The Mena weekly star., 1897-10-27
EDiToR HAS 10 HANDS.
He manazes to Write "copy.- All she
 same.


 same.
 Alabama can boast of an editor of daily newspaper who is minus both hands, yet writes practically all of the original copy that is printed in the paper.
 The march of science and invention and the energy of William J. Blan, ed itor of the Troy (Ala.) Daily Messen- ger, have combined to produce this ap- parent phenomenon. Mr. Blan is not only a very energetic but very able man, and his paper exerts a powerful influence in the southeastern quarter of the state, it being the only daily that is published in that section. Mir. Blan is n great fayorite with the editors of Alabama, and has served several terms as Treasurer of the Alabama Press as- sociation. He has also held the offices of city councilman and county treas urer.
 Mir. Blan served in the confederate army, and came through without a wound. But 12 years ago a confederate veterans' reunion was held in Troy, and among other things the old ex- soldiers indulged In a sham battle. Mir. Blan was detailed to load and fire one of the cannon. During the mock bat tie the cannon exploded prematurely. The heavy charge of powder and wad- ding blew both of his hands off-the left inst above the wrist, the other sev- ernl inches further up the arm.
 At this time MT. Blan was the owner of the Weekly Messenger, which he had bought in 1873, and had succeeded in putting on it's feet by hard work. He had large family of young children and, like all other newspaper people i'll this part of the land, he had lived pretty we'll up to his income. He knew no line of business excepting newspaper work, and man without either hand is ordi- narfly not very available about a news paper office. He determined not to al- low his usefulness to depart with the loss of his hands, however, and as soon as he had recovered sufficiently from his injuries to give the matter his atten- ton, he had made an artificial right hand and forearm.
 It is a simple but ingenious con- trivance. The artificial part of the arm is arranged so as to be securely fas- tened tn the stump of the fight -iii left by the explosion. The hand, which is covered by a glove, appears perfectly natural in shape and holds pen or pencil as gracefully as any editors nat ural hand. A stranger seeing Mr. Elan at work at his desk would never i'm agine that the hand was not real one, with blood circulating through it, so thoroughly has the editor gotten its operations under his control
 By means of a cord which passes from his artificial hand up his right coat sleeve, then across his back, then down his left coat sleeve, to the end of the remainder of his left arm, Mir. Elan is enabled to close the fingers on his artificial hand and grasp his pen. By keeping his left elbow bent the tension on the string is continued and the arti- ficial fingers hold the pen tightly, while the editor controls it's courses over the white paper by movement of the up- per arm and shoulder. By this means Mr. Elan has learned to write with the greatest ease, and more rapidly and legibly than the average man of his age with his two good hands. For ten years he has written with his mechanical hand practically all the editorials and a very large amount of the local and ad- vertising matter that has gone into his paper About six years ago Mir. Elan developed his weekly into daily and has been successful beyond his expecta. tione. The daily entailed more work, but the editor and the artificial hand proved equal to the emergency.-Chi- ago Times Herald.