Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 132, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1916 — SEVENTY YEAR OLD MAN GETS ENTIRE NEW FACE [ARTICLE]

SEVENTY YEAR OLD MAN GETS ENTIRE NEW FACE

For 47 Years Unable to Close Eyes— Sight Nc Y Ruined by . Alaskan Lights Port Angeles, Wash. —John Watson 70 years old, who has traveled all over the world and who for forty-seven years could not close ills eyes because he was without eyelids, has had bis face remodeled. The new face, which is his third one, includes a perfect set of eyelids and changes his appear ance to such an extent that his old friends here did not recognize him when he landed for a visit this week. Whtson has been around the world twice and has tried the life of a pioneer in the wildest parts of the North American continent. Most of his adventures took place during the fortyseven years between the disfiguration of his face by an accident and the coming into the possession of a fortune he inherited some time ago. During this time he was known as the man who couldn’t close his eyes. At the age of 20 years at his home in Indianola, lowa, the explosion of a can of asphaltum varnish tore away much of the flesh of his face and destroyed his eyelids, altho his sight was not injured. With a badly disfigured face he started out in the world and blazed trails thru Montana, the Northwest and Alaska. Sleep was almost Impossible for. him. “At first my sleep was limited to brief, fretful periods,” he said, “but as time went on I would drop Into Blumber staring straight ahead in the darkness. I could see things in the dark probably more clearly than any one else could.” In the far north the summers with practically no .darkness, almost ruined his vision, and he returned to Seattle. He was without means and for years drifted around the country Some time ago a rich relative left him a fortune. Watson went to a Philadelphia surgeon, who removed pieces of skin from, various parts of his body and grafted them uppn his face, re storing it to a nearly normal appear ance. At the same tijne the surgeon, from other pieces of skin skillfully fashioned him a new set of eyelids, the artificiality of which can hardly be detected.