Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-01-08
"EYEs AND NO EYES,"

} NO DaSS- WOOD Gner6, but good hard hlCkOryI
John Vance Cheney, in st Nicholas
'EYES AND NO EYES"
The Great Difference in the Way In Which
People Use Their Visual Organs-The
Lucky and the 'sUnlucl<y'' Boy.
Did it ever occur to you what diff
ference there is in the way in which
people use their eyes? I 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, tiran 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
1 tricks and feats of magic were the as
tonishment of Europe few years agoP
He tells u.s., I'M his autobiography, that
to see everything at glance, while
seeming to see nothing, is the first
requisite in the education of ''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 a
shop-window, at 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, aot less than forty
articles, all caught in the few seconds
which it took to pass the window at q
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 place. and the vague and
blurred one whicls another mind will
bring. Observation is one of the valu-
able faculties, and the lack of it fault
which people have to pay for, in various
ways, all their lives.
There were once two peasant boys in
France, whose names were Jean and
Louis Cardilliac. They were cousins;
their mothers were both widows, and
they lived close to each other in little
village, near 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 '.lneky,' and Louis as
.sunlucky,.'' for reasons which YOU will
shortly see.-
! If the two boys, were out together, in
the forest or the fields, they walked
along quite differently. Louis dawdled
in a sort of loose-jointed trot. with his
eyes, fixed on Whatever happened to, be
in his, hand-a sling, perhaps, or az
stick. or one of those snappers with
which. birds, are scared away from fruit.
If 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 notes. 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 strange leaf, or an unaceus-
toned fungus by the path, or any small
article which had been dropped by the
way. Once he picked up a five-franc;
piece; once a silver pencilrcase which
belonged to the cure, who was glad to-
get it again, and gave Jean ten sous by
way of reward. Louis would have liked
ten sous very much, but somehow he
never found any pencil-cases; and it
seemed hard and unjust when his moth
err upbraided him for the fact, which.
to her thinking, was rather his nisfortr
une than his fault.
..How can help itp'' he asked. The
saints are kind to Jean. and they are
not kind to me-COild tout!'
1.-THE saints help those who help
themselves retorted his mother. Thou
art a look-in-the-air Jean keeps his
ewes open: he has wit, and he notices. y
But such reproaches did not help
Louis, or teach him anything. Habit
is so strong.
.sThere!o cried his mother one day,
when he came in to supper. '.Thy
cousin-thy lucky cousin-has again
been lucky. He has found truffie-
bed. and thy aunt has sold the truffies
to the man from Paris for a hundred
francs. A hundred francs! 1t will be
long before thy stupid fingers can earn
the half of that!''
..Where did Jean find the bede''
asked Louis.
In the oak copse near the brock,
where thou highest have found them
as easily as he, retorted his mother.
.sHe was walking along with Daudot, the
wood-cutter's dog whose mother was
a ie-hunter- and Daudot began to
point and scratch, and Jean suspected
something, got a spade, dug. and crack!
q hundred francs! All! has mother is
to be envied.
The oak copse! Near the brook"
exclaimed Louis, too much excited to