"The people on the streets of the Square today are not those of 20 years ago," declared Dan, the blind newsman who has run his stand opposite the rotunda for that length of time, "and not only the people have changed but the Square itself."
"You know there's something about being blind that makes people want to ask you questions," he went on to say. "I'm sure that many people who see me every day believe, and always will believe, that I can see. In fact some of them ask me. The most popular query however, is how I can enjoy smoking when I can't see the smoke. But to that question, I always ask in turn if that is the questioner's reason for smoking. At the invariable answer of 'yes' I always suggest that such a person might save money by sitting on the curb and watching a chimney.
"It's a queer thing, the friends a blind man makes," asserted Dan. "A man who buys a paper from me every day is Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, and he's always ready with a bit of cheerful conversation. He's taken me to dinner at the Colonial Club too, and he says that when things seem to be a bit black he thinks of the tough time I've had and realizes that it's not as bad as it might be."
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