Diary of a Dead Cat Quarterly-White Canes

Too Much Curiosity for Just Nine Lives

Apr 29, 2024

White Sticks & Blind Dogs

In Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes and a gabillion female mosquitoes who aren't shy about sucking the blood from your veins in liter batches, reside two cities.... cities? Places with lots of people. First, Grand Rapids. This poor town is overshadowed by its southern neighbor Grand Rapids, Iowa. Grand Rapids MN is famous, though, as the birthplace of Frances Gumm and her two sisters, Virginia and Mary Jane. Who? We’ll find out in the next paragraph. Hopefully.

Not too far from Grand Rapids (Minnesota) on a north-eastern trajectory lies the birthplace of Bobby Zimmerman, Hibbing MN. Now, Frances was born in 1922 while Zimmerman was born nearly 19 years later by which time Frances had already starred in The Wizard of Oz (1939) so naturally before that she changed her name to Judy Garland. Meanwhile, Zimmerman, the Bob Dylan of lore, started troubadouring around the upper Minnesota/New York City coffee house circuit in the early/earlier 60s with The Times They Are A Changin,’ dropping the first of many Gs on his way.

Here he is sitting on the lap of his great-grandmother with grandmother to the right and mother to the left (four generations of a changin’).

Besides changing their names and skedaddling out of Minnesota, and what changed? Think of this. Before World War I returning wounded blinded veterans of the various wars that occurred throughout the world had no real assistance in moving back into society. Blind, they could not read books or documents. Blind, they could rarely navigate traffic. Blind, they, like Blanche DuBois, had to rely on the kindness of strangers. Blind, they were at the mercy of said strangers. Blind rich veterans & other people could hire seeing-eye humans who could guide them through their day, read the necessary documents and/or signs, and keep up a running commentary on where they were, who they were talking to, what they were about to eat, and what they were about to step into or onto or off of. (i.e. random feces, trains, or short piers)

Take, for example, hoofing it across the street. Back in Gumm’s day (and maybe even Zimmerman’s afternoon) in Small Town USA, like Hibbing or Grand Rapids MN, with few cars, horses, or rowdy teenagers pumped up on Coca Cola, and free spirited drivers, a blind person could probably slide across the street to the drug store/malt shop for a date with Archie and Veronica without too much worry or fear of those new-fangled modes of transport: cars. But in larger places, like Grand Rapids, Iowa or New York City, the number of cars, street cars, noise, strangers on foot, strange pedestrians, and other novelties, like alley dogs, newspaper boys screaming the latest headlines in hopes of making a sale, and sandwich shop owners, made even crossing the street an ordeal for the blind.

Try it. Close your eyes. Not for just a few minutes. For a few hours. Like some actors who play Hamm in Samuel Beckett's Endgame, tape cotton to your eyelids to prevent light from entering. Sit, unlike Clov of Endgame fame who cannot sit and still takes care of Hamm, for an hour to get used to using only touch, sound, taste, and smell for your physical input. Then go for a hike around your neighborhood using only a stick to determine the lay of the land.

Now try to cross a busy boulevard in order to get to a store to buy some daily victuals or libations. You’ll find it difficult. Imagine that no person in a car, on a motorcycle, bicycle, or other quickly moving vehicle can actually see you stumbling ~ as you will ~ and the idea might percolate up that you need a signaling device to protect yourself with and to inform the nitwits in cars that you really are really, really blind and not just drunk.

Consider also, for the moment, why so many federal courthouse newsstands, if they still exist, are managed by the blind. How could and why would a blind person who can not read the newspapers or see the cash changing hands be in charge of the courthouse newsstand? Think on this for a bit while we tangent off into left field for a moment.

Enter: Guilly d'Herbemont.

Before World War I – billed as The War to End All Wars™ – blinded returning soldiers were at the whims of friends, family, strangers, and crazy people. After World War I, Jim Biggs, who was not a blinded war veteran but was blinded in an accident—not something a professional photographer, like Biggs, wanted to experience—and used a wooden cane to walk around his town but he found people—especially ignorant people in cars or on galloping horses—tended to ignore him. After all, he was just another upper class pretentious twit with a cane. Biggs hit on a better idea.

He painted his cane white so people could see it better. This was in 1922. Nine years later, Guilly d'Herbemont of France became known as the inventor of the white cane. She certainly publicized it better than Biggs but then again Biggs wasn’t out to make himself famous; he just wanted to know where he was going without simultaneously getting whacked by a car. A year before d'Herbemont, the Lions Club International also painted some wooden canes white for the blind.

However, it was after World War II ~ World War I failing to be the war to end all wars, although it gave it a good shot by killing off complete generations of men in several countries. Deaths lost in WWI by some of the countries trapped in the wave of imperial violence (approximately, don't get your itchy internet fingers in a twist if the numbers aren’t exact, the number of dead is staggering – taken from wikipedia and ww1facts.net at http://ww1facts.net/quick-reference/ww1-casualties/):

United Kingdom 1,040,000
US 125,000
Germany 2,000,000
France 1,150,000
Austria-Hungary 1,000,000

Five million+ people dead. For what? National pride? An inter-family squabble? Definitely not for more land. For increased trade? Doubtful. To keep the working man down?

