The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-15
No. sab; think he belongs to de genleu what
preceded me- An haint owned no spo'un' dog
sence,r
A MARVELLOUS MEMORY,
4 Blind Man Who nas Wonderful Knowl-
edge of Fire Alarms and Train Movements.

George Hebble, young man, amusic teacher OF
this city, has been totally blind since be was six
weeks old. He is now twenty six. He is known
to every member of .sne indianapolis fire depart
ment for ais wonderful knowledge of the work
done by that department of the city government.
He knows the location of every engine, hose-reel
and truck. the entire alarm-card. the location of
every box and the houses that respond in the
different parts of the city, according tc the nature
of the alarm. He can give to the minute the
time at which any alarm has been sent in during
1885 or this year, the engines and hosereels that
responded. the amount Of loss and all the Incl
dents of the fire.
II don't keep any account Of the still alarms.
only the bell alarms, said Mr.. Hebble TO the re-
porter. Last year there were 191 bell alarms. 4"
He then proceeded to give the alarms for last
year by the month, comparing them with the
months of this year. 81 have got little mixed
up about the alarms in November and December
of last year, but straightenedsout December.
There were fourteen alarms in November, but
ten Of them haven't got arranged in my head.
l must go and get them Strengthened out. l
don't understand how they happened to slip me.
There have been so far 121 bell alarms this year.
How did you come to get this hobbyf'
"In the first place. to protect myself from
the department. and besides that. l take
great interest in IT. When the Game
well system was put in here, took
pleasure in studying it. / got an awful
scare when was East in 1880, in Philadelphia,
that 1t took me long time to get over. They
have the secret system there Nobody knows
there is a fire until he sees the department. out
i was walking across Paramount Park, when
heard the rush of the engines and the ting! ting!
ting! to clear the way. A boy called out to me,
Run, blind man. rum They went by me some
how, and tottered to one side and sat down, al
most out of my senses. When there is an alarm
here know all about it. No matter where
may be on the street. know the route the diff
ferent engines and reels are likely to take to get
to the fire, and govern myself accordingly. /
miss it little. sometimes, but not often"
Mr. Hebble knows the engines by the gongs,
and can tell the chief from any of the hooks, and
knows the bells of the chemicals. He knows
more about railroads than nine hundred and
ninety-nine men out of thousand in this city,
for he knows the entire time card OF the Union
Railway Company. and can call it off as readily
as high school boy can rattle off the multipli-
cation table. Not only that, but when a train
is passing he can tell what engine and train it is
by the sound of the bell, and talks about mo.
s." mo. IL mo. 81" and all that distressing
nomenclature peculiar to railroad persons. He
can tell the number of coaches by the flashes of
light between the cars, with much other fnforma-
ton man with eyes often fails to secure He
is thoroughly posted on the railroad geography
of Indiana, and as we'll as most seeing folks on
that of Ohio and Illinois. He frequently visits
the Union Depot and never thinks himself in any
danger, but is fearful of the street cars, as they
are run on schedule he cannot compass Il
believe / would make good train dispatcher"
said Hebble. "but nobody would give it to me.
They would rather trust to men who have eyes
and use them than to q man who hasn't them
and can get along without them"