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;-W My Two ' l^earrof NIGHT Told Jt>?/ Rev George R Van De Water. Rector oP St. Andrew?? New York C 0 "I Love a Picket Fence, I Love a Mud Puddle, I Love Everything Around Me?Now I Can See Them All Again. I Can See, See, See!" WEV. YORK. ? A man just past middle age, gray-haired and ^ ruddy-faced, sat thumbing a Bible. He was the Rev. George R. Van De Water, D. D.. rector of the big New York Church of St. Andrew, and the place was' the study in his home. No. 7 West One Hundred and Twenty-second street. As he read through his thickrimmed, big-lensed spectacles he smiled. And then he laughed?the laugh of a man In Joy. "What a great thing It Is to Bee!" he exclaimed. "1 have come out of the great darkness?I can see again. 1 can see, see. see!" He showed the front page of the Book. "This Is what I have written," he added, earnestly. There It was In hlB own handwriting, the handwriting of the man who had started into the dark four years ago and now had come out Into the light: "This Bible, most comprehensive and in the best type and on the thinnest paper, was given me by my brother John during the year of my blindness for my use after the operation. " 'Open Thou mine eyes, that I may * see the wondrou- things of thy law*? Psalm CXVHI." And then this: "It was the tlrst book I read after the operation, when I had received my glasses." "Whereas I was blind, now I see!" he uttered solemnly, gazing through his big glass lenses. Theso the oculist gives to take t^> place of the lens of the eye removed by the operation for cataract. It was a few days before that his church had held a celebration of thanksgiving in remembrance of his return to sight. Both cataracts have been removed from Dr. Van De Water's eyes, and again he can see. His brother John passed into eternal darkness only the week before sight came back to tho eyes of Dr. Van De Water. MT? 11 ? -a w- ' rrw cttu i*ettii7.?, sain ur. van tie Water, "what It means to go blind and then have the Joy of sight returned. How it happened I can't tell; it might have been my experiences at Santiago In the Spanish war"?Dr. Van I)e Water was chaplain of the Seventy-first New York there?"or it might have been Inheritance or accident " First Glimmer of Fearful Truth. "I heard the real truth in 190S. 1 had never been to an oculist In my life?1 wore glasses merely to help me see more clearly. But in that year 1 noticed that things were getting dimmer?there wasn't enough light. I began complaining that our church wasn't light enough for me to see plainly; at home 1 began to believe that the gas was dim." Dr Van De Water looked up through his big lenses and smiled reminiscently And he told of how he had gone to his regular optician to have hla glasses changed. " 'l*ook here.' the man said to me. 'I know you're a man who wants to know the truth. I'm not going to lie to you?you've got cataracts on both eyes. See a specialist right away.'" Cataracts! Who can realize what they mean unless they, too. have had them. It means that the sun goes out. that it Is midnight at midday! Things grow strangely dim In broad daylight. It gets grayer and grayer and then at last you grope your way in an nwful never ending night. You are blind, where once you could see! Such were the experiences of Dr Van De Water As the days passed they became darker nnd darker, but he mentioned it to Mrs. Van De Water alone, ever hoping for the light. The affliction comes slowly, sometimes blindness does not arrive for two years Foresaw Day of the Dark. In 1910 he went abroad in the hope of staving off the awful day when the world would go out. He and Mrs. Van Da Water visited Oberammergau to see the Play of the Passion. He had to take held glasses with him to see the actors perform, and he knew that the day couldn't be long postponed? the day of the dark. "One eye went before the other." the clergyman said, "but still I could make out things. We went to the Villa Serbellon. above Belaglo, on 1 "Oh, What a Beautiful World It Is! Go ' to Reali; / Lake Corao. opposite Caddenabbla. That lake waB the last thing I really could see. 1 caine heme practically sightless! "But I hoped?yes, I hoped. And 1 prayed. I hoped to prolong my vision by Iridectomy and took the chance? it was useless.