys in
France. whose names We're Jean and
Louis Cardilliac. They were cousins;
their mothers We're both widows, and
they lived close to each other in a little
village, near 4 great forest. They also
looked much alike. Both had dark,
,closely-shaven hair, olive skins. and
large, black eyes; but in spite of ali
their resemblances, Jean was always
spoken Of as ''lucky,' and Louis as
''unlucky,' for reasons which you will
shortly see.
II the two boys We're out together, in
the forest or$he fields, they walked
along quite differently. Louis dawdled
in a sort Of loose-iointel trot. with his
eyes fixed on whatever happened to be
in his hand-a sling, perhaps, or a
stick. or II OF those snappers with
which birds are scared away from fruit.
II it Were the stick, he cracked it as he
went, or he snapped the snapper, and
he whistled, as he did so, in an absent
minded way. Jeans black eyes, on the
contrary, were always on the alert, and
making discoveries. While Louis stared
and puckered his lips up over the snap
per or the sling, Jean would note, I'M
consciously but truly. the form of the
clouds the look of the SKY in the rainy
west, the wedge-shaped procession Of
the ducks through the air, and the way
in which they used their wings, the bird
calls in the hedge. He was quick to
mark a strange leaf, or an unaccus-
toned fungus by the path, or any small
article which had been dropped by the
way. Once he picked up a iive-franc
piece; once a silver pencil-case which
belonged to the cure, who was GLAD to
get 1t again, and gave Jean ten sous by
way OF reward. Louis would have liked
ten sous very much, but somehow he
never found any pcncil-cases; and it
seemed hard and unjust t'henS his moth
er upbraided him for the fact, which.
to her thinking, vas rather his misfort-
une than his fault.
GLOW can | help it?" he asked. The
saints are kind to Jean, and they are
not kind to mo -rOilu tout"
The saints help those who help
themselves, rctorted his mother. .'Thou
Art Il look-in-the-air. Jean keeps his
eyes open: he has wit, and he notices.
But such ~reproachcs did not helm
Louis, or teach him anything. Habit
is SO strong.
"Ihere! cried his mother one dov
when he came in to supper. ..TIy
cousin-thy lucky cousin-has AGAIN
been lucky. He has found a truille.
bed: and thy aunt has sold the ~tr,lt1les
to the man from Paris for a hundred
francs. A hundred francs. 1t will no
long before thy stupid fingers can earn
the half Of that"
Where did Jean find the bcd?"