The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-08-13
Hooks and Eyes.

Hooks and Eyes is the absurd name OF
our club. We are not dressmakers, but
Just dozen girls whose eyes trouble them.
And we are hooked together in this So
ciety to find out ways and means of pass
ing the eight hours of daylight and the
four hours of gaslight with more pleasure
aud profit than we can pass them alone.
Of course, we have all tried to kill time
and ennui by doing homework, calling on
neighbors, exercising in the open air, and
the rest of the programme always laid out
for people who are forbidden to open
book or thread a needle. We have done
everything useful and useless, and yet
been bored with ourselves. Our faces be-
gan to wear the vacant look of the totally
blind, and then somebody suggested that
we form the Hooks and Eyes Club, and
we did. In every place there are a good
many people whose eyes trouble them (;
certainly in our little town we had no
difficulty in finding afflicted ones. We
have some who cannot use their eyes at
all some who can read for five minutes
day; some who are only compelled to wear
glasses and use their eyes with care; but
in our working hours none Of our mem
bers are allowed to use their eyes the
least bit in the world. We have fine
imposed on any girl who looks at her
work, for we know oculists say their young
lady patients, when advised to stop read
ing, take up fine embroidery, and wonder
they cannot be cured We meet twice a
week at each others houses, open the ex-
ercises by tea-drinking, and then have
a paid reader-an outsider, of course
read aloud to US. On Monday we have
French or German on Thursday, English (;
and before each lesson, one girl, chosen
at random, must give an oral sb-
stract of the previous chapter. Some
times we have novels read aloud but gen.
orally we eyeless ones prefer solid books,
since the home people will gladly read
novels to us, and we need sterner stuff for
thoughtmaterial in our weary do-noth-
ing hours. During the reading we knit
net, sew stripes together for silk curtains,
or tie rag mats. We sold our work at a
fair last year; but other clubs might pre-
fer giving their afgbans, worsted balls,
tennis nets, and Irvine hammocks as
Christmas presents to their friends. We
have poetry recited, and music, and some.
times story told. Our reader is an ex.
cellent amanuensis, and is often en-
ployed after hours by one of our members
to write down these stories, which are
afterwards sent, with varying luck and
ill-luck, to all the magazines and papers
Once the Christian Union paid for one Of
these dictated stories price so large that
the club had an ice-cream treat We re-
quire new members to pass through a
severe ordeal before admitted. To prove
they have four good senses, If not five
they must tell the difference in taste be-
tween sugar and salt, in feeling and touct
between muslin and linen, in sound be
tween major and minor scale, in smell
between cologne and rose-water or be
tween violets and lilies. When our mem
bers' eyes recover, we put them on oul
roll of honor, and allow them to send III
candy or worsted or smoked glasses o
tennis cord or new books, but do not ad
NIT them to our classes or tea.drinkings
Our crest is a beggar led by dog, AM
since we are daily learning to see withou
using our eyes, our motto is: 81 see, say
the blind man."-Adeldide Skeel.