Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 241, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1911 — BLIND MAN VICTIM [ARTICLE]

BLIND MAN VICTIM

Run Down and Killed by Speeding Chicago Motorcyclist ' Dr. Willett. Roused by Killing. Says It Is Hard to Believe Soma Drivers Have Souls of Their Own. : Chicago.—“ Before the motorcyclist sad time to realise that the man In his path was blind the machine struck him." This sentence, an excerpt from a morning newspaper's account of the accident at South State and Sixtythird streets the other day, which resulted In the death of Jacob Snapp, a blind man, from injuries sustained while the helpless victim was groping his way across die street, furnished a text for a sermon on speed fiends. It was preached by Dr. Herbert L. Willett, pastor of Memorial Church to ,Chrlst and associate professor of Semitic languages and literature at the University of. Chicago, when the tragic circumstances of the accident were suggested to him. Doctor Willett did not handle the subject with gloves. Any motorcyclist or antomobilist whose speed mania has brought him to the stage where he has forgotten that a common ordinary pedestrian is a human being and should have consideration even though not blind or crippled, had such a person overheard the minister's dissertation, would not have needed an Interpreter to aid him in determining just how great a menace he has grown to be, in the opinion of the walking population. “It Is hard to believe that some of these reckless antoists and motor- . cyclists, who imperil pedestrians, mess up our thoughts and tangle our nerves until we are near Insanity are persons with souls," Doctor Willett began, as be launched with fervor into his tirade against the dangerous speeder. , "Such as accident as the one in which the blind man met his fate it a horrible evidence of the pass to which things have come in the big city’B rage for speed. It raises the question of whether the pedestrian on our streetß has any rights whatever. Must he be continually on his guard, watching for reckless speed fiends who show not a whit of consideration for the lives of those on foot? Is the pedestrian obliged legally to be a)ert constantly and prepared to leap from the path of a speeder? The account of how the blind man met his death would almost seem to indicate as much. "Think of the Irony of the conclusion! 'Before the driver had time to realise thatthe man was blind his ms-

chine had struck him.’ The victim was lacking one of his God-given senses and did not perceive his danger. A horrible death was the result “Of all speed fiends of the present’ day. some motorcyclists are by far the greatest menace to the pedestrian. The machine is small, much lighter than an automobile and capable of darting Into and through a crowd with almost the wariness of a rabbit What chance has the man on foot with a reckless, daredevil driver likely to cross his path at any moment? Chicago, lam convinced. Is today lit great need of ordinances which will serve more effectively to protect Its pedestrians A motorcycle speed law is needed which will muzzle the mania of the careless driver.” y; | i ■■ &, 3 i-S.;, |■;