The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-12-11
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!: In Spite Of ;
: Being Blind 4:
! Proportion of Sightless /:
. Who Win Out Is Above 6
!? the Average. 2
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IL 10 d CuilOuS ldCL luaL INC idtIO
Of really gifted blind people is out
of all proportion to their total NUM-
Der when compared with those who
have full power to see.
The cases of Helen Keller and of
Senator Gore are familiar to every one.
The middle West has produced an
other remarkable blind man in Blind
Kelley" the "St. Louis Sherlock
Holmes" as he has been called, a
lawyer practising at the bar. Ac-
cording to Van Norden's Magazine,
his powers of deductive reasoning are
almost uncanny.
He can tell on entering room how
many persons are there assembled.
He can give you the dimensions OF
the room without walking around it.
Almost, it appears, he has solved the
mystery Of the fourth dimension, and
has apparently developed a sixth
sense.
In challenging jurors this blind at
torney displays judgment of char
acter that is miraculous to the man
gifted with sight. There are honest
and dishonest voices, he says, and
he makes astonishingly accurate de-
cisions.
Walter A. Kelley lost his sight
when II years old. He is only %
now. He was educated at school
for the blind, and then took course
at the st. Louis Law School and was
graduated with honors in 1904.
He explains his professional sue
cesses by pointing out that the human
memory can be SO cultivated that any
thing read aloud can be engraved
upon the mind to be called upon at
will
The list of the blind who have
achieved a success at least equal to
that OF seeing men of their own
standing in education and intelli-
gence might be continued indefinitely.
There are Gen. Brayton, the blind
boss of Rhode Island; Chris Buck
ley, the blind boss of San Francisco;
DR.. William Mem, who invented
new system of reading for old and
insensitive fingers, and whose son,
Robert Moon, is secretary Of the
Pennsylvania Home Teaching So
ciety and Free Circulating Library
for the Blind.
There is the Rev. William Beres-
ford of England, who lost his sight
while playing with his little broth
er. DR.. Morrison Heady of Nor
mandy, who lost his sight and hear
ing when a boy, but who wrote verses
of no mean calibre.
There is Prof. E. D. Campbell.
who holds the chair of chemistry at
Ann Arbor, and another blind man
bell, LII. D., who is an American, but
holds the position of head at the
Normal College in England. Blind
as he is, DR.. Campbell climbed Mont
Blanc.
Prof. Edward Crowell taught Latin
at Amherst for fifty years, during
twenty of which he was quite sight
less. Prescott, the historian, was
nearly blind.
Nicholas Saunderson, who was
blind from childhood, was professor
Of mathematics at the University Of
Cambridge in the first part of the
eighteenth century. Curiously enough
he lectured on optics and the theory
Of vision.
Queen Carmen Sylvia of Rumania
has a blind secretary, who is also
the inventor of writing machine
for the blind. Rumania has 100000
inhabitants, of whom 10000 are
blind. Of these, $4,000 are married.
In one year 10000 became blind from
tracoma.
John B. Curtiss, who superintends
the teaching of the blind in the pub
liz schools of Chioa AGO is himself