* And my eyes went out on that last awful Sunday in 1910." The clergyman was referring to that day when he went to the reading desk to read the litany for his congregation. He found that his eyes had failed him completely?he was stone blind, and the types could not reach his brain. "Please finish it." he said to his Assistant. turning helplessly away. "I am blind," he said to peop:e in the pews, some of them weeping. "I have lost my sight; please bear with me." But let him tell some of the rest of hiB story, as he revels today in vision that is perfect when he puts on his big lenses?he cannot see without them. Joy of Restored Sight. "I love a picket fence. 1 love a mud | puddle." he said, wiping the tears | from his one time sightless eyes. "1 love everything around me; I can see them all again. To think of going blind; not to know the faces of your friends, first, and then noting that It was going blacker every day?It's all too horrible! "So 1 went to Dr. John E. Weeks. 'Patience,' he told me. 'you must wait.' And I could only take a chance on one eve At n tlmo. -i-i - - - ? ? ?uc, mo noiv was too great. I If we failed on one eye, we still bad a chance for the other. "Other eyes helped me?those of my good wife and of my curate, the Rev. Mr. Ivie. My wife read me my personal mail; my curate took charge of the official business of the church. I decided to learn to write, though blind. Half a dozen members of my congregation caine in and read to me every day for two or three hours. It is hard to realize what it means to have such friends when they must be eyes for you. "And 'patience!' Dr. Weeks was saying to me all the time. "The sexton led me to the pulpit every time I preached, and led me out again. 1 walked about with a cane in the familiar streets near my house and the church. One day a pathetic thing happened. a man bumped into me. 'I'm blind.' he said, 'please help ine across the street And I could only say. 'So am 1. I'm blind, too.' Struggle to Save Eyesight. "But still I had to wait. The cataract had to form itself before I could go on the table for I)r. Weeks. 1 was in such a condition that I couldn't | baptize a child or deliver the Sacra [ ment. I learned the service by heart, but when there was a funeral I had I to be led to the coffin. I had to be I put to bed at night. And 'keep doing things,' was Dr. Weeks' everyday talk to me. 'You must work on if we are t~oing to save your eyes." n. n~ nr?i?. *?1J -? 1 ' - 1<| . T an nr ?? aici iuiu U1 ni8 struggles to see his fingers in the broad daylight, when he held them in front of his eyes; of the falls he had when he tried to make his way abont his own home in the darkness that was his; of the weary waiting for the time when Dr. Weeks could say, "We're ready, now!" And of his thoughts when he could see nothing: "1 learned most of the psalms by heart," he said. "I revelled in Robert Burns, and especially in his 'Epistle to a Young Friend.' I had Whittier read to me?his 'Hymn on Eternal Goodness.' And over and over again they read to me John Forster's essay on 'Decision of Character' But everything was as night to me. And I had to wait. "During all those long weary months, from October to April. In the darkness, my mind unconsciously went back to my boyhood days. I could recall the days when 1 didn't wash my face and when I never wanted to take a bath The old-fashioned hymns came back to me. I remembered belter these things than what had happened only a few short years before. But I was blind" Seemed the Dawn of Heaven. i ne Clergyman waa speaking along bM&BW ***WlNlS6i3eSl*tai6s#55^r^M pretty rapidly now; he was getting to that day of days. The operation lasted only a half hour. His eyes were bound up for three weeks. "Then Heaven dawned! "One morning Hr. Weeks came In. and the bandages were taken ofT. He laughed a bit and showed me some I ?"r?- " nai s niiii: nu asRt'n, whu j Just a bit of a quiver in his voice." Hit Eyesight Given Back. Dr. Van Do Water brushed his hands across his eyes as he told the story. "It was a watch," he said, slowly and almost In reverence, "and I could see the second hand spinning around! He had put a lens over one of tuy eyes, and it had worked. Then they bandaged me up again In the dark for three more weeks. And It was only one eye?the other was still blind!" Dr. Van De Water paused for a moment. He took off his spectacles. "Can you realize, can any man. , that without these glasses I can't see a single thing? A man and a tree look the same to me. Without those big lenses your face looks like a piece of paper." "And now see." He picked up a newspaper. Futtlng on his glasses, he read the print without trouble. "Yes," he ran on, "they gave me back my other eye, too, and now I can see. Oh. what a beautiful world j it is! God is good, and 1 have been ; brought to realize it." Dr. Van De Water has had five pairs of spectacles since his sight was given back to him, each one a little more pnrrprt f Kor? rru 1 ? ,1'tl ~ ...... wuou mi: ill Dl, 1 IIITU IS lllllt; left to do On Thanksgiving day he could go Into the pulpit and read his sermon with ease?"the most thankful person there."