The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1936-01-01
RESTORE SIGHT
OF MANY BLIND
More Operations To Be
Performed in State for
This During 1886
By w. HOLT RICHARDSON
United Press Staff Correspondent


United Press Staff Correspondent
RALEIGH, Jan. l. (UP).-The
dawn of the New Year brought
light and sight and hope to nine
North Carolinians who have lived
in the darkness of the blind.
For. some of them the world
was a hazy mirage of vague fig
ures and shadowy outlines. Trees
to them were buildings, and build
ings were trees. Sunlight was only
as bright as fog, and their walk
ing was fumbling. They were not
totally blind; they were the less
serious cases to which the state,
through funds made available by
the 1885 general assembly, has re-
stored sight.
For others of them-of the nine
to whom sight has been restored
the world was almost as blank and
black as midnight. Their eyes
were useless; they were the most
serious cases-the almost totally
blind.
But all nine of them can see
now because the State of North
Carolina has made it possible,
through the Blind Commission, for
the sightless to see again.
More operations will be per-
formed this year through the
funds approved by the legislature.
Blindness no longer means hope
lessness; the state has seen to
that.
On white iron beds in two hos
pitfalls, the patients have lain this
fall and waited, after operations,
| to see again. Seven white persons
were in the State Blind Institute
Infrmary here. Two negroes wait
ed in st. Agnes hospital in Ra-
leigh.
Early in the fall, the first OPP
erations were performed. Most of
them were for cataracts. Two
others were for other eye all
ments.
Came Thanksgiving. Celebration
in the homes of those who could
see again was merry. There was
thanksgiving. The blind could not
only hear the merry laughter that
resounded around the table; they
could see the faces of their fami'
lies. -.
All operations were performed
by DR.. Vonnie NJ. Hicks, Raleigh
eye specialist, and were done with
out cost to the patients and with
out cost to the commission, o.
The State Blind Commission
now is, conducting a statewide
survey, which will assure people
like Clayton Mcfarland, who hat
his sight restored, chance for ar
operation. 49,
Netherlands case was typical.
His eyes had been useless fol-
wears. In darkness he fumbleo
and tried to keep on working
working to support a wife he hac
not. seen for years. &c..
As he lay on his bed in the in
Urinary of the Blind School afte.
his operation, he rubbed his hand:
together. They were knotted ano
gnarled from labor. But hand:
aren't much good if you don''
have eyes to guide the hands. Nc
Farland was a mechanic before
the cataracts grew like white moss
on the white and then the pupils
of his eyes, and he went blind.
| Mcfarland can see again. With
another operation, trees for him
will be trees and buildings will be
buildings, not outlines that are in
distinguishable.
Since his early youth, his eyes
had been bad. First, it was poor
vision. Then came partial blind:
ness. Then, darkness. 1t would
have been despair, but Mcfarland
worked. He learned of the efforts
of the state to restore sight to the
sightless. To Faleigh he came
hopefully. A surgeon removed the
cataracts from his eyes. For weeks
he lay and prayed to see again.
He saw.
There are thousands of Clayton
Netherlands in North Carolina.
They wait, too, for the dawn OF
a New Year and light and sight.