Show blind man leads in in tidying streets street s EW YORK reuben S N NEW supervisor of children in the juvenile league Is blind but he la is the most valuable man in the street cleaning department and ho he la is not unhappy over the loss of his sight because he Is too fond of work and too busy to be unhappy over anything 1 I never think of my blindness he says except when I 1 hear someone speak of the poor blind man that cuts like a knife anif e I 1 do my work as well as though I 1 had my eyes maybe better there are no distractions in this world within which I 1 live I 1 only think of my work what the eye does not liot see the heart does not grieve for thirteen years ago reuben simons eyes began to pain him for the past seven years he be has been totally blind and yet within that time he has organized a movement among the school children of new york in which are now enlisted they pledge themselves to aid the street cleaning department in keeping the thoroughfares free of rubbish rub biah their duty Is not merely the passive one of refraining from throwing trash upon the 1 street they help enforce the law erring householders are warned by the volunteer aids and if that warning Is not obeyed there Is prompt recourse to the law the members of the 72 leagues in 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 ina for sociability that has always been his 1 I always liked to organize clubs when I 1 was tt a boy he said we organized for all sorts of purposes I 1 like excitement brisk movement happiness I 1 like to see things the incongruity in that expression does not bother him 1 I have cultivated the inner eye he said 1 I have a power of imagination I 1 can see you and the people passing by just as I 1 can see the children sitting before me when I 1 go into a schoolroom to organize a junior league it never occurs to me to think that I 1 am blind |