?New York World. Will Throw Light on History. A valuable and interesting discovery of English royal documents has Just been made. It comprises all state papers, private letters and general correspondence of Kings George III, I and George IV, which have been missing from the crown papers. It was supposed that when George IV ascended the throne he destroyed his father's papers and afterward his own. Their loss always has been deplored, for they covered an Immensely interesting period, including the American war of independence, on the Inside history of which, from the Hritish side these documents could shed Invaluable light. All these missing papers have just been found in the cellars of Apstey House, residence o? the Duke of Wellington, whose grandfather. the great duke, was one of George IV's trustees They have lain In the cellars 101) years Their char acter was discovered by accident, when some repairs were being carried out. Three van loads of them have been removed to Windsor, w here the royal librarian has been entrusted by the king with the task of arranging them and selecting parts of them for publication. Advance News. Joseph Jefferson, the actor, tells th<? i f/? 11i r% tr cj t ?-? l.i? " * 1 .. ??wij ouuui mn lamer, the late Joseph .Jefferson, so well beloved by all theater goers, j For a Ions time before his doa'h. | Mr Jefferson was very sensitlvo upon , the subject of his retirement from the stage. When he was playing in one of the southern cities a paper came | out with the news that he had decid ed to leave the footlights at the exi plration of his engagement In that ; city. I Mr Jefferson resented the printing of such a story, and the reporter who had brought It in was called upon to tell how he got It, "Why," he explained, "the city edl tod told me to see Joseph Jefferson and ask him if it were true that he was I soon to retire." "Well." he was asked, "did you see j him?" "No." ho replied; "T went to his hoI tel and sent my card up to his room, and it was sent back with this writi ten on It: 'Mr Jefferson has retired 1 "qa I /wu ncn, i nno coorl authority I for the story."?Llpplncott'a. a* _ -M W&tfa' r* 1 I * ' ' . . ; * d Is Good, and I Have Been Brought T* It." Y< 1 " '-f- - 7 V r s ' . 'I I y 4 ' -\ .? OfF) FEAR COLLAPSE OF ST. PAUL'S Protest Made Against Digging a Subway Under the Cathedral in London. London.?A new danger threaten* St. Paul's cathedral, in the opinion of those responsible for the fabric, the proposed trawmay tunnel that forms an Important part of the St. Paul s bridge schemo being regarded with apprehension. "The parliamentary bill seeking power for this new venture has just been deposited by the London county council, and so we feel that we must make our protest at once," said Canon S. A .Alexander, treasurer of the Cathedral. "The danger arises out of the fear * -tertalned by our expert advisers. iimi inf proposed suuway, through which trains will run from a terminus at Chcapside, under the east side of the churchyard and Cannon street to a point near the new bridge, will , A iife ". ?-rr" ztsti t : J. 'SwifiBi ' vWiJ,! JyR ! ' p t- vr-v^A -Sb A*'^? ; London's Pride: St. Paul's Cathedral. drain our foundations. The cathedral is built on water bearing soil above the clay, and the constant danger is that this soil may become dry, and do crease In bulk, thus leading to settlements of the foundations, and cracking of the walls. Indeed, Mervyn Macartney, architect to the dean and chapter, takes so serious a view of any such drainage that he is unable to say where the damage might end. When we remember that Holy Trinity in Kingsway which stands beside a j similar subway, had to he rebuilt, we i cannot hut do all in our power to j save St. Paul's from the possibility of | ruin." WARNING TO AMERICAN BOYS must Cut Out Hookey and Get Good Education, Says Superintendent of Schools. Syrncuse. N. Y.?A warning to the American boy to take full advantage J of the high courses of education, lest ] his foreign brother outstrip him, was j uttered by N*. C. Schafler, superlnten- j lent of education in Pennsylvania, in | an address before the memberk of the 1 state's educational societies now in session here. "There nre today at least 40 profes -ions which require a high school edu- ; uition by way of preliminary training." ; said Dr. Schaffer, "and the