The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-12-16

washington letter in the, Phtladel-s
phia Times: No more interesting and
picturesque figure Is to be found in the
life OF our national capital today than
the Rev. w. H. Milburn. who is known
h world over as the blind chaplain of
congress. Although DR.. Milburn has
been afflicted since childhood with q
physical infirmity which would have
kept most men in the background Of
public affairs all their lives. he has
struggled successfully and manfully
against it, and has led a most active
and useful life. His acquaintance with
the public men of this country since
the days Of Daniel Webster and Henry
Clay has been. and is still, for that
matter, probably more extensive than
that of any other man of affairs in
Washington, the venerable ex-secre-
tary and Senator Sherman not except
ed
With the members of congress DR..
Milburn has always been exceedingly
popular, republicans. democrats and
populists alike, all claiming his friend
slip duO 4cSdlOs Willie AS" AIluCCu d1S
the visitors to Washington during the
sessions of congress who fail to hear
the good chaplain offer his morning
prayer to Almighty God as the opening
exercise of our national legislature. To
leave Washington without hearing or
:4u5noul 90 o. lou s! udnqlIW :IQ Su!9es
of by the majority of visitors and
:sightseers at the capital. On account of
this affection, almost total blindness,
in private life the chaplain Of congress
is exceedingly modest and retiring, al
though he is occasionally to be met at
some of the big dinners and social
functions held in the capital during
the season.
When congress is not in session and
there are no ties binding the chaplain
to the capital, he employs his time in
travelling and lecturing. He is a mar
who is never idle, and it would be next
to an impossibility for him to settle
down in Washington between seasons.
During the past summer and early
fall he has been lecturing in Canada
and New York state, speaking every
might in a different place for several
weeks without a break. Considering
his age, his power of endurance in this
respect is simply remarkable. In con-
versation DR.. Milburn is exceedingly
entertaining, his fund of stories and
"reminiscences regarding the noted men
OF this country for fifty years back be-
ing apparently inexhaustible.
During the course Of an interview
kindly granted by him the other day
to a. representative of the Times, he
said, when questioned regarding his
career: my earliest recollections are
OF the good old Quaker City, where I
spent the first years of my life in my
fathers fine old residence in one of the
.o~ld-fashioned sections of the city. When
I was S years old on a bright summer
morning in the year 1928 Chow we'll J.
remember that day after all this lapse
OF timeD, I stood in the large garden
been playing with a boy about my own
age, and we had been having a fine
romp, when, raising his arm suddenly
and not seeing me behind him he threw
a piece of glass or oyster shell with all
his force. The unfortunate missile en-
tered my left eye and laid open the
ball just below the pupil. The sharp
agony of pain when the object struck
my eye, alarmed me and I sped like a
frightened deer to find my mother.
Then followed days and weeks of 81
lence and darkness, wherein I lay with
bandaged eyes upon my little couch In
a chamber without light, but at last
there came a morning when I was led
out into a room where the bright sun
shine lay upon the carpet and though
DINNER than it used to be, never be-
fore or since have I been so glad to be
hold it. There were several doctors
in the room waiting to make an ex-
animation of my sight, to which I OBJ
jected, as I feared them greatly. They
said the wound in my eye had healed,
but the sore must be burned way with
caustic soda. AS I refused to have
this operation performed, n OF the
doctors caught me between his knees
and threw my head back again st his
shoulder, and then thrust the caustic
more violently thar was intended into
the eye. Instead of simply touching
the scar, as was intended, the pencil
entered the eye and the light went out
out 1t forever. Optical surgery in those
days was in it's crudest state. If the
accident had occurred at the present
time, no doubt my sight could have
been saved.
GAS # WAS after fhia second accident