The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-07-16
PIunkett to the Children.

It is easy enough to hear of some sweet
character of the female SEX but it is sell
dom We hear men praised till after they
are dead-why not?
Every little fellow has some one in mind
whom he has learned to love from watch
ing or hearing of their lovely traits of
character. If we were to ask the little
readers to state the man they loved the
most--of course, outside of kndred-there
would be a general jumping up to call the
names of old preachers, old teachers, old
doctors, old merchants, old farmers, old
lawyers, old editors-every calling of life
would have sounded the name of some
lovely character. The world is not so bad
If we seek out the good.
Necessarily, the name of one of these
lovely characters must be called in what is
to follow, and sure am l of the feel
Ings of the people, little and big, that
/ know every heart will answer yes
when 1 mention the loveliest of them all
DR.. A. w. Calhoun, the healer of the
blind.
1t is of patient of this good doctor
wish to write you-a little blind boy once,
but now, with sight restored, he works
upon the farm close to me to help along
a dear mother who led and lever tired for
him in the days of his affiiction.
Little John-that is the blind boys name
had never looked upon his mothers face
He had never seen the green woods, the
blue sky, the birds, nor the flowers. He
had heard things called ugly and things
called pretty, but he knew nothing of col
Ors or hues of forms or deform:ties His
''feeP' was very sensitive and the only
eyes he had He knew a tender touch
and loved the sound of kind words, and
these he came to associate as things of
beauty-as pretty things In his blind
condition his mother was the tenderest,
and, therefore, she was the prettiest thing
on earth to little John. For hours he loved
to sit upon that mothers lap and run his
fingers over her face Her face was
thing of beauty with him, and he could
trace every wrinkle, place every freckle
and feast upon its beauty in his mind.
The fact of the case was that little Johns
mother was not pretty; she OLD.
and hard WORK and time and sorrow had
taken the bloom from her form, the bright
ness from her eye. She knew this. and
when DR.. Calhoun announced that he would
have little John seeing upon the next week.
something of pang came to the mothers
heart that her son would not find her the
pretty thing" he had pictured in his
mind
For the last ~Seek of Johns blindness,
all the talk had been of Seeing He
wanted to see his mother the first thing,
then DR.. CafnOun-for the doctor had been
kind and tender and won the little fellows
heart-the doctor was pretty too. Then
he was going to stroll through the woods
without being led; he was going down and
watch the water he had so often heard
rumble over the little shoal at his mothers
wash place. he was to count all the
stars and look upon the sivery mooH-a
thousand things little John would talk of
seeing, but he must see his mother first.
The day came for the blind boy to be car
ried to Atlanta to have the black bandage ia
ken from his eyes. Some of the neighbors
went alonS-one real pretty young lady,
whom the mother of John had intended to
substitute for herself in the boys first
sight. At the office of Dr. Calhoun the
mother was persuaded out of this decep-
ton. The good doctors lovely wife Joined
In persCading, and carried the mother to
her own room and helped to improve her
looks.
AT last the doctor took the blind bows
hand and led him into dark room After
ZONE training, the supreme moment had
arrived-John was to see. The mother was
called. DR.. Calhoun placed her in front
of her son and then stood behind his pa
TENTS chair and raised the black bandage
John is a strong plowboy now, and has
seen the beauties of the world, but he saws
that every wrinkle upon his mothers face
Is just as dear and that she is still to him
the earth. Sarge Plunkett.