The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1897-03-25
EYES OF PRESIDENTS.
HOW THEY ARE EXAMINED.
~"Look Me Straight in the Eyes.

SSSAs oA0S 0Se "eoeeS "
Leslie's Weekly.
Aside from the oath of Office and the
siege which patient Presidents suffer
from the army of spoils-hunters, there
is in store for Major Mckinley, when
he relinqnishes the little wooden house
in North Market Street for the execu-
tive mansion in Washington, an ordeal
of which he little recks.
President Hayes was the first occup-
ant OF the White House to undergo the
ordeal, and his account of it was so sat-
isfactory that all his successors followed
his example, with the exception OF
Arthur, and only an accident of rail-
way timetables prevented his doing so.
There is In none of the instruments
of government of these United States
provision for a Presidential optician,
yet private enterprise has gone far to
establish such an Office.
When the usual introduction has
been accomplished, the optician as
tonishes the President by the remark :
"Look me straight in the eyes,"
His business being known before
hand, the optician is not summary
elected as crank, though he some
times astonishes the man he addresses,
as he did Garfield, who playfully re-
marked:
"Confound you, don't you think I
can look any man in the FACET"
Then the optician investigates the
eyes of the nations chief executive.
He puts them through all sorts of tests,
measures them, and fits them with
glasses.
Joseph Kornblum, OF New York and
Plttsburg, Pennsylvania, who does all
these things, is known among scientists
as the inventor of various devices for
overcoming astigmatlsm, or tendency
to see things longer or broader than
they really ought to be. His theoretical
studies in Europe equipped him to
qualify as all ocuiist, but one cannot
claim the titles OF oculist and optician
both at once without acquiring third
and less desirable one, spelled quack, so
he merely calls himself optician, and
combines with the mechanical knowl-
edge OF that calling the scientific In
formation OF the other.
After fitting President Hayes, Mrs.
Hayes, President Garfield, President
Cleveland, and President Harrison and
his first wife with glasses, Mr.. Korn-
blum feels that he knows the inside of
the White House fairly we'll.
The complaint of President Hayes
was II can see to aim, but l can't
see the game" And by that he meant
he could only Use one eye, the other
being so nes,r-sighted. But glasses for
hunting soon remedied that, and the
good eye was so perfect that Mr.. Hayes
seldom used his reading spectacles UNI
til few years before his death. Often
was he praised for his singleness of
vision, but few were they who knew
that il was physical fact as we'll as an
appropriate metaphor.
Harrison's eyes were the most normal
OF all those examined. After the first
interview with him Mr.. Kornblnm
happened to meet Joe Jefferson, who
also had undergone the ordeal. JEFF
ferson, possibly as friend of Cleve-
land, perhaps merely as close student
of human nature, wanted to know all
about the opticians Impressions OF the
man. Mr.. Kornblum had been struck
especially with President Harrison's
sole1nnity.
"Oh," said Jefferson, "there isn't a
laugh in him." Next time he met the
comedian the man OF glasses had learn
ed to know Mr.. Harrison better, and
astonished jefferson by assuring him
that, far from not having laugh in
him, the Presidents risible faculties
were we'll developed, and as one got to
know him it was discovered that he
could OUTLAW with the most llght-heart-
ed of mortals.
1t was not until his second term that
Cleveland consented to look Mr.. Korn-
blum straight in the eyes, and then he
was induced to face the ordeal mainly
through the success the optician had
achieved with his private secretary, HI.
T. Thurber.
Hypermetroplc astigmatism was the
trouble with Mr.. Cleveland, but Mr..
Kornblum fixed him up with glasses
for hunting, which increased the mortal
ity OF ducks for reading, which lessen
ed the pains of perusing even his own
messages, and for ordinary distant use,
which enabled him more readily to de
tect pernioious activity on the part of
classified office-holders. And, oddly
enough, though he saw more of him
than any of the others. Mr.. Kornblum
considers that Mr.. Cleveland is the
most jovlal and the pleasant companion
of all the Presidents with whom he
came in contact. There is suggestion