Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-05-28
Laur0 Brid0nlall.

The Hartford Times copies tho NC
count of Sophia H. Hutson, the deaf,
dumb, and blind girl. of Wilkesbarrc,
Penn, which recently appeared, and
referring to Miss Laura Bridgman, who
was spoken of in the Same connection,
says: Miss Bridgman is now probably
hfty-oight years old or more. She il
still with the Bloomfield family, with
whom she has lived for perhaps tho last
thirty years, or since her departure
from tho American Asylum. Tho fami-
" have recently removed from the
house where sho has lived for so long a
time, to q residence at Bloomfield Con
tre, ncar the Congregational Church.
It will probably take Laura some time
to become familiar with tho TO herr
unknown premises but she learns with
surprising readiness when one reflects
how completely she is isolated from the
world of outward things. She could
go about the house and premises where
she lived rs readily us most persons
who have tho full use of their senses,
md she can also distinguish instantly
the 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 in
this latter respect were such as to aston.
ish people who went to see her. Fol
instance, a party of ladies', strangers to
her, called to SEQ her at the asylum, and
had their interview with hor after they
had taken off and hung up their shawls,
bonnets, &c. Laura, s(who has always
possessed the sense of touch) went to
each one of them, and felt of them.
After satisfying her curiosity in this
way, she went on with her usual work
tor she could knit, and do good many
other things. When the ladies rose to
depart, she went to the place where
they had hung up their I" things" and,
taking down each article separately,
took it straight to its proper owner.
What fate is hers !! Here she has
lived for nearly sixty years a life all
An interior world is hers, into which
nothing that we know Of light-the
physical light of the sun-can ever en-
ter, nor any outward sound. Alike to
her, through oil the 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 own
world of absolute silence. If, as some
people might believe, there are for her
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 of
silence. What, to q soul so imprison-
ed, must be the final awakening into
the life of
!" 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 affection
that of all interesting daughter of DR..
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. Sigourncy.
rising to the Imagination of the final
awakening and release of,that imprison-
ed soul, attlned her harp to its finest
strain, in the poem beginning,
Sisters, there's music here"