Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-07-05
BLIND, BUT LEARNED.
REMARKABLE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF
A SIGHTLESS YOUTH.

over IN berkeley, Cal., at Gno state uni
versity, and among its 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 acquired great power
as a mathematician, a reasoner, and a
teacher but he has actually gained more
knowledge of external nature than great
share of people possess.
Newell Perry is now 81 years of age, and
has been totally blind since the age of 8,
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 observation were uncommonly
exercised and his mind was well stored with
pictures of sea and sky and hill and valley.
These recolleCtions of early years have been
of inestimablo 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 abil-
ity to read and to handle simple figures.
In his work under the teachers of the blind
his misfortune served to intensity the
senses left him. If he could now read with
much less facility than formerly, still read
ing came 90 mean much more to him. His
mind was free tO'thrOw all its power 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 acquired the ability to
carry and manipulate comparatively large
numbers in his mind with marvellous ac-
curacy and rapidity.
Young PeTys advance from the insti-
tuition for the blind to city high school
and thence to the State university was
rapid. In his later studies he has always
employed a 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 n student has always
been gOod-among the best in fact, and
in mathematics especially it has been cx-
tTemCly high. The construction for tho
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 ditfcrcntial and integral calculus, so
full Of dread to most minds, are pleasures
to Il mentality of his grasp and conccntra-
tiOn.
An instance may illustrate young Per-
rvs power He requested q student to
read to him several lOgarithms which he
wished to use, and three or four were read
of 10 figures each. Perry requested that
they be read a second time, after which he
went to his room to use the 60 figures,
each in its proper place. 1t is an ordinary
thing with him to work with an algcbraic
expression of 20 terms, carrying it in his
mind through all the changes of a mathe-
NAUTICAL computation.
But not only in mathematics Is Perry's
wonderful ability displayed. He speaks
reads and writes the German language.
He is exceedingly well read in history and
English literature He is a thorough stu
dent of the natural sciences, possessing the
spirit of an investigator and the habit of
strict reasoning. He is an excellent mu-
sician and, strange to say, fair dancer.
One Of tho surprising powers possessed
by Perry is his ability to direct his move
ments nearly or quito as well as can tho
average man. Many persons who meet
him upon his rambles over the Berkeley
hills or see him take the train for San
II Idl!tlStD VI IttSS ullll lllJOIl CTOWuGu NLuF-
ket erect do not realize that he has not
the advantage Of optical vision. So re-
markedly accurate are his movements on
the street in jostling crowd, in descend
ing stairway two steps at a time in en-
tering Il crowded lodging house and find
ing the room of his friend and selecting
the book he wishes to borrow in his friends
absence in traversing new paths with as
much ease and confidence as those well
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 here beautifully exempliflcd; 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 rcaliza-
ton is forced upon him by somebody's re.
mark
Perry has already demonstrated his great
ability in teaching Among those students
who are seeking the services of a private
tutor, either to prepare for the university
or to remedy some backwardness in uni
versity studies Perry's success is well
known, and his instruction is widely
sought. The same intensity Of vision, Or
derby arrangement Of ideas and fullness of
information which have made his own
great success as a student admirably fit
him to help 6ther students. And so relia-
bic is his wonderful memory that he can
direct student to the exact page of his
textbook where a required piece of infor-
nation is to be found. When Mr.. Perry is
pursuing his own studies his reader is re-
quested to announce the number of each
new page, and thereafter the blind man
knows where that information can be
found.
Among those who have watched the ca
Teer Of Perry there is no doubt that great
things are at some day to be written
about him. Among his plans is one for
the study Of the higher mathematics in |
Germany, and, as he is very courageous
and hopeful, he will no doubt carry it out. |
Meanwhile those persons who live and |
work without the aid Of one or more of the |
senses, who accomplish great things in |
spite of this lack, are constant reminders |
that the most of us fail to live nearly up to |
our highest possibilities of development.-
San Francisco Chronicle.
A Pretty Face
is the result of healthy physical condi- |
ton "Beauty is but skin deem ~ but IL |