The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-11-10

Blind Tom began when he was a yea
old, when he crawled into a parlor a
the home of his master and played thu
piano, to the utter amazement of eve
rybody.
tom was born blind" said his aged
mother, with that precision and dignity
that sometimes denotes the ante-bel
lum negro. HE was just like any 9TH
err baby at first. He never could see
although once in New York I held a
glass of milk before his eyes and he de-
clared that he saw something black in
his milk
zone day, at General Bethune's place,
where we were then living, Thomas,
who was then a year old crawled into
the parlor, while everybody was at din
ner, and went to the piano. He stood
up before the piano and began to play.
| The people at dinner heard him, but
| they thought it was some company in
| the parlor, and didn't pay any atten-
| ton to it. After dinner they found him
playing away in the parlor. They tried
| to keep him out Of the parlor after that,
but they couldn't. He would slip in
anyway and play, playing anything
that he had heard. Everybody said
that it was a gift. Thomas was carried
north after the emancipation, but be-
fore that he gave many concerts in Co.
llumbus.
1--WE We're always proud of him.
My husband died in the war times.
Smart, did you say? Thomas has more
sense than you and put together. He
is smart in anything. When he was
young he was not right bright about
some things. Winch the people at the
house would give him money for play
ing he would run to the fire and throw
it in Thomas has been home several
times since they carried him north. I
have been back from the north six
years I was there nine years, and I
tell you got mighty homesick. A lady
persuaded me to go-they wanted me to
help them get Thomas into other hands.
I didn't do anything much in New
York. They kept me out in the coun-
try while. / got mighty tired of it,
and if they hadn't sent me back l
would almost have gone crazy. While
was away some of my children died.
think Thomas ought to send me more
letters. They tried to turn him against
me III 4NCW VI ~ Vic uoy ilc
Mother, you must 60 l said: What
put that into your hear?' He said:
If you don't go we will make you go
He put his hands out like as If to shove
me out I said: Thomas, who has
been telling you to do this?' He said
the people had, and was afterward
ashamed for the way ne had acted.
Thomas always suffered when he
talked. He won't talk to you long He
would pretty soon say that he was tired
and would ask any one to leave him.
Tomis not playing now-he never plays
in the summer or fall, but he plays all
the winter, and he is the finest player
in the world. There is none like him
anywhere. Thomas is nearly fifty
years old and is a great big man, one
of the biggest of my children. He Is in
good health-has never been sick. He
has always been blind and he is used
to that, you see."
Some time ago it was rumored that
Blind Tom had been drowned, and
body, thought to be his, was recovered
and buried. His mother never believed
for an instant that he was dead. Tom
has a number of brothers, and they are
day laborers, who work at fif-
ty cents a. day. His sisters cook and
(Ga.) Enquirer-Sun.