boy who j quits school before finishing the four years high school course shuts against j himself the door of opportunity and , makes it impossible for himself to enter the vocations which aspire to be ranked with the professions and which have within their ranks the leader of American civilization. GRANGE PEEL AIDS SURGERY Tests at Philadelphia Show Counteracting of Nausea Adds to Physicians' Success. Philadelphia, Pa.?Orange peel as an auxiliary to ether to counteract the nauseating effects of the anesthetic was given the final test of a : series at the Woman's Homeopathic ! hospital, and has convinced the resident physicians that a new weapon to 1 be used against human suffering has ' boon given to tho modical world. "Of the twenty surgical eases In which we have used the orange peel ; oil as an auxiliary to ether." said I)r. [tenners S Smith of the hospital staff. | "we have found it perfectly successful i in all instances but one. That one case I was due to a fault In administering tho oil." The orange pe?l oil is administered by i airing it into the ether cone with 1 tho ether. "No Place for Honest Man," Dies. New York.? Adolph Kohlenberg, a printer, committed suicide in his home, 1004 Forrest avenue, the Bronx, by drinking carbolic acid and shoot- ' ing himself in the head. The cause i of the act was his having been swindled out of $1,000 by a man who ; advertised for a partner in the printing business. Kohlenberg, who was forty-seven years old. left a letter for his wife, | saying this world was no place for an honest man to live. "When a man works hard and saves a few dollars some wise fellow comes ! around and swindles you out of it. I 1 get roped in every time, therefore my | life is a failure. 1 am better dead j than alive." wrote Kohlenberg, who added a postscript requesting that he ~>e burled in his full dress suit. Chorus Girls Get Bibles. Chicago.?Chorus girls in the "F ivolous Gcraldine" company found Cid eon Bib'es on their dressing tables. *1 *1 * nil Smokes Cigar While Hi: (TrnTi JTV veST^A y'^Sgl ^ ^^??? t,CAK WASHINGTON.?Senator Shlvely of Indiana looms up as a real hero, lie refused to tnkn An animthollo nnH smoked placidly a long black cigar while surgeons cut off one of his toes. And the senator, despite the encomiums that are coming his way, Is modest about it. He would have preferred that his heroism should have gone unsung, but the facts about the scene In the operating room Anally leaked out and the senator finds himself in receipt of letters from various parts of the country commending his "nerve" and expressing the view that he has about the right sort of stuff in his makeup. When Senator Shlvely made up his mind that a surgical operation was necessary he confided his view to his physician. Dr. Z. T. Sowers, who agreed with him. "When will you be ready to have the toe taken off?" asked the doctor. "This evening," answered the senator. Senator and Cabinet Min A STORMY verbal encounter between a cabinet minister and a senator of the United States furnished a morsel of gossip here the other day. Senator Ashurst of Arizona thlnkB the mining laws are something atrocious. even when properly enforced. When decisions are rendered under this act he can find no expressions to cope with the situation. One of these obnoxious opinions was handed down ana Mr. Astiurst cleared his decks for action and sailed down to the interior department. The senator told the secretary that in his humble judgment the decision rendered against his constituent was the most unjust, unsalted, unripe and swaybacked distortion of law and common sense into which he had ever bumped. The secretary Informed the senator that the opinion was tv.enty karat fine, platinum tipped, warranted to keep at the equator and in accordance with law and practice. "Did you ever try a mining case?" shouted Mr. Ashurst, after the sands 1 in the dictionary began to run low. "Do you mean to Insult me?" shrieked Secretary Fisher, who was admitted to the bar twenty-five yeurs ago. Tragic and Comic Ele <<INT() the sordid and often tragic 1 business of seeking public offices there sometimes Intrudes an element of the romantic and quite frequently of the comic," said a United States senator from a southern slate. "Not long ago I got a letter from a hungry Democrat, a loyal supporter of mine, who advised me that he would like to get the appointment of commissioner of the United States patent office. hut he wanted me to understand that this desire on his part was not to be construed as any evidence that ho would decline the offer of postmaster of the village