~ that the white-cane-for-blind-people explosion really took off. How? Why? By whom? Where? Good questions all. Let’s see what kind of answers we can.... Come up with? Avoid?

Robert E. Hoover, rehabilitation expert, went a week ala Hamm using just a cane to find his way around the Valley Forge Army hospital where he worked. He invented and, maybe, named the Hoover Method which taught people to sweep the area in front of them as they walked, as if they were looking for landmines, in order to use the cane as a sensing device. This resulted in a longer and more light-weight cane than the more upper-class twit wooden cane with the gnarled knob or curved top so common amongst upper-class twits. Because of Hoover's work, blinded WW2 soldiers were given long white light-weight canes rather than being ignored.

Schall & Gore

But what has all this white cane business have to do with Hibbing or Grand Rapids Minnesota, you ask, Sir? A rightly good question that shouldn’t be left unanswered! alone and quivering on the cold marble floor of the state capital building. But before that, should we mention that the white cane comes in two or three flavors: long and straight or long and collapsible? There is, sadly, also a kiddie cane for blind children to use until they are tall enough for the long cane which typically goes from the person’s lowest rib to the ground in length. Users are instructed to hold it in front of themselves vs at their side like the children do due to coordination issues—and sweep the area in front of them (the Hoover Method).

Back to our Hibbing and Grand Rapids conundrum. Thomas D. Schall was a US Representative, US Senator, lawyer, and poor kid who was born in Michigan but soon moved with his newly widowed mother to Minnesota. He did a bunch of stuff poor kids did like sell newspapers when he was less than ten years old and getting robbed by the time he was eleven, but his mother always pushed him to get an education, which, because of Schall’s desire, love of his mother, and his public speaking skills, he managed to do. In fact, he got his law degree from the University of Minnesota which is located in Dinky Town Minneapolis. He got this degree in 1904 and began practicing law. Whilst practicing, he oftentimes smoked cigars because that is what successful men did in those days. Also, being an early adapter of new fangled devices, he bought a new-fangled object called an electric cigar lighter. Most people... no, most men—as women didn’t smoke cigars in public, at least back in those gender-specific hobby days—used a match. Schall used his new electric toy.

One fateful day Mr. Schall went to light his cigar. It didn't exactly light his cigar as usual. Instead it blew up. It burnt his cigar-lighting arm and threw him backwards with great ambition. No worries, though, Schall continued practicing law. In fact, he returned to court after getting his seared arm looked at. But he noticed his eyesight worsened. Within one year, by 1908, he was legally blind. A legally blind lawyer. Blind justice? Schall did what he could do without sight: he ran for the US House of Representatives and won. And served. For 10 years. With his wife reading documents to him.

Then, in 1923 he lost his re-election effort to get back into the House so he did what he could do without sight: he ran for the US Senate. And won. And served for ten years with his wife reading documents to him. He served until one day, while crossing the street in Washington DC with a sighted aide, the second great tragedy of his life occurred. One that he couldn’t compensate for by having his wife read to him. Schall and the aide were run over by a hit-and-run probably sighted driver. Schall died three days later.

While in office for 20 years, though, Schall used a white cane. One of two blind US Senators to do so.

In 1907, when Schall was getting injured by his electric cigar lighter, another man named Thomas, from the newly-formed state of Oklahoma, was being sworn in as a US Senator in the Capital Building in Washington, DC. All senators are sworn in — they swear to uphold the US Constitution and obey laws and trust in God. But this senator, the one from Oklahoma, was the first to be sworn in from Oklahoma because Oklahoma had just become a state. And, this senator was not like the other senators except Schall.

During a tumultuous youth, two accidents snapped his vision away from him like so much coinage from an under-aged newspaper boy trying to make a buck to support his family so Thomas Gore (Albert’s relative and Gore Vidal's grandfather) was not only the first senator from Oklahoma but he was also the first blind senator from Anywhere, USA.

Thomas Gore became one of the most powerful senators in the Senate. It was through him that blind people got preference in running newspapers stands and what-not in federal office buildings. Ever wonder why the newsstand guy or girl was blind? Remember back to the beginning of this meandering? Thank Senator Gore for that. For requiring courthouses to employ the blind, that is, not the meandering.

The Dogs of Dorothy Eustis

Sticks are great, especially if you need to know what’s on the ground in front of you but there is one draw-back to a stick: it’s difficult to communicate and hug a stick. Therefore, early, like during or shortly after The War to End All Wars™, a Swiss person started training animals to be the eyes for the blind. Not just any animal, either. Elephants, for example, while perhaps excellent seeing-eye animals, were a bit bulky to run down to the corner malt shop with. No, she used dogs. Mostly she used Retrievers and Labradors. However, the seeing-eye dog didn’t really catch on in the post-WWI period. Again, in the post-WWII period, however, the idea and the dogs began to grow on people. Today almost all countries have laws allowing guide dogs and other animals to enter places where animals are usually not allowed, such as hospitals and restaurants.

