The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1895-07-31
The Mind Of q Blind Man.

they have an example DefOre them anu
try to initiate it. BILL ARP.
The Mind of Blind Man.
Over in Berkeley, at the State Uni
versity, and among it's most successful
students, is young man who has to
rely upon four Of the five avenues by
which men gain information Of the
outer world. yet he has not only ac-
quired great power as mathematician,
a reasoner and teacher, but he has
actually gained more knowledge Of ex.
ternal nature than a great share OF
people possess.
Newell Perry is now 81 years of age
and has been totally blind since the
age of 9, when a bad case Of poison
oak left him sightless. His childhood
had been that Of the average healthy
boy, except that his powers of obser-
vation were uncommonly exercised and
his mind was we'll stored with pictures
Of sea and sky and hill and valley.
These recollections of early years have
been of inestimable value to him since
his loss of sight, serving to guide and
correct his conception of things, which
maturer studies have brought him.
After his blindness young Perry
was sent to the State Institution for
the Blind, where he soon distinguished
himself as student. He had before
acquired the ability to read and han
die simple figures. In his word under
the teachers tensify the senses left
him. If he could now read with much
less facility than formerly, stillreading
came to mean much more to him. His
mind was free to throw all its powers
into forming the conceptions suggested
by the words. If he could not now
manage large numbers so readily by
the use of written figures, he soon ac-
quired the ability to carry and manip-
ulate comparatively large numbers in
his mind with marvellous accuracy
and rapidity.
Young Perry's advance from the in
stitution for the blind to city high
school, and thence to the State Uni
versity was rapid. Ia his later studies
he has always employed reader to
save time. He selects for this Office a
person who is willing to be guided,
who will be passive instrument and
literally "lend his eyes" In these
years his rank as a student has always
been good-among the best, in fact,
and in mathematics especially it has
been extremely high. The construc..
tion for the most complex geometrical
problem can be drawn in his mind and
held there while the comparisons are
being made which lead to the solution.
The profundities of the differential
and integral calculus, so full Of dread
to most minds, are pleasures to a men
tality of his grasp and concentration.
An instance may illustrate young
Perry power. He requested a student
to read to him several logarithms which
he wished to use, and three or four
were read Of fifteen figures each. Per
ryrequested that they be read second
time, after which he went to his room
to use the sixty figures, each in Its
proper place. 1t is an ordinary thing
for him to work with an algebraic e1-
preston of twenty terms, carrying it in
his mind through all the changes of a
mathematical computation.
But not only in mathematics is Per-
rvs wonderful ability displayed. He
speaks, reads and writes the German
language. He is exceedingly well read
in history and English literature. He
is thorough student Of the natural
sciences, possessing the spirit OF an
investigator and the habit of strict
asoning. Heis an excellent musician,
and, strange to say, a fair dancer.
One of the surprising powers pos
sessed by.Perry is his ability to direct
his movements nearly or quite as we'll
as can the average man. Many per-
sons who meet him upon his rambles
over the Berkeley hills or see him take
the train for San Francisco or pass
him upon crowded Market street DO
not realize that he has not the adyan-
tage of optical vision. So remarkably
accurate are his movements on the
street, in jostling crowd, in descend
ding a stairway two steps at a time,
in entering a crowded lodging house
and finding the room of his friend and
selecting the book he wishes to borrow
in his friend absence, in trayersing
new paths with as much ease and con-
fdence as those we'll known, in riding
upon his bicycle along the busy streets,
that one is compelled to wonder if the
much talked of sixth sense be not there
beautifully exemplifed if some kind
of spiritual vision more reliable than
ordinary sight be not his fortunate
possession. He, himself, does not
know how to account for his success
in moving around. He just goes where
he wishes without any attention to
how he does it,; without realizing that
he is in any respect different from other
men until the realization is forced upon
him by somebody remark.
Perry has already demonstrated his
great ability in teaching. Among
those students who are seeking the
services Of private tutor, either to
be prepared for the university or to
remedy some backwardncss in univcr-
sity studies, Perry's success is we'll
known, and his instruction is widely
sought. The same intensity of vision,
orderly arrangement of ideas and full
ness of information which have made
his own great success as student ad-
mirably fit him to help other students.
And so reliable is his wonderful men,
ory that he can direct a student to the
exact page of his text book where a
required piece of information is to be
found. When Mr.. Perry is pursuing
his own studies his reader is requested
to announce the number of each page,
and thereafter the blind man knows
where that information can be found.
San Francisco Chronicle.
O. Cholly: "Miss S. is the sharpest
girl 1 know Chumlcy "Ycs; she
L T lo. ~