The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1890-01-04
FAMOUS BLIND MEN.
Attaining Greatness in Spite of
Their Affection.
Three Noted individuals Who
Do Their Work in Darkness,

Vidal, the blind sculptor, is one of
the wonders of the French capital. He
has been blind since his twenty first
year. We can quite easily understand
how q blind farmer would cult vate the
ground with the plough, 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 touch alone, the direction 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 "mechanic's eve
and the artists taste and perspicuity.
The latter faculties Vidal has to an ex-
ceptional 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 its
external proportions, and initiates them
in clay in manner which strikes the
beho!der 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 sculpt
who still retain the faculty of sight.
From 1855 to 1875, Vidal received
more metals than any other exhibit or
of works in the Paris art exhibitions.
Many of his works, made in the soli-
tude of his perpetual midnight, are now
on the shelves at the great Exposition,
where the blind wonder contends in
friendly rivalry with his less uufor tu-
nate 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 they may do so, for he is
one of the best art critics in all Paris.
Rev. w. H. Milburn, known through
out the civilized world as ''the bind
preacher" and who is actively IN the
field at the present time, is one of the
most remarkable men of the age. He
was born in Philadelphia in 1923. He
totally lost the sight of one eye when
quite young, the other becoming badly
impaired from sympathy, so much so
that it soon darkened forever. With
spirit undaunted he studied and was
ordained as a minister at the age of
twenty and. it is claimed, travell ed
over two hundred thousand miles filing
appointments in the Southern States.
Within the last thirty years he has
preached in nearly every State in the
Union and some European countEte,.
He has been Chaplain in the Housje u
Representatives at Washington, be9,dcs
6lling many other important positions.
As a writer he is known as the author
of ''Ten Years of Preachers Life"
"Rife, Axe and Saddlebags," and
"Pioneer Preachers and People |of the
Mississippi Valley"
Mr.. Herreshoff, the blind President
of the Herreshoff Manufacturing ! Com
pany, of Bristol, r. L, seems aY much
out of his element in his PRESENT ca
pacity as the blind sculptor. Aside
from Edison, the Government has rec
ognized him as being one of fhe great
est inventors of the times. Many Of
the torpedo boats and steaYh launches
now used by this and all the civilized
governments on the globe, are the in
ventions of this signifies Eenius. His
steam launches have m lei the highest
speed with but few exceptions, and his
torpedo. boats are raJ IA among the
most efficient in use. r. works on his
models in the quiet OF Fthe night shut
up in the darkness OF his room, but
this is all the same to Heneshof-the
brightest mid-day woul ID be 60 him as
black as the darkest midpisht-Sk
Lo1is Rspub,ic