The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-06-24
SEES WITHOUT LOOKING.
Startling Facts About Noted MOllie
FanCheT, Of Brooklyn.
While Complet Blind She Does
Skillful NeedleNs ork-She Refuses to
Go on Exhibition.
From ne Pittsburg pispatch.

| DOhhiAS SJreeU, brOOklyn, FeSlueS a
much-written-a about lady, who is, indeed,
fearfully and wonderfully made.
Museums and variety shows have not
been able to seize upon her for the draw
ing card, which must be periodically re-
newed. Yet if it were possible to induce
her to place herself upon exhibition, her
fortune and that of her manager would
be made without further effort.
This refusal on her part to become the
Heading freak" and her reluctance to
court publicity in any way, is the strong
est evidence that she is what she seems
an inexplicable physical wonder.
! So remarkable is her case that ex-Judge
Abram H. Daley, of Brooklyn, was in-
vited by the president of the Psychical
| Science Congress of the worlds fair to
! prepare paper in regard to it, which he
| did, at considerable length, giving as au-
| thorities the names Of well-known men,
whose veracity could not be doubted.
Mary j. Fancher, Familiarity known as
Mollie Fancher, has been bedridden for
nearly thirty years. She is now about 40
| years old, and has been suffering from
spinal trouble ever since a. fall which she
received while stepping of horse car at
| the age Of 10. 1t was at the time when
| ladies wore hoopskirts, and in getting off
the car the hoopskirt caught and dragged
her considerable distance before the
conductor discovered her and stopped the
| car.
FOUND TO BE INJURED.
she was taken up unconscious and was
] found to be severely injured in her side,
back and head, and two ribs were broken.
After a six weeks illness, she apparently
| recovered for time, and was able to go
! about the house, until spinal trouble be-
! gan to manifest itself in the shape of con-
! WILSON'S, about nine months after the ac-
cident.
These commissions alternated with
| periods of rightly, or apparent lifeless-
ness, which she calls frances and which
are to this day her substitutes for sleep.
| This was early in the year 1866, and at
| this time she lost her sense Of sight.
which she has never recovered. At this
time she also lost temporarily some of her
| other senses, and for years her throat
was so contracted that it was impossible
! for her to swallow, foed being injected
artificially. Her right arm was distorted
and bent up over her head, but the left
hand, being unaffected, she was able to
work by bringing it up over the head to
| meet the right. She remained in this
| condition for nine years.
DID A GREAT AMOUNT OF WORK.
OF this period Judge Daley says in his
! report: During those nine years, l am
! informed from unquestionable author
ity that she wrote upward of $500 letters,
worked upll00,00 ounces of worsted did a
| vast amount of fine embroidery and a
| great deal of very beautiful wax work.
AT the end of these nine years, of
| which she has no recollection whatever
! now, nor at any time since, her muscles
relaxed and pulling her right arm down
she seemed to wake from sleep, and turn
| ing to DR.. j. Fleet Speir, who was in the
| room, she remarked: "Well, doctor, did
your brother get home in time for his
| chicken pot-piel" thus continuingia con-
| Yersation which had been begun nine
| years beforeHwith DR.. Robert Speir.
The most remarkable thing about Miss
| Fancheris the fact that she Is blind and
| yet sees. This is the point where credul-
| ity rebels and refuses to be convinced.
With eyes sightless she does the most
| beautiful embroidery paints flowers,
writes letters and numerous other things
| one hardly dares to mention for fear of
| being laughed at.
When the dainty prettily embroidered
handkerchief cases, neatly crocheted iced
wool fascinators and other fancy things
were shown to me by her nurse, my one
thought was that either Miss Fancher
| could see, or else she had skillful needle
woman in her employ.
| Full of doubt and shamefaced curiosity.
| | repaired to the Office of DR. j. Fleet
| Speir, of 1862 Montague street, BROOKLYN.
who was for years her attending physi-
clan, and he occasionally sees her now.
| Doctor said, can you tell me what
| it all means2"
He smiled pityingly upon me, as though
| he would say, land is this another?" but
shook his head and replied:
DOESN'T BELIEVE IN sP1RITUALEsM.
mo, don't believe in these things. I
don't believe in spiritualism nor clairvoy-
ance, nor any of those supernatural phe-
nomena. 1 confine myself to this mundane
! sphere. This is why, when come to the
| facts in Mollie Fancher's case, | am
| stalled. They are things to be explained.
l don't believe in living without sleeping,
and l don't believe in seeing without
eyes, but in some mysterious way, don't
! intend to say how, Miss F'ancher manages
to do both. | have been so preiudiced
| against clairvoyance and that sort of
thing that haven't given the poor girl
! the credit she Deserves
| "But, DOCTOR" / asked, .'don,t ven
think there is great opportunity for de-
ception!"
Hardly he replied. "The case has
been under constant scrutiny for so long
that if there had been any humbuggery in
| 1t, 1T would have been found out long
| ago.
Besides" he continued, 'I believe
that she is perfectly honest. My prejudice
| induced me once to take my oculist, DIR.
| Wright, up to see her, to ascertain
whether her blindness was or was not
assumed. He tore off a Slip of newspa
per which he himself had not read. and
placing his hand over it, asked her to
read it, which she did. When he removed
his hand for the benefit of his own ewes.
which could not see through such bar
riers. he found that she could read it cor
| rectly.
HE then tried her with colored
worsteds, asking her to name the shades
OF each, which she did correctly in every
case.
THE EYES AT FAULT
HE then examined her eyes and found
1t was impossible for her to see, for two
reasons. In the first place, the optic
nerve was practically dead and. in the
second place, the condition of the ewes
themselves was such that it would be i'm
possible to see without glasses.
AT this result l felt ashamed of my
distrust of the poor girl, but it only made
1T the harder to understand"
II have heard that she was somewhat
changed in the last few years. Is that
| true2n
Eyes, she is much feshier than she
was. From weight of perhaps rs or so.
/ she baa HayalOnad IN %, N $1,000. =. ~, =