The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-03-05
BRAlNY BLIND MEN.
THEY PERFORMED SEEMINGLY
IMPOSSIBLE TASKS.
ABlind Theologian, Poet, Naturalist,
Musician, Botanist, Sculptor, In
ventor and President of q
Manufacturing Company.

the blind theologian, who lived near the
beginning of the Christian era, may very
appropriately head the List.
Henry, the author of "The Poetic
Life of Wallace" was born blind. Her
mann Torrentius, blind Swiss, born in
1920, became one of the principals of the
University at Bern, the author of a po-
etical dictionary of merit, besides works
on history and botany.
Francis Huber, the Swiss naturalist,
lost his sight at an early age, became
an eminent entomologist and wrote on
bees, ants and other insects.
John Metcalf, a most wonderful pro-
ductlon of the last century, was born at
Knaresborough, Yorkshire, England, in
1717. At the age of four years hard
attack of the measles struck him totally
blind-so blind that the brig ightest rays
of the sun gave him no perception of
light. At first he learned music, and,
at the age of twelve, was the most ex-
pert violinist in all England. When he
arrived at mans estate he was owner of
a house, a small farm and a horse and
carriage. At the age of twenty-three he
was q 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
travellers to York, a distance of sixteen
miles. In all this hazardous 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
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 hun
dreds. At the age of forty he began the
study of surveying and bodybuilding.
This not for idle pastime, but for profit.
At one time he was the official surveyor
of Yorkshire. Even to this day there
are dozens ofmonuments to Joseph Met
calf in his native shire in the shape of
elegant road-signs and splendid bridges.
At Huddersfeld one of the finest and
most substantial bridges is known to
have been constructed by him.
! A namesake of our great American
temperance lecturer, John Cough, also
an Englishman by birth, became quite
celebrated as a botanist and writer 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 appalling afliction, he studied
botany, his wife, brothers and sisters do
ing mis- reading, and collected and ar
ranged, 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 17SV known in
Britain.
That wonderful invention, the string
alphabet for the blind, was invented by
q man who never saw his queer-looking
machine, the face of his mother, or the
"glad sunlight" of which he so feelingly
wrote. David Macbeth was blind from
birth, yet a perfect genius in dozen
different ways. He was an accomplished
musician, perfect prodigy in mathe-
mates, and an inventor of no mean order
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 together, and of self
oiling attachment for wagons and car
riages. He could take his watch to
pieces and put it together almost as
quickly as the man who made it 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 valable men In some parts of
the game, but useless in others. When
he died he had been engaged for years on
the perfection of fire escape, which has
since, with some slight changes and ad-
ditions, made London firm independ-
ent.
Vidal, the 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 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 Birmingham, 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 incompara-
BILE. To be sculptor it is generallysup-
posed that one must have the ''mechan-
les eye" and the artists taste and perspi-
Guilty. 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 its ex-
ternal proportions, and initiates them in
clay in a manner which strikes the be-
holder dumb with surprise.
Henry Fawcett, the blind English
Postmaster General, who died in 1854,
was a greater man by half after the un-
fortunate accident which deprived him
of sight than he ever was before. He was
born in 1883 and lost his eyes in 1855,
at the age of twenty-five, from the effect
of a gunshot wound. At that time he
uns NOR lau student. Within less