The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-02-21 00:00:00

PROFESSOR FAWCETT on the WELFARE

of the BLIND.

In London, on Tuesday evening, Professor Fawcett, M. P.,
delivered an address at a gathering of the Christian Blind
Relief Society, held at the Victoria Park Tabernacle. Mr.
Fawcett was greeted with enthusiastic cheering as he made
his appearance and made his way along the centre of the
building, hand in hand with the guide who conducted him
p the platform. In rising to address the meeting he was
again loudly cheered. He said :

Those who are blind have to bear a common burden,
rand it seems to me that some practical advantage may
possibly be obtained if we gather together and inter-
change our common experience, and tell each other
phroobabwthlyat burden can be most lightly borne.
(Hear, hear.) Unlike some of you, who have
been deprived of your sight from your
childhood, I did not lose my sight until man-
hood—until I was about twenty-five years of
age—and when an event happened to me which
suddenly and ar ever deprived me of sight, I
felt that the commou-senee thing to do was to take
stock and see how my new and changed life could
best be lived. (Hear, hear.) 'Many friends came for-
ward to me with kind advice, and they staid to me—
prompted, no doubt, by the beet of motives—" Oh,
you should live a life of quiet conversation," Well, I
did not. I came to a very distinct conclusion that that
was not the best course to adopt. I have kept firmly
to a resolve which I then made, and I can unheeitet-
ingly say to any one who may in future be deprived of
sight the best thing to do is to live as far as possible
exactly the same life as if you still had your sight.
(Hear, hear,) Of ceurse, there are marls thiues
which it is impossible for us to do, but there
are many things which we can do, I know there are
many blind people who can do far more than I area
able to do. lam often struck, I may say amused, at
tha digvlay 1174hozu of woudesf el doteAlLy whioli
I lay no claim; but when I was 25, and when I
lost my sight, there were many pursuits in life of
which I was passionately fond, and I determined
that those I could follow I still would continuo
to follow. I have done so, and I derive perhaps
as much pleasure from them as I did in days of
yore. (Hear, hear.) Dr. Seddon has said that lam
a skilled angler. I am not; but I say that there is no
one who more eejeys than I do catching salmon
in the Tweed or the Spey, or throwing a fly in some
ehalk stream in Hampshire or Wiltshire, in spots which
I remember well. I enjoy as much as anyone does a
gallop over the turf with soma friend who will accom-
pany me. I can appreciate all the health-giving
vigour of a long row from Oxford to London. I
remember during the late long frost, although it
nipped up a great many people, I do not think there
was anyone in the whole country who, in the com-
panionship of a friend, more erjoyed a long fifty or
sixty miles' skate over the Fens. I think there is
nothing I should more regret than for it to be supposed
for a moment that I refer to these facts of my life in
any spirit of boasting or vaingloriousness. Bat I feel
extremely anxious to tell those who have to carry on
life under the same circumstances as myeelf that there
is still for us an abundant store of pleasure and enjoy-
ment if we only have the courage and determination
to avail ourselves of it. (Cheers.) It had been said
(continued Mr, Fawcett) that there was a wonderful
power of compensation in nature for persons suffering
under our affliction. Now the chief compensation the sil-
ver lining to the dark cloud, was the vvonderful and inex-
haustible fund of human kindness to be found in this
world and the appreciation which blind people must
have at every moment of their life of the cordial and
ready willingness with which the services which they
needed were generously offered to them. (Cheers,)
There had been much discussion in the Press of late
with regard to the agencies best calculated to womote
'the welfaie of the blind, consequent upon the munifi-
cent benefaction of £300,000 lately left by Mr.
Gardner. Now it seemed to him that there were two
distinct classes of blind persons to be considered. those
blind from childhood and those deprived of sight late
In life. With regard to the first the greatest service and
kindness to them, and one which had been neglected
till quite lately in England, was, not to rear them in
the bonds of charitable dependence, but to send them
forth in the world to earn their own living, The
Normal College for the Blind at South Norwood, a
highly deserving institution, to whose welfare the Duke
of Westminster had devoted nspeasing energy, was
conducted on this principle. With regard to the adult
blind he should say, do not immure them in great in-
stitutions. (Hear, hear.) He thought that the cordial
and ready sympathy enlisted by this form of affliction
should be more judiciously directed. As an example,
ha might say that there were no less than some eight
or nine different systems of printing for the blind, all
scanty,
iext
aet
nrr eat
yn
u. erley
Supposingwexi t ph ei nu s
the reach
er and themoof common-sense
see un
blindis te hadpla nwbwae
see
were
ex thatatrdmp tte hel
dye
of coming at once to a decision as to which was the best
system, regardless of the particular claims of rival pro-
lectors ? The literature of the blind would than be
multiplied four or five fold, and the naastc,rpitcos of
English literature would be brought within their reach.
He had, perhaps, detained them too long—(No, no)—
but his own practical experience might possibly give
0,114C1 ri htawrvk.o to attest, who hed to live life iu the
same manner as he had lived it. Mr. Fawcett con.
chided, amidst loud cheering, by proposing a cordial
and hearty vote of thapka to Dr. Seddon, -their szood
friend and hie. .
Altogether about 1,6C0 persons were present, in-
cluding 150 blind persons and an equal number of
guides, who were provided with tea. A vocal nod
instrumental concert, supported in great part by the
blind visitors, was also given, and addresses were de-
livered by Dr. Seddon and Mr. John J. Jones, the
new Liberal candidate for Stoke.