Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-05-28
Laura 1Irldgpslals.

Tho Hartford Times copies tho nc
count Of Sophia II. Hutson, the deaf,
dumb, and Blind girl. of Wilkesbnrrc,
Penn, which recently appeared, and
referring to Miss Laura Bridgman, who
WIS spoken of in the Same connection,
says: Miss Bridgman is owprobnbly
ilfty-eight years old or more. She is
still with the Bloomfield fnmily, with
whom she has lived for perhaps the lust
thirty years, or since her departure
from tho American Asylum. The f"mi-
" havo recently removed from tho
houso where she l,ns lived for So long u
time. to Il residence at Bloomfield Cen
tre, near the Congregational Church.
1t will probably talse L,urn some time
to become familiar with tho Ito herr
unknown premises but she learns with
surprising readiness when ono reflects
how completely she liz isolated from the
world of outward things. Sho could
go about tho house and premises where
she lived as readily us most persons
who have the full use Of their senses,
anil she can also distinguish instantly
tho different persons with whom she is
brought in contact. Nearly half cen
fury ago, when she was Mt tho asylum
here, her powers Of discrimination il,
this latter respect were such as to aston
isl, people who went to sec her. For
instance, party of ladies, strangers to
her, called to sec her ut tho asylum, and
had their interview with hor after they
had t"ken of and hung up their sllawls,
bonnets, &c. Laura, (who has always
possessed the sense of tOuch) went tt
each one of them, and felt of them
After satisfying her curiosity in this
way, she went OH with her usual work
for she could knit, and do a good many
other things. When tho ladies rose tc
depart, she went to the place where
they had hung up their j" things" and
taking down each article separately
took it straight to its proper owner.
What a fate is hers Here she has
lived for nearly sixty years life al
isolated from the world around her
An interior world is hers, into which
nothing. that We know Of light--the
physical light of the snn-can ever en-.
ter, nor any outward sound. Alike tc
her, through ail tho years, the silence
OF midnight or the cheerful sounds OF
daily life, the notes of birds, the voices
of winds and leaves and falling waters,
the power of music, the peal Of thunder
the loving tones of the human voice.
Silent herself, she dwells in her OWL
world of absolute silence. If, rs some
people might believe, there are for he,
interior voices, she has no means of ap.
prising her friends of her soul expe.
riences. We must accept tho outward
seeming that to her, and such as she,
the world is world of darkness and ol
silence. What, to soul so imprison
ed, must be the final awakening into
the life of
g That deep dawn behind tho tomb"
which the consultations of religion assure
to us, and whose finer light in light
inspires the Hottest strains of the poet :
1t was the case of just such an affiiction
that of an interesting daughter of DIR.
Coggswell, of Hartford, who, unlike
her sisters, was "deaf, dumb, and
blind, that interested philanthropic
al people, nearly sixty years ago, in the
beneficient educational project of the
American Asylum; and it was of her,
and her death, that Mrs. Sigourney,
rising to the imagination of the final
awakening and release of,that imprison.
cd soul, attuned her harp to it's finest
strain, in the poem beginning,
Sisters, there's music here"