The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1889-11-02
FOUR BLIND MEN.
Marvellous Things Which They Ac.
complished.

y
born at Knaresborough, Yorkshire,
England, in I'LL. At the age of 4
years 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
faculties of less courageous man
forever. Not so with John Metcalf.
It seemed only to brighten his re-
naming senses. At first he learned
music, and at the age of II was the
most expert violinist in all England.
When he arrived at mans estate he
was the owner of a house, small
farm and a horse and carriage. At
the age of % he was a well-known
carrier, engaged in the occupation
Of carrying persons through the
crowded streets to and from places
of amusements. Besides his street
work he frequently engaged to carry
travellers to New York, a distance
of sixteen miles. In all this haz-
ardous work he was as trusty as any
man with two eyes, and got into but
few difficulties from which he could
not easily extricate himself. He be-
came 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 40 he began the study of
surveying and bridge building; this
not for idle pastime, but for profit.
At one time he was the official sur
yeyor 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 Hudders-
field one of the finest and most sub
stantial bridges is known to have
been constructed by him. What he
could have accomplished with Or
gans Of sight unimpaired we can
only conjecture.
John Cough, an Englishman by
birth, became quite celebrated as
botanist and writer on subjects per-
tanning to natural philosophy. He
was totally blind from the age of 3
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. Dis
abled by this appalling 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 179O)
known in Britain.
That wonderful invention, the
string alphabet for the blind, was
invented by man who never saw
his queer-looking machine, the face
of his mother, or the glad sunlight"
of which he so feelingly wrote. Da-
vid Macbeth was blind from birth,
yet a perfect genius in a dozen diff
ferent ways. He was an accom-
plished musician, a perfect prodigy
in mathematics and an inventor of
no mean order of merit Besides
his string alphabet, he was the in
ventor of one of the earliest known
revolving-barrel churns, of a clamp
to be used by book binders in stitch
ing leaves together, and of a self
oiling attachment for wagons and
carriages. He could take his watch
to pieces and put it together, almost
as quickly as the man who made 1t
could have done. 1t was without a
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 engaged for years on the per-
fection of a fire escape. which has
since, with some slight changes and
additions, made a London firm in
dependent.
Vidal, the blind sculptor, is one
Of the wonders of the French cap
ital. He has been blind since his
twenty-frst year. We can quite cas-
ly understand how a blind farmer
would cultivate the ground with the
plow, spade 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 the touch alone, the direc-
ion and to what depth to drill his
holes before putting in blast; but
the work Of Vidal stands out in
bold relief-unique, wonderful and
Incompatible. TO be sculptor it
is generally supposed that one must
have the mechanics eye and the
artists taste and perspicuity. The