The Minneapolis journal., 1903-04-09
THE BLIND AS FARMERS.
They May Expert Tuners Piano Teachers Clock Repare
and Follow Many Other Useful Trades ssl s@s
Clock Repaiirers

scribes to him piece OF property that,
he may think of buying. tells him Its en-
Nironments, and then he takes a day or
two to think it over and draw conclu-a
sions. Sometimes he buys, sometimes he
doesn't; but he has made fortune out
of real estate that once was the despair
of sighted owners and speculators.
There is another capable blind man in
the real estate business in New York. He
is lawyer. too, and he got. his degree
by attending lectures and having boy
read aloud to him many heavy volumes
for eight years. He has fair civil prac-
tice. But he has time to dabble in real
estate, and in many suburban towns In
New Jersey his transactions are well
known and regarded as wise. His method
Of selecting property is similar to that
of, the Philadelphia man. He has memo
rized numerous law books to such a point
that he rarely finds it necessary, when
getting up a brief, to have clerk look up
the law for him. .s t@@ II
Touch the Great Guide.
Sarcely any of the working blind need
assistance in business. @art nag - 3
The newsstand man, even though the
| roar of the city Is all about him, can
tell the football of customer as he ap-
! proaches the stand, and by the distinctive
| feel Of the paper wanted, pull it out
| from a mass of copies of all the different
| local papers. There are 200 such wage
| earners in New York alone. ...I& ~ p.
The mattressmaker seWs together. the
| cover. He runs the hair cleaning land
| tearing machine. He does the stuffing,
not forgetting to make proper allowances
at the sides and ends for shrinkage lie
places and fastens the tufts, and he
strengthens the sides by "blind'' stitches.
| He even has boys with good eyes as ap-
| prentices. .ss....,. .s-< 2-. .
Nor does the clock repairer ask help of
any man. AS with the mattress man and
! the broom maker and the newsstand man
| he trusts entirely to his highly developed
! sense of touch. There Is a blind clock
reparcr in the borough of the Bronx in
| New York who has everything his own
way in his neighborhood. He can make
clocks run right that other repairers al
| ways fail with. ~.
women in their tasks also. If they are
washing clothes they feel to see If the
! spots Of dirt, which a Sighted person
| shutting his eyes, could not detect by
| touch In thousand years, have been re-
moved by soap and water. They never
burn clothing while ironing; they know
! through their hands just the amount OF
contact the iron should have with the
article being pressed. When sewing with
a machine their fingers serve them as
eyes. and they make stitches as straight
as the most exactnig could demand Al
mattresses they gather the orders in the
kitchen by "feel' and properly arrange
the dishes around the diners plate by
i the same swift and accurate method. Anc
i in making the finest and most intricate
laces their only guide is touch.
In truth, the blind person in business
has, as one of them said recently, "ter
eyes, which are at our fingers ends,
while seeing persons have only two.
Wages Are Small.
Despite the fact that the blind who Worl
are exceedingly Industrious and often a.
expert in the various trades as sighted
men, they do not make much money
Human sympathy is deep until the pocket
book is touched. The blind man gets sym