The Washington times., 1922-07-22
DEATHOF BLIND .
0PERATORST|Rs
NEWSPAPERMEN
Fred Rhoads, Victim Of Falling
Sight. Knew Press Club :.
i. Members by Voices.
BY HOMER JOSEPH DODGE.

Uucn JOcEfH DODGE.
Fuperal services were held for
rrsd Khoads last night at the home
0inys orother-in-law, Judge Charles
6reckons. Fontanet Courts. Mem.
pUers OF the board of governors of the
Nauonal Press Club, club members
~ representatives of the clubs staff
For eight years Fred Rhoads had
sat behind the lobby desk of the
Fress Club-eight years OF slowly
taiing darkness which finally closed
ABOUT him on Wednesday night, to be
succeeded, every member of the club
ne served Is convinced, by O. greater.
brightness than is known on earth.
1t began without his knowledge or
that OF anyone else. 1t seems.
"A dark day." he would say when
q member fell in conversation with
him: Yet the sun streamed in the
windows. -"
Later sometimes. a member would
meet him on a street corner. where
he was hesitating before crossing.
Il am afraid my eyes are' not
: rs good as they were," he would
say in the quiet voice of never
falling courtesy which was so well
known at the club. Would you
mind taking my arm across the
street? On a foggy day like this
I don't see as well as used to-"
Yet the sun would be beating down
on the burning pavements.
But the remarkable thing was how
he hid his secret. 1t was a part
of his duty to attend the club
switchboard, an intricate system Of
plugs and buttons. As he dusk
deepened, the sensitiveness Of his
fingers increased and II was rare
indeed that he connected the wrong
line
Stranger still was the familiarity
he achieved with characteristics cf
the members which would serve
to identify them on those dark
days and save him from the en-
barrassment of failing to recognize
them. There are 500 resident men,
bers Of the National Press Club
yet 1 have never known one TO
pass the desk with a Good morn
Ing, Mr.. Rhoads," without the lit
tie mans cheerily responding and
calling the member by name, a
name recognized because 1t be-
longed not to the face and figure
but because II belonged to the
sound OF footsteps and the sound
Of the voice. For even when he
was not addressed, IL Q member
passed for whom he had some mes
sage. he would call his name. He
would pick out the footsteps he
sought from a lobby full of men,
bers,
And Fred Rhoads tended the cigar
case. Before the darkness became so
thick that he could not penetrate 1t,
he familiarized himself with the posi-
ton OF each box OF cigars and each
package of cigarettes. Many @ mem.
Der never knew that the cigar he
asked for was produced from the case
by dipt of a tremendous memory and
n sure touch. -.-
. He would not give up. His family
urged him to retire, but he preferred
10 sit still in the dark in the place
where he had last seen the things for
bis hands to do and to do those
things with an efficiency and with an
abiding cheerfuln@s that was a les.
son and sermon to every man who
knew him.
The, men of the National Press
Club pursue vocation which
brings them into contact with their
fellows in this world to a greater
extent than probably any other
profession. But they have not
known any other man who has
sat and waited so quietly, so un-
complainingly and so patiently for
what was in store for him. He
was the quietest man I ever knew,
speaking seldom and then with
low, pleasant voice. Yet. the MEM
bers Of the National Press Club
know that they can say of him as
was said of one much like him in
character: 80 he passed over and
all the strumpets sounded on the
other side.