Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-08-02
E.IHO BLJND HEN.


vidal, the French sculptor. Chaplain Nil.
burn, and Inventor HcrrrshnT
Vidal. the blind sculptor. Is ne of ;he
wonders of the French capital He has
been Oimd since his tWcntv-tirI year
We can quite easily uudr,,ta Il now a
blind farmer would cultiya g the grounl
vita tine pillow, spade, an hoe. how me
wouIt feel around the ter og plluts
and gen " loosen the dirt from their
roots; or how the blind Birmingham
(Ala.) miner tells, with the Sc 81 of
touch alone, the direction and to what
depth to ,lrill his hole, before putting in
a blast; but the work Of Vidal stands out
in bold relief, unique, wonderful, and
incompatible.
To be a sculptor it is generally sup
posed that one must have the "mrChan-
les eye" and the artists taste an per-
spicuily The latter faculties Vidal has
to an exceptional degree--cvcn more
acute, he believes, than if the former
were not lost to him forever. BY slowly
passing his hand over and over an object
he notes its external proportions and i'm
itateS them in clay in a manner which
a
dog, horse, human face, or ANYTHING
alive or dead, he models with Us much
ease as any of the dozens of Partisan
sculptors who still retain the faculty of
sight.
From 1850 to 1915 Vidal received more
medals than any other exhibitor of works
i'll the Paris art exhibitions Many of
his works, made in the solitude of his
perpetual midnight, We're on the shelves
at the great exhibition, where the blind
wonder contended in friendly rivalry
with his less unfortunate brother artists.
He never complains, is always genial
and festive when among his friends, who
who always speak of and to him as
though he could see, and well may they
do so, for he is one of the best art critics
in Paris.
Rev. w. II. Milburn, known through
out the civilized world as "the blind
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 1922. He
totally lost the sight of one eye when
quite young, the other becoming b adly
impaired from sympathy, so much 50
that it soon dar lened forever With
spirit undaunted he studied and was or
dained as a minister at the age of twenty,
and it is claimed travelled over 100000
miles filling appointments in the South
ern States. Within the last thirty years
he has preached in nearly every State in
the Union and some European countries.
He the chaplain of the House of Repre-
sensatives at Washington, besides filling
many other important positions. As a
writer he is known as the author of Ten
Years of Preachers Life, ""Rifle, Axe,
and Saddlebags, and Pioneer Preach
ers and People of the Mississippi Valley.
Mr., Herreshoff, the blind president of
the llerreshof Manufacturing Company,
of Bristol r. l., seems as much out of
his element in his present capacity as the
blind sculptor. Aside from Edison, the
government has recognized him as being
one of the greatest inventors of the
times. Many of the torpedo boats and
steam launches now used by this and all
the civilized governments on the globe
are the invention of this sightless gen
Jus His steam launches have made the
highest speed with but few exceptions,
and his torpedo boats are ranked among
the most efficient in use. He works on
his models in the quiet of the night,
shut up IN the darkness of his room, but
this is all the same to Herreshoff. The
brlghtes. midday would be to him as
black as the darkest midnight.