In a large factory in which were employed several hundred
persons, one of the workmen, in wielding his hammer, carelessly
allowed it to slip from his hand. It flew half way across
the room, and struck a fellow workman in the left eye. The
man averred that his eye was blinded by the blow, altho a
careful examination failed to reveal any injury, there being
not a scratch visible. He brought a suit in the courts for
compensation for the loss of half of his eyesight, and refused
all offers of compromise. Under the law, the owner of the
factory was responsible for an injury resulting from an accident
of this kind, and altho he believed that the man was shamming,
and that the whole case was an attempt at swindling, he had
about made up his mind that he would be compelled to pay the
claim. The day of the trial arrived, and in open court an
eminent occulist retained by the defense examined the alleged
injured member, and gave it as his opinion that it was as good
as the right eye. Upon the plaintiff’s loud protest of his
inability to see with his left eye, the occulist proved him a
perjurer, and satisfied the court and jury of the falsity of his
claim. And how do you suppose he did it? Why, simply by knowing
that the colors green and red combined made black. He prepared
a black card on which a few words were written with green ink.
Then the plaintiff was ordered to put on a pair of spectacles
with two different glasses, the one for the right eye being red
and the one for the left eye consisting of ordinary glass. Then
the card was handed him and he was ordered to read the writing
on it. This he did without hesitation, and the cheat was at once
exposed. The sound right eye, fitted with the red glass, was
unable to distinguish the green writing on the black surface of
the card, while the left eye, which he pretended was sightless,
was the one with which the reading had to be done.--_Pottery
Gazette._
(1780)
=Liberality=--See GENEROSITY.