Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1911 — HAPPENINGS IN THE CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HAPPENINGS IN THE CITIES

Blind Man Leads in Tidying Streets

: They help enforce the law. Erring householders are warned by the volunteer aids, and if that warning is not obeyed there is pronjpt recourse to the law. The members of .the 72 leagues, to 72 school buildings of the city, make regular reports to the street cleaning department And this blind man was the pioneer in the ■‘work. He thought of it first impelled by his longing for-children and a certain instinct'*for sociability that has always been his. “I always liked to organize "clubs when I was a boy,”, he said. “We organized for all sorts of purposes. I like excitement brisk movement, happiness. I like to see things.” ~ The incongruity to that expression does not bother hiip. “I have cultivated the inner eye,” he said. “I have a power of imagination. I can see you and the people passing by just as I can see toe children sitting before me when I go Into a schoolroom to -organize a Junior league. It never occurs to me to think that I am blind.” Supervisor Simons is a strongly- > built; upright man of fifty-one years of age. No one would imagine him blind by the appearance of his eyes or by his manner. With one hand caught in the elbow of an assistant, ,Mr. Davidson, he- tramps through crowded streets as confidently as though he had his sight.. And he is invariably smiling and good-humored.

fkT EW YORK.—Reuben S. Simons, 'll supervisor of, 150,000 children in ithe JuvenUe league, is blind, butbie Is the most valuable man in the street 'cleaning department, and he is not unhappy over the loss of hip sight because he is too fond of work and too busy to be unjjappy over anything. “I never thinli of my blindness," he says, "except when I hear someone speak of the poor blind man. That [cuts like a knife. I do my work as t well as though I had my eyes, maybe .better. There are no distractions in ihitr world within which I live. I only [think of my work. What the eye does not see the heart does not grieve for.” : Thirteen years ago Reuben Simons' eyes began to pain him. For the past seven years he has been totally blind. [And yet within that time he has organized a movement among the school [children of New York in which 150,,000 are now enlisted. They pledge themselves to aid the street cleaning [department in keeping the thoroughfares free of rubbish. Their duty is [not merely the passive one of refraintog from throwing trash upon the Street.