The Portland daily press., 1881-02-21
[Christian Register.l
Sight for the Sightless.

The intelligent and benz fcent spirit of mod
ern civilization is nowhere more clearly seen
than in its zeal to improve the condition of its
most unfortunate classes The efforts to edu-
cate the blind furnish good example. For
centuries the blind were left in the darkness
in which they were born, or which had dropped
like pail upon their eyes. 1t was vista
tion OF God: there was no relief. The i'm
prisoned soul must languish in its darkness.
The blind son of Timaus sat by the roadside,
begging and praying to the passing Jesus that
he might receive his sight. To day, we learn
that Bartimeus is born to be something better
than beggar: and, if we cannot give him
sight by any miracle of healing, we may teach
him how to make the most of the powers that
are left to him. If blind man is only beg
gar to-day, we have neglected him, or he has
neglected his opportunities. Ophthalmology
has made positive advances. Phases of blind
ness may be relieved to-day by the skillful ocu-
list that could rot be successfully treated a
hundred years ago. But, after all that science
can do, there must ever remain large num-
Der of incurables; and for these there is only
one relief: it is to carry the optic nerve into
the fnger-tips. Educate brain, hand, hearing
If the veil cannot be lifted from the eyes, seek
another entrance to the brain. How success
fully this has been done to-day it would be
almost supertuOus to mention. 1t is marvel
GUS how the soul will lind it's way out through
every nerve and almost every pore, when any
of the common gateways to the mind are
closed. Charles Dickens could find nothing
more wonderful in his first visit to America
than that soul imprisoned like that of Laura
pr,Io hah
communication and joyful fellowship with the
unfettered spirits about 1t.
The success of the modern method is seen in
the great results it has produced. The typical
blind person to-day is not the labeled mendi-
cant who is led around proclaiming his msfor-
tune, but the intelligent, cultivated, seli-help-
ful, eager students of that noble monument to
DIR. Howe on Dorchester Heights. 1t is per-
haps the man who tunes our pianos, makes our
mattresses, seats our chairs, upholslers our fur
niture, or the girl who crochets or weaves the
delicate and graceful articles whose beauty OF
'rin or color she herself cannot fully know.
44ere is a blind man who builds government
launch on new model which outstrips all
competitors. Here is another who graduates
with the second honors at Columbia College,
and now writes a remarkable treatise on an
aDstruse branch OF mathematical science; or
still another who invents and improves press
Tor printing the embossed literature for those
who like himself are debarred from reading
Inc common print. Surely, 1t pays to educate
the blind, when the account is transferred to
The other side of the page, and society becomes
the debtor.
We have just been reading the Report of the
Trustees of the Perkins Institution for the
Blind. And we have heartily wished that we
had few thousand gold dollars to pour down
the chimneys of that institution, which might
be expended in the special work of extending
the literature for the blind. If the sensitive
1nger-tip can be SO educated that it may trace
out those symbols of thought which cannot be
read by the eye, and if blind man can per-
feet press which can prepare the page for the
educated finger, surely such press ought not
to lie idle for want of money to run it.