The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-13
FAMOUS GARDENER WAS COLOR BLIND Kept His Secret for Many
 Years  NEVER MADE MISTAKE 
 Finally Became Noted Authority on :. Horticulture and Received Medals for His Fine Work From
 Royal Society

 From the London Daily News and Leader.
 After keeping a secret all his life. MT. John Wright, Y. M. H., F. R. H. S, the well known authority on horticulture, is at last able to give it away. Nothing would persuade him to do so except that he is 76 and has retired
 The secret does not at first seem to be of great importance It is simply that he is color-blind that he does not know brown from green and green from red, and so on.
 But for him 1t has been very im- portant secret For many years he was a working gardener. and judge at hun dreds of flower shows. and in the end he was editor of the "Journal of Horticul- ture.r He might have had difficulty in holding these positions if it had been known that he was color-blnd, and that scarlet geraniums Czonal pelargoniums) were for him the same color as grass.
 How the Secret Was Kept
 So he told no one. and no one discov- cred him. From boyhood he was deter mined to be a gardener. and he was afraid that anyone who knew that he was color blind would not employ him Since the
 
 that he could not tell red from green, he has kept the secret Unknown to every one he has lived in world without red. Often if has been difficult not to be found out. Once, when a garden boy. he found himself in very strange posi- tion A director of a railway company thought he ought to be something better than a gardener, and offered him a po- sition on the line with the certainty of becoming a stationma ster. Knowing that he could not tell the difference between red and a green signal he was at a loss 10 know what to say. He dare not admit that the coors were the same to him. But fortunately it was necessary 10 answer d number of questions set by the railway authorities, and by answering some of them wrongly he was able to show himself unfit for the post.
 Never Made Mistake
 As gardner he had often to discuss the colors of flowers and fruit, and often he was afraid that someone would discover that he could not see any difference. But he was always very careful He soon learned from books the exact colors Of all the flowers and fruits He knew that many geraniums. or zona pelargoniums, were scarlet, and that a sunfower was yellow (thouph this he couldn't see clear ly), and so on. By being very watchful, whenever color was mentioned. he man. aged never to make q mistake. Even when judging flowers and fruit he still Succeeded in keeping his secret
 The Effect of Gas Light
 An unusual feature of Mr. Wfight's case is that his sight varies in different lights By daylight he can see few col- DTS as they are. By gaslight he can see reds clearly. By electric light he can make out most of the colors fairly well, especially blues and purpes
 So his house is one thing by daylight and quite another thing by gaslight The moment he lights the gas in his room the reds shine out. By daylight his li- brary is practically mass of one color, which he Is unable to describe. In the evening he can see clearly which books are bound in red, which in green, and so on. The difference made by various lights remains a mystery to him. He has never heard of any explanation.
 Left School at Nine
 Color-blindness is by no means the only difficulty Mr Wright has had to fight against He left his Lincolnshire village school at 9, after, so he says learning nothing. Then he became a garden boy at Scawby Hall Even then he knew every plant, shrub and tree in the gar den. but he wanted to know other things as well. It happened that a learned tailor was starting night school The boy jumped at the chance, and was one of the first pupils. Luckily the fee was not excessive--only sxpence a week and a candle. The tailor was not prepared to supply light himself. so that all the pupils took halfpenny dips.
 By reading the local newspaper the boy learned something of composition. He would carefully copy out reports, and re- member how the sentences were put to- gether. Then he sent reports of local happenings to the paper and noticed what alterations were made before they were printed. In this way he learned grammar. and after a time became one of the newspapers regular correspond ents.
 Editor and Author
 When he had been successful head gardener for some years Mir Wright sent articles to the Journal of Horticulture. These were so well done that eventually he was appointed sub-editor on the paper, and in 1897 he became editor He had many other activities. He was popular lecturer for many years, and was the pioneer teacher of education in hortcul- ture in Surrey. He has also written many standard books on gardening subjects. Pretty good for boy who left school at and depended for his education on a tailor. whose charge was sixpence a week and a halfpenny dip. But what Mir. Wright seemed to be proudest of Is that he has kept the secret of his color blindness.
 Room for One More
 From the Cleveland Plain Dealer