The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1911-03-27
BLIND BABY HAS
sTIRRInG time
How Little Arthur Valentine Was
Thrown From Flying Auto, and
Efcaped Being Eaten by Pigs.
BY W. q. SHEPHERD.

Z are the bravest persons We know.
. Babies wait In Babyland until some
one down on earth wants them. A
baby never stops TO ask where he's
& going; what kind OF place II will
/. be-: whether he will be treated kind
q ": whether he will have enough to
& eat. He just goes. There isn't any
.~corner dark enough TO brighten him;
ANY tenement room too crowded and
flthy; any family too poor and hun
cry. He'll 20. no matter where II Is.
A,All he wants to know Is that he's
Z wanted.
Babies are the real knights OF for
tune; the most wonderful adventures
z this world has ever seen.
And this Is true story about one
\ OF the bravest babies you ever heard
of. He heard, about three years ago,
a that some one down here wanted him.
And down he came, in hurry, willing
to take his chances and see what des-
: tiny had in store for him.
He had hard luck at the very start
7 The people he went to must have been
I terrible folk. They did an awful
!. thing that made him blind. No one,
( except themselves. knows who these
!. people were. When they saw what
4 they had done they dressed the baby
mp In very fine clothes. But when
they fastened on his lace hood they
tied the string very tight-murder-
ously tied--around his throat. Then
they put him In shoe box. Then they
got into an automobile and took the
box with them. and dashed on down
q New Jersey turnpike. No knight
- x.lA hoA Wi rid
the string around his throat II was
brave and hopeful baby would have
lived through it.
A little dog was standing near a
pig pen, by the roadside, when the
automobile passed. He barked at the
shoe-box thrown through the air from
the automobile.
That was something to bark about.
He started to run for the box, but
II alighted on top of the fence. A
dozen big pigs hurried over to see
whether the box contained anything
TO eat. They couldn't reach Il; neither
could the dog. And so the little dog
barked at Il and the big pigs grunted
ut II and II II had fallen down on
the pigs side OF the fence something
too awful to think OF would have
happened. Knight Baby. you see. was
having plenty Of adventure.
But all the noise brought out the
farmer He took the box into the
house; he. too, had seen 1t fly from
the automobile.
And there In the box was the baby!
He gave one extra big breath wheff
the farmers wife united the tight
string around his neck. But there
wasn't any room In the farmers house
for q baby-much less blind baby.
Few persons want blind babies.
The farmer took the Baby knight
over to the poorhouse. For weeks IL
looked as II the baby had come to
the end OF his trail. The chances
were that he would live In the poor
house all his life; that no one would
show him how to use his brain and
hands and feet. Blind babies, you
know, can't even learn to feel un-
less some one shows them what feel
ing means. The terrible chances were
that he would live to be an idiot: 10
knight OF old. seeking adventure, ever
faced az horrible thing as that.
But one day luck turned. The over
seer of the poor farm heard OF the
Arthur homo for blind babies which
the International Sunshine society
had founded al Summit. N. ]. He took
our little hero there. Mrs. MacIn-
tyre, who knows more about blind
bab-eo than most people, said that he
was one of the finest babies she had
evon seen. When she heard his story
che and some Of the other women
cried. The Baby Knight had taken
such terrible chances aud had been
90 brave and lucky through Il all that
they couldn't help loving him.
Right then and there that trst day,
they gave him q name. One OF the
young ladies' in the office called him
Arthur, because that was the name
OF the home. Mrs. Tregear, another
Sunshine society woman, added the
name Valentine, because II was on
Valentine day that the Baby Knight
had come to their home. Mrs. Gym
thia Alden. head Of the international
Sunshine society, added the name
Lyndhurst, because that was the
name OF the town where the little
dog and the pigs tried to get at the
shoe-box.
And so the Baby knight has been
named Arthur Valentine Lyndhurst.
He can talk now; he can count, too.
Take away one OF the eight celluloid
balls he plays with and see how quick
~ he'll miss 1t.
II won't be long before they'll be-
gin to teach him how to write and
how to read. The light that should
have gone into his mind through his
eyes will go into IL through his hands.
Already he has shown that he can
learn more quickly than any Of the
other scores OF blind children in the
home.
Who knows7 Some day the poor
little patched-up name Arthur valen.
tine Lyndhurst may become famous.
Things just as wonderful have hap
pened before now to especially brave
baby knights
"Q - QU