Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1941-01-11
1910 CHRISTMAS
MERRY ONE FOR
DILLON RANCHER
EYESIGHT is RESTORED AFTER
IS YEARS IN THE
DARK

Christmas day was a merry one
for c. Z. Barnes, 66-year-oId Dillon
rancher. He was able to see for the
first time I'm Is years the glowing,
shimmering and dazzling of the
Christmas tree with red, green,
yellow and blue lights, instead Of
feeling the priclxly, sticky Xmas
of evergreen, cool with ornaments
and hot with globes which his fin
gers might accidentally touch. And
he viii see those neighbOrs whose
voices he knows so well.
More than seeing Christmas; more
than looking again at his faithful
wife who has guided him through
those dark 10 years; more than seeing
his new home for the first time, or
reading newspapers, magazines and
books, he wants to see to write his
name. That &C. E. Barnes" in flowing
ink is the outstanding thing in the
world to him, now.
Thursday Nov. 7, was as important
a date as Christmas to Barnes. That
was the day Dr. L. G. Dunlap oper-
ated on the cataract over his left eye
at an Anaconda hospital. A few days
later, when the bandage was removed.
Barnes, almost unbelievingly, saw the
doctor. the first person he had seen
with his eve since 1922. Next he saw
his wife. happy-faced, her blue eyes
glowing like stars under her white hair.
You got older since I saw you
last" Barnes said.
But 1t was not as simple as just
an operation for cataract removal. His
right eyes vision failed As years ago
after a ranch accident. He lived then
with one eye and had the reputation
among ranchers of the Big Hole basin
OF seeing more with his one eye than
they did with both theirs. Then he
slowly lost the sight in his left eye
from the growth believed to have
started after he received a bump on
Barnes learned to "see" with his
fingers, feeling familiar objects at the
ranch, following his dogs to the barn
to milk the cows as best he could. Ono
OF his dogs was killed by car. That
was as baaNas losing his eyesight.
His wife Ces+ his meat and helped
him eat. took him by the arm on visits
to cities. searching for someone to
help him. Side by side, they went TO
Portland. Kansas City, Milwaukee and
other places.
on one Of their many trips Of hope
through the years, Barnes and his
wife came to DR.. Dunlap. But the
doctor told him there was no imme-
date remedy. Somehow Barnes had
suffered an injury to his left eye
which caused a tubercular condition
to develop.
But DIR. Frank Terrill at the state
hospital at Galen agreed
to treat the eye in the hope Of saving
1t. So, again side by side, Barnes and
his wife made the 186-mile round trip
from Dillon to Galen regularly for Is
He received treatment. His
eye strengthened so that DR.. Dunlap
was ready now to operate.
Il am learning to look again,
Barnes said in an interview recently |
in Dr. Dunlap's office in Anaconda
where he was waiting for glasses &c
help him see to write his name.
Il guess it's like having a broken
leg. When you lose your sight so long, |
you have to learn to see again just |
like the man with a broken leg has
to learn to walk when he gets well,
Barnes said in talking Of his early /
experiences at seeing again.
"He can feed himself" Mrs. Barnes
stated proudly. He sure Is different.
He acts happy"
She joked with her husband about
how he didn't know his neighbors the
other day until he heard their voices
how he loved to look at the stars at
night; how he went all over their
home where they moved few
years ago and which he now saw for
the first time.
THE house was better looking than
I thought" Barnes interrupted.
His wife told how he looked at the
Metlen hotel in Dillon and said that
was the only building that looked the
same, that all the others had changed.
She said he liked the color in the
new cars.
"They were all black before" Barnes
said.
A few days ago, when someone asked
a Dillon resident II he knew G. E.
Barnes, he was asked, do you mean
the old blind MANI"
When told of this, Barnes laughed,
saying, II can see all right now"