Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-08-08
a BLIND MAM,s INDUSTRY.
It Procures For Him = Thorough Collegiate
Education.

A BLIND MANS INDUSTRY.
lt Procures For Him = Thorough Collegiate
Education.
For a man totally blind. and. more
over. without the advantages which
wealth can give. to attempt to obtain
