Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1886-07-30
HOW THE BLIND READ
Scenes In a Library For Sight
loss People.
Inkless Pages That Reveal Literary
Pleasures to the Touch.

Pleasures to she Touch.
''rhc onds of my fingers aro so numb
declare can hardly read another limo
nd Pvo just reached tho most interest.
Ing part of the story-thc place, you
know, where that big stupid boy Moses
brings home tho green spcctaclcs." Tho
little girl, whose plant begins our
sketch, sat in comfortable arm. chair
before littlc grecn-toppod table, with
an enormous book in her lap. For an
hour and over she had been running her
fingers back and forth over tho broad
leaves, with'a lightness and delicacy of
touch that was surprising. She did not
keep her eye on the pages. They stared
straight ahead of her, as if she was en-
tranccd, but her voice, when she spoke,
was ms soft and clear MS the notes of So
cred music, and the tone of her COM
plaint was decidedly cheerful The book
she held was filed with little raised dots
about the size of bird shot, and thoro
was not sigd of printers ink about it.
The reader was blind and distinguished
tho words by the scnscof touch. Tho
book was the "Vicar of Wakefield" and
II was one Of tho collection of tho New
York Library for tho Blind. This is n
free institution which was started in
October last by Miss Flora e. Rogers, II
graduate of the New York Institute for
the Blind. She discovered, while ut tho
institute, that only small minority of
the blind wcrc ablo to buy books with
raised print because they were so expcn-
sivc. Tho idea of starting free circu.
lating library entered her brain, md she
wrote to Mr.. Anagnos, President of the
Perkins Institute in Boston, setting forth
her plans and asking for advice. Mr..
Anagnos sent her seventeen books and
lots OF encouragement rs nucleus for
the library. A room was secured over
chapel in Ninth Avenue, and Miss Kitty
O'Ncil, another young lady who is blind,
was appointed librarian. Tho library
was opened every Friday afternoon, and
about dozen people came weekly and
borrowed tho books. Many blind pco-
pie who possessed libraries sent in book
or two from their own collections and
gradually, from this and other sources,
the library increased until today, after
less than six months existence, it num-
bors 100 volumes.
The books arc all of them very large,
md the raised print spreads the leaves
apart as they commonly appear in scrap
books. A book of ordinary size, re-
printed in raised letters, would make n
volume about the size of dictionary.
and would cost at lcast $5. The bible
which belongs to the library is divided
up into ten volumes. Not nll of tho
books in the library arc printed in the
little dots or "point print" us IL is called.
The point system is the easicst of them
all to read, and to learn tho characters
requires but small amount of study
1t has one disadvantage. 1t cannot be
read by the uninitiatcd, either by sight
or touch. If n blind readers eyes trouble
him, or in other words, il his fingers be-
come bcnumbed, IN ordinary person can
not continue the story to him. Mono of
the characters in the point system arc
more than three dots in length, and scvc-
ral OF the letters, such MS "ch," a." OF
"ph," are combined in one. Every num-
Scr is preceded by six dots, three of them
above the remaining three, to distinguish
it from word. The Philadelphia com
bination is sometimes called the Kneass
system, after the blind man of Philadcl
phia who invented it. The books now
in tho library comprise poetry, fiction,
biography and history, with poetry in
the lead and fiction good second.
Dickens and Longfcllow arc favorites
among the readers. Notwithstanding
its small beginning the library promises
to become, at no distant day, ono of the
: recognized institutions of our city.-Ne,,
York World.