GLASS EYES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3297, 16 August 1911, Page 8

GLASS EYES.

SOME COMIC ADVENTURES

The Camorra trial has 'been tlie occasion of several sensational episodes, not the least striking of which was the extraordinary behaviour of one of the prisoners, named Esposito, who, in a nr of hysterical rage, took out the glass eye of which he was the unfortunate possessor and hurled it on the floor or the court. . .

Not long since a case arising out of a glass eye was tried at the Enniskillen Sessions, when a lad named Gallagher sued a draper for damages for the retention of a glass eye. The lad, vho had borrowed money from his employer for the purpose of travelling to Dunlin to be fitted with, a false eye, haying received the offer of a bettex* situation, gave notice and asked for a character, which the draper, in whose debt ie still stood, refused to give. AT' THE PAWNBROKER’S.

Nor was that all, for, chancing to meet his erstwhile employee, the draper took him into his shop, and then demanded the glass eye as security for the loan. Overawed bj r the other’s threatening attitude, Gallagher.handed over his eye, and consequently, by leason of his disfigurement, lost the place for which he Lad' applied. He therefore sued his former employe, who was ordered to pay £2. Although in. the foregoing case the possessor of the glass eye most assuredly -objected to his property being considered in the light of a'pledge, there is more than one instance of an artificial eye being voluntarily placed in pown. • A pawnbroker, carrying on business in an eastern county town, told the writer that he had at one time a client who invariably, every week when his money ran short, raised sufficient on his glass eye to carry him on till next pay-day, when his property was redeemed. This transaction, with but few intermissions, lasted . for several years, until the man’s death. So aggrived was Charles Kraus, of Cincinnati, on discovering that his wife, whom he had just married, was the unfortunate possessor of a glass eye and a wooden leg that he brought an action for divorce, arguing that, as he had not espoused the complete woman for whom he had bargained; he should bp released from his. obligation. Judge Davis, however, decided in favor of the wife, on the ground that, not having before marriage been asked Ayhether she had any physical defects, there was no question of wilful deceit.

ALARMING THE CABBY

"It is not unlawful,” concluded the learned judge, dealing with the legal aspect of the case, "for woman to attract mankind with devices and attachments used to improve the work of Nature. Otherwise, why should not false hair and other falsities peculiar to females be made a ground of divorce?” Altercation over a fare gave the late Henry Herman, the dramatist,, opportunity for playing a joke at cabby’s expense. Herman was the unlucky possessor of- a glass eye which, on Jehu’s waxing demonstrative with liis whip—• the lash whereof passed perilously near his features—he suddenly pulled out and, thrusting it in cabby’s face, shouted, "You rascal! Look what yon’ve done! You’ve cut my eye out!” The next second the driver whipped up his horse and fled.

Of the many strange clubs that are on record none is more singular and bizarre than the "Glass Eyes,” which formerly held their meetings at Moscow, in Russia. The members, of this extraordinary coterie; ail of .Avhom had lost an eye, met once a month at the house of their president, avlio avus elected annually. At these gatherings, Avhich Avere solely oonvival, the false eyes Avere taken out and their redistribution was—for tlie cA'cning only—determined by lot. Some years ago. by reason of a dearth of candidates eligible for membership, the club ceased to exist.