The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-04
HIS SOUTHERN HOME.
Nye DiscourseS on the Beauties
of North Carolina.
AN ESSAY ON COLOR BLINDNESS,
Sad Fate OF . Once wealthy Man Who
Taught Bill the Game Of
Poker.
[Copyright, 1897. BY Edgar ". I'VE,

Birdie Swartout, of Cripple creek, writes
In good faith TO know if color may be de-
tected by the degree of heat or the odor-
In other words, is color perceptible by
means of any other sense than sight?
lie Fontaine says yes. He even goes so
far as to say that people who are color
blind may be quite accurate by means of
other senses-taste, touch, smell or even
the feeling of warmth. He named in his
last work--viz: Color Blind People and
Blind Colored People Contras,ed," case
in which a locomotive engineer, who had
been color blind for twenty years and held
his position by means of the sense of smell,
claimed afterward that red light had an
odor like red flannel. while the green light
had smell like green flannel. He lost his
place, however, while suffering from a
polypus of the nose.
This may or may not have been true,
but day before yesterday We had on the
Pullman car Asphyxia, coming North. a
man who said that the race problem had
induced him to go South for the month of
November, where he found that the col
ored man was we'll treated and rapidly be-
coming SO wealthy as to threaten the
supremacy of the white race. He be-
lieved that in a very few years the trade
and commerce of the South would be in
colored hands. He said that in one
county where he visited there were but
two colored men who owned mule, each,
free of incumbrance, twenty years ago,
and now there are three Of them.
Colored children, too. he says, are more
plentiful, and parents seem more eco
nomical of them. He says also that there
Is strong atmosphere OF progress pervad-
ing the gatherings there. and though color
blind, he says that the other senses may be
readily educated. if at all sensitive so that
even in the darkness one may detect al
most at once the color of the complexion
pervading the meeting, though this of
course refers to the primary colors, and
not to the delicate shades.
l believe that many curious anecdotes
might be related regarding the wonderful
distinction of color by people who are
blind or color-blind. 1 know of young
lady whose father was very wealthy up to
the time he began to teach me the game of
poker, and she suffered from color-blind-
ness, at one time clipping with che coored
coachman and not discovering her error
until two years had swept by on untiring
piniOns.
My friend now is broken in health and
in fortune. living with his on-in-law. and
all day long he sits in the sunshine think
ing of the past and singing or telling stor-
les to his little black-and-tan grandchil-
dren.
WANTED-Young man who can shave a few
guests. open oysters, and milk; good home; per-
manent Hinkson House, Paoli. Pa
The above advertisement is sent to me
by a valued correspondent at Wyoming.
Del, and l should be glad to give the
notice further circulation, thus insuring
some good young man with genius warm
welcome and permanent employment. The
advertisement is taken from Philadelphia
paper of great estimableness.
Opening oysters and shaving few GUS
toners seem to go hand in hand. When
fatigued with this he might also shave the
oysters and open a few customers. | used
to have such man myself as body SER
want. but he is dead now. He sometimes
impersonated me and acted as my under
study, often trying new lecture for me.
That was the way he met his death.
He wanted to be busy all the time. He
would on rainy days dig worms for the
feeble minded hens, and at night he
would crochet Tam O'Shanters for the
poor.
But one time he tried a new lecture for
me in an uncultivated town. l was not
sure of the lecture myself and told him to
be on his guard, for some of the ideas
were keenly expressed, and the treatment
was vigorous. He got part way through
down on him, severing him in such way
that the committee got the end containing
the box receipts.
He had wife in Beaver Dam, Wis. She
buried him there. You can find the tomb
there today. She married again and had