Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1889-11-18
THREE NOTED BLIND MEN.
Almost Incredible are the Accounts
of What they Did without Eyes.
IIEnor, tl,,C Iol1ic Raralahiic :

Almost incredible are the Accounts
of What they Did without Eyes.
[From the St. Louis Repubic.l
John Metealf, most wonderful produc-
ton of the last century, was born at Knares-
borough, Yorkshire, England, in 1717. At
the age of four years a hard attack of the
measles struck him totally blind-so blind
that the brightest rays of the sun gave him
no perception of light. Yet he did not give
up in despair: A calamity had overtaken
him which would have benumbed the facul-
ties of less courageous man forever. Not
so with John Metcalf. 1t seemed only to
brighten his remaining senses. At first he
learned music, and, at the age of twelve,
was the most expert violinist In all England.
When he arrived at mans estate he was
the owner of a house, a email farm and
horse and carriage. At the age of twenty
three he was well known carrier, engaged
In the occupation of carrying persons
through the crowded streets to and from
places of amusement. Besides his street
work he frequently engaged to carry travel
ers to York, distance of sixteen miles. In
all this hazardous work he was as trusty as
any man with two eyes, and got into bue
few difficulties from which he could not ea-
ely extricate himself. He became great
hunter, and followed the hounds with as
much pleasure and as surely as the most
keen eyed hunter. He had his own horse,
and could tell the baying of his own hounds
among hundreds. At the age of forty he be-
gan the study of surveying and bridge build
! ing. This not for idle pastime, but for prof.
| it. At one time he was the official surveyor
of Yorkshire. Even to this day there are
dozens of monuments to John Metcalf in his
native shire in the shape of elegant roadbeds
and splendid bridges. At Huddersfeld one
of the finest and most substantial bridges is
known to have been constructed by him.
What he could have accomplished with or
gans of sight unimpaired we can only con-
lecture.
John Cough. an EDglishman by birth, be-
came quite celebrated as botanist and wri
ter on subjects pertaining to natural philoso-
ply. He was totally blind from the age of
three years, the sense of vision being SO
deadened that he could not perceive the
glare of sunlight upon the snow on the
brightest winter days. Disabled by this ap-
palling affiiction, he studied botany, his
wife, brothers and sisters doing his reading,
and collected and arranged, by the sense of
touch alone, and without the least aid from
any living human being, one of the largest
and most valuable collections of dried herbs
and grasses at that time Q7S0) known in
Britain.
That wonderful invention, the string al
phabet for the blind, was invented by a man
who never saw his queer looking machine,
the face of his mother or the "glad sunlight"
of which he so feelingly wrote. David Mac
beth was blind from birth, yet perfect gen.
ius in dozen different ways. He was an
accomplished musician, perfect prodigy in
mathematics and an inventor Of no mean or
der of merit. Besides his string alphabet he
was the inventor of one of the earliest known
revolving barrel churns, of a clamp to be
used by book binders in stitching leaves to-
gether, and of self oiling attachment for
Wagons and carriages. He could take his
watch to pieces and put 1t together almost as
quickly as the man who made it could have
done. 1t was without crystal, and by
gently touching the hands with the tips of
his fingers he could tell within one second of
the time of day or night. He was an expert
at the national game of cricket, and was
reckoned as being one of the most valuable
men in some parts of the game, but useless
| in Others When he died he had been en-
gagged for years on the perfection of fire
| escape, which has since, with some slight
| changes and additions, made London firm
| independent.
Vidal, she blind sculptor, Is one OF the
wonders of the French capital. He has been
| blind since his twenty-frst year. We can
| quite easily understand how blind farmer
would cultivate the ground with the plough,
| epade and hoe. How he would feel around
| the tender plants and gently loosen The dirt
from their roots, or how the blind Birming-
ham, Ala, miner tells, with the sense of
| touch alone, the direction and to what depth
to drill his holes before putting Ia a blast;
but the work of Vidal stands out in bold re-
lief. unique, wonderful and incompatible.
To be a sculptor it is generally supposed that
one must have the mechanics eye" and the
artists taste aud perspicuity. The latter
| faculties Vidal has to an exceptional degree
even more acute, he believes, than if the
| former were not lost to him forever. By
slowly passing his hands over an object he
notes it's external proportions, and initiates
| them in clay in manner which strikes the
beholder dumb with surprise. A dog,
horse, human face, or anything alive or
dead, he models with as much ease as any OF
the dozens of Partisan soulptors who etiIl re
tain the faculty of sight.
From 1866 to 1875 Vidal received more
medals than any other exhibitor of works in
| the Paris art exhibitions. Many of his
works, made in The solitude Of his perpetual
midnight, are now on the shelves at the
great Exposition, where the blind wonder
contends in friendly rivalry with his less un-
fortunate brother artists. He never com
plains, is always genial and festive when
among his friends, who always speak of and
to him as though he could see, and we'll may
they do so, for he is one of the best art crit.
| ioa I'm all Paris