There are advantages to the animal over a stick. Most importantly, anyone who requires an assistance animal can communicate with it; talk to, listen to, hug, enjoy things with, share food, and even watchTV. When depressed or lonely, the animal is there to be hugged or to listen. When happy, the dog is there to enjoy the laughter. A stick very rarely can understand human emotions.

Also, a stick can very rarely warn a human of impending danger. For example, a dog can sense that a person approaching has bad intent, and direct the human away from him or her. If the bad person does try to harm the blind person, a stick is not as useful as an animal with teeth. A dog bites, growls, howls, and attacks. Other benefits are manifold, including:

psychologically,
socially,
physiologically.

Blind people with seeing-eye dogs (or monkeys) seem to have more:

confidence,
friendship,
security.

Companionship offered by a service pet reduces:

anxiety,
depression, and
loneliness,
stress

Because all of these benefits fall on the blind person, they become friendlier, get out of the house more, meet more people (the dog is a conversation-starter—the dog doesn’t start the conversation so much as become the focal point for a conversation. If the dog could speak, it would be of great wonder and enlightenment for not only humans in general but the blind person specifically), and get more exercise so they get to be healthier than their couch-bound brethren & sistern (sistern? Sounds like something we’d store water in).

You would think with all the benefits of having a service pet running around the house and taking people shopping, to work, to school, and, in at least one case, to Congress, that the seeing-eye dog movement would take off in leaps and bounds long before it was necessary. There were references to the blind being lead by dogs waaaaay back in the 16th century but nothing big was recorded.

Until, of course, after WWI. In Germany. But in 1927 Dorothy Eustis wrote an article for the now defunct but at the time popular and Norman Rockwell-cover spouting Saturday Evening Post about animals helping people and that same year Senator Thomas D. Schall of the Minnesota Schalls got himself a dog — you remember, of course, Schall was blinded by his cigar lighter earlier and went on to be the second US Senator with only Sight problems (versus Thinking problems). He of the White Stick fame. In about 1928 another guy, Morris Frank by name, went to Switzerland, where Eustis had her Service Animal Instruction Village, got himself a dog, got trained to use the dog, returned to the US where Schall was Senator and went all over the US giving speeches and demonstrating the usefulness of a service animal, in his case, a German shepherd. Then Eustis and Frank opened a US-centric The Seeing Eye school and Tada! Seeing eye animals became more popular.

Speaking of animals, any dog can be a seeing eye dog but the most common are Labrador Retrievers, German shepherds, and Golden Retrievers. Animals are chosen for the height, intelligence, and compatibility. Wait. Height? Yes, height. The person using a dog doesn’t want to bend down too far to communicate with the animal so the animal has to be tall enough (at the shoulder, not the head) so the Human will be comfortable. Chihuahuas would probably not be a good choice for such a job because the harness would have to be too long, they have limited intelligence, and seem to get excited by everything from cat burglars to the sun rising.

Originally seeing eye dogs were dogs for the blind. Then their title was gradually shifted over to assistance dog, service animal, or assistance animal because their duties changed. From seeing for the blind, they became helpers in other ways and other species as well. Chimpanzees have been used as helpers around the house, for example. Smaller dogs such as bull dogs, have been used as, basically, comforters. A psychological wounded returning war veteran has a better chance of recovery if he or she has an animal to a) look after and b) looks after them by giving them unconditional moral and psychological support. Size is of no concern when the animal is used for hugging and caring for. There has even been an assistance dog for a dog; and a seeing eye cat for a dog.

One blind dog seemed to its owners to be depressed; seldom left the house, seldom played, seldom seemed interested in life itself. Then the owners acquired another dog who, the humans have said, spent a few hours with the blind dog. Figuring out the blind dog couldn't see, the new dog became the older dog’s seeing eye companion. The result: more frolicking outdoors, more playfulness, more interest in living on the part of the blind dog.

Cane to Dog to Assistance

From a cane to a white cane; from a white cane to a lightweight longer white cane; from a lightweight longer white cane to a lightweight longer white collapsible cane; from the lightweight longer white collapsible cane to a dog. As society grows so do the descriptions of what people use; syllables multiply. Cane = one syllable. But the more user friendly: lightweight longer white collapsible cane = 10.

From a dog (one) to an assistance animal (six). All were developed or trained for the sole purpose of taking care of humans; humans with sight problems to humans with psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (eight) which, during The War to End All Wars ™ aka World War One, was called Shell Shock! (two)

All have given people more confidence, more opportunities, and more ability to grab life by the horns and toss it willy-nilly about as if it didn't belong to the Francis Gumms or Bob Zimmermans but to anyone from Minnesota, Oklahoma, or anywhere on the planet. Confidence and independence, the two ingredients most needed by humans for success, friendship, and happiness.

Diary of a Dead Cat Quarterly

Too Much Curiosity for Only Nine Lives

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