Most of these old print articles I bring you are about monkeys burglarizing apartments and immigrants brawling in barber shops, but this one from the January 9, 1902 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle is really heartwarming. The Eagle reprints an account from a Midwestern newspaper about a remarkable blind man who resided in Kokomo, Indiana. An excerpt:
“William Brinkman, the Kokomo, Indiana, blind man, who two years ago married Jennie Lamb, who beside being blind, is totally paralyzed, has disarmed his critics, who insisted that he had his hands full in taking care of himself without assuming additional burdens. In two years, Brinkman, unaided by charity, has paid for a home and improved it to a present worth of $800. The blind man has sold 3,880 pounds of peanuts and 31,000 popcorn balls. After preparing the morning meal and guiding the food to the mouth of the helpless wife, he rolls the peanut roaster downtown, returning home at noon and night for the other meals. He does all the housekeeping.
Beside that, he tunes pianos, repairs clocks and organs. Recently he took an organ of 420 pieces apart, cleaned it and had it together and playing in four hours. He declines all offers of charity. A short time ago Mr. Brinkman performed the perilous feat of climbing the Court House tower and repairing the town clock, when experts had failed. Mr. and Mrs. Brinkman became acquainted at the state blind school and with them it was a case of ‘love at first sight,’ as both expressed it.”
More Old Print Articles:
- Italian singer goes crazy, gets deported. (1901)
- Haunted house in Hempstead. (1890)
- Eccentric “inventor” mocks a Brooklyn judge. (1885)
- Dandy flirts with burlesque star, gets ass kicked. (1897)
- Actress Lillie Langtry uses cocaine. (1889)
- Drunken Englishman starts fight with a pig in Brooklyn. (1885)
- Carrie Nation arrested on Coney Island. (1901)
- Pig “actors” escape from Brooklyn theater. (1902)
- Cobbler tormented by pranksters. (1885)
- British fishermen kill a merman. (1896)
- Hobos steal fine clothes from decent folk. (1895)
- General Robert E. Lee kisses pretty girls. (1891)
- Monkey trained to steal jewelry. (1895)
- Brooklyn tailor tears out rival’s whiskers. (1898)
- Public baths required for Brooklyn filthbags. (1897)
- Judge orders monkey arrested. (1882)
- Silent film legend John Bunny is remembered in Brooklyn. (1915)
- Artist John Frankenstein perishes in Brooklyn. (1881)
- Four-year-old artistic genius in San Francisco. (1896)
- Brooklyn woman paints her own house, everybody freaks. (1900)
- Profile of an old-time clown. (1896)
- Performing bears at Bay Shore. (1895)
- Circus Freak gets indigestion after swallowing metal objects. (1904)
- Hairy woman thrown through barbershop window, uninjured. (1897)
- Hunchback paramour has throat cut. (1877)
- Inflated a boy with air. (1900)
- Prisoner gives evil eye to jailer. (1900)
- Three-card monte man passes away. (1878)
- Monkey rides bicycle. (1897)
- Bears brawl in Central Park. (1902)
- Umbrella duels. (1895)
- Boiling eggs with electricity. (1890)
- Billy goat guards recluse. (1900)
- Kissing bandit captured. (1892)
- A maniac gymnast. (1877)
- Brooklyn judge encounters sea monsters in his bathroom. (1902)
- Man finds severed human head, throws head back into creek. (1897)
- Brooklyn geezer tries to shoot noisy dogs. (1896)
- Hoaxer pretends to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. (1889)
- Manhattan madman goes on rampage. (1890)
- Fisticuffs at a male beauty pageant. (1893)
- Tough girl breaks detective’s nose. (1898)
- George Francis Train loses his mind. (1888)
- Organ grinder has monkey kidnapped. (1899)
- Human vampire behaves poorly. (1892)
Tags: Jennie Lamb, William Brinkman