PATHETIC STORY OF THE BLIND" PETRIFIED SISTERS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10413, 10 April 1897, Page 2 (Supplement)

PATHETIC STORY OF THE BLIND " PETRIFIED SISTERS."

SLOWLY TURNING TO STONE. THE VICTIMS OF A STRANGE DISEASE. Rome, N.Y.. Feb. 5.-In a pretty little cottage in Fox street, in this town, live two sisters-Mrs. Emma Palmer and Miss Stella Ewing. Both are beautiful women, &f,\ both are totally blind and both are slowly " dying of a frightful disease. They are literally turning to stone. For nearly a quarter of a century one of these women has watched the coming of spring consoious of the fact that each day was binding her more firmly in the chains of a livinir death. Her sister for nearly half that time has been ber companion in misery. The physician who during the past few years havo attended them say that medical history does not offer a parallel of this wonderful dual case of ossification. WHAT THE DOCTORS SAY. Dr. Thomas M, Flandrau, of Rome, an authority-on liko diseases, says the peculiar malady from which Mrs. Emma Palmer and her sister, Miss Stella Ewing, are offering is chronic rheumatism of the joints, which gradually results in ossification and utter helplessness of the patient. Dr. Flandrau says their blindness is the result of rheumatic inflammation of the eyes. Vet both of them may live for years to come, as the ossification, although of deadlycertainty, is mail-like in its progress. This disease, Dr. Flaudrau says, is neither contagious nor infectious, and the fact that two Sisters are alike afflicted is only a very remarkable coincidence. Dr. H. C. Sutton, another well-known physician of Home, goys the disease is rheumatoid arthritis, the most hopeless of all the forms of rheumatic diseases, ossifying in time tho whole body, bo that it becomes like death. He is inclined to think the case of Miss Ewing, who was the last to be afflicted, was partly the result of nervous sympathy, as it is not inherited, none of their family before them having ever, so far as he could learn, been afflicted in like manner. Jlrs. Palmer, who is now forty, taught in a school at Holland Patent, N.Y., for several years, both before and after her marriage. Miss Ewing, who is about thirty, was a trained nurse at the State Hospital in Utica. She was engaged to be married to one of the hospital physicians, but her illness, which began nine years ago, made it necessary to postpone the wedding from time to time, and at last MISS Ewing broke the engagement. One of the most touching episodes connected with the life of this afflicted woman is the loving fondness with which she clings to the worn gold circlet on her finger—the engagement ring—placed there by the man she loved. SCFFER IN PATIENCE. Through weary years of sorrow and pain such as it has been the lot of few mortals to bear, these two women have never been heard to murmur against their fate. They spend their days in singing hymns and their nights in prayer. Mrs. Palmer has written, or rather composed, a number of poems of a deeply religious nature. They have been collected by her friends and published in a book entitled "Pearls of Tears." I saw these pationt gentlewomen in their little cottage yesterday. I shrank from the ordeal, but nerved myself for the shock. I had heard so much of the dreadful appearance of these women from those who had never seen them that I was prepared to encounter a gruesome spectacle. A maid-of-all work showed me into tho parlour, where, on a raised stretcher, lay a motionless figure, covered in such a manner that it looked like a corpse. For a moment I was unspeakably shocked, for I thought one of tho«e 1 had come to see was dead. Soon a sweet voice from the depths ot what looked like a winding eheet said : " Did someone come in f And will, whoever it is, come here nnd speak to me! You see I am not as polito as I would like to be." The maid lifted the veil from the free of the sufferer, and then for the first --~- —tiirie I knew sho was blind. Strange as it may eeem, none of those in Rome who bad told me of these women knew that they were sightless. They only knew thoy were ossified. Mrs. Palmer thon told me tho story of her . affliction. "Nearly twenty years ogo 1 began to have attacks of rheumatism or of severe pains in my lower limbs, from whioh I suffered more than tongue can tell. After each recurring attack I found I grew weaker and did not get back to my normal condition. I felt my joints getting stiff. And so, year after yoar, I found my life one of dire affliction—almost more than I could bear. But you know God never sends anything on us we are not ablo to endure. Fifteen years ago my vision began to fail, and for fourteen years I have been blind, I was brought to Roran about sovon year? ago from Holland Patent because I had a eister living hete, and it was deemed hotter for me to be with her. "My poor sister began to bo afflicted about nine years ago just as I hild boon, and now she is here with me, helpless and blind as I am. She lies just to my right in tho next room. Go in and see her." Stepping through the open door I found Miss Ewing, her p;ile, wan face and sightless eyes turned towards the ceiling. She whs stretched upon the ?ame sort of couch as that on which Mrs. Palmer lay-something like an operating chair, mounted on three wheels. ■ME SISTER'S PITHETIC NARRATIVE, Jlws Ewing said thai although her sister nnd she could not see each other and could nevor again clasp each other's hands, yet they were good company for each other and were thankful to bo together. "We are only waiting for the sweet hereafter," she said, "which we know will be all the dearer and moro blessed - for our sufferings here. Tho one thing we feared iibove all others was poverty. Tho thought of being objects of charity was terrible to U3. Wo have managed through nur housemaid and others who have been kind enough to help us to sell littlo household commodities to support ourselves outside of alittle money lelt by our father, our sisters, who live here, giving up tlieir share to US. "We may livo many years. I hope not. But if ive do I hope we will not want, and I know wo shall not, for (iod i< good." .Miss Ewing is very palo and shows fijrua of great suffering, while Mrs. Palmer has a complexion :ind colour which would suggest perfect health. While their limbs are stiff ind utterly helpless and their bodies rigd, the flesh of both of their faces is soft und pliable.-Correspondent of New York World.