In which he lived. Another one of my fellow citizens who had, as I supposed, written and asked This Dog Has Reasoning JASPKIt, an educated dog. entertained n party of scientists at the Smithsonian institution the other day. He was examined by Dr. Frank Tinker, zoologist, and Charles I). Walcott, secretary of the institution, and described as "wonderful." It was demonstrated that Jasper Is familiar with .100 words and that he understands any reasonable command given by his master, Dixie Taylor. The following night Jasper was the guest of honor at a party of scientists given by F'rof. Alexander Graham Hell. For the edification of the Smithsonian staff, the dog wrote on a typewriter, distinguished between "man" and "woman," picked up bits of paper and put them either in a cuspidor or a waste basket as directed to do. "Go Into the room across the hall, find a typewriter, and write," said Mr. Taylor to the dog. * - -_,v,> ' 1' 1 . " * > Toe Is Being Cut Off Ths physician was not prepared for Buch a ready response and suggested. that next day would be a better time. When Shlvely arrived at the hospital he was enjoying a good cigar?in fact, he had negotiated only about half an inch of it, and as there was about Ave inches of good "smoke" remaining, he was loath to part with it. He states positively that he had no Intention of pulling off any heroics, and the only reason he clung to the cigar was that it happened to be a mighty good one. He was hustled into the operating room, and he never flinched while the toe was being removed, following a light local application of cocaine. As for hlB refusal to take an anesthetic, Senator Shlvely claitns no credit on that account. "There are two ways of rendering a man insensfble to pain," said the senator. "One way is to take a basebail bat or a big stick and hit him a resounding blow on the head. The other way is to give him an aneBthet- ? {r> Ir* tKo flrof noao Vv rv la nv?l tr\ have a mighty sore head for a time after returning to consciousness. In the latter case there will be a sickening aftermath of nausea that Is almost unbearable. In either case it Is a complete knockout. My personal preference Is to endure the pain while the operation Is in progress." ister in a Word Duel It was explained by the angry senator that he did not Intend to Insult the secretary, but that he really thought the head of a great executive department should have a little horse Hense; It would not Impair his useful- ness, and might prove wondorfully helpful in mining decisions. In turn the secretary intimated to the superheated senator that he was weary of scolding and denunciation. He conveyed the impression that the senator might And a number of suitable climates, but all of them were outside his office. This broke up the party. The senator backed through the door. The secretary looked out of the window until he snw the visitor stalking down the street, being determined to guard against flank movements and rushes. ments of Officeseeking my Influence to get him a small federal Job, wrote me a second letter In answer to my acknowledgment of his first favor, saying that I had completely miseonstruted his meaning. He had not Intended to apply for a minor place, but wanted my help to get named as a member of the interstate commerce commission. , "Every senator has these experiences as a part of his routine work, and my applications are not at all exceptional. The most remarkable and extraordinary Incident In this line that ever I know r*f WOO O rovoron 1 ? ? ?... .. .. Kimoai vi iuo iHKuiar order. in this caBe a young fellow living in one of the territories applied for a Job as postal clerk in the railway mail service. It happened a good many years ago. and nobody will be hurt by the narration at this late day. By some curious mix-up the application wont to the wrong department and to the utter amazement of the man and all his friends a commission was sent him appointing him associate justice of the supreme court of the territory. He took the office and kept it for the full term and was. so far as 1 know, considered a very fair judge. Power, Say Scientists uJ -? The dog obeyed, undirected. "l.ook out the window and then push this book over," said Mr. Taylor, placing a book on its end on the floor. The dog looked out of the window, turned and pushed tbu book over with his nose. Jasper obeyed commands that he had never heard before, this, a number of the scientists said, proved that Jaaper has reasoning power that Is ah* normally developed, going lar beyond the range of pure animal Instinct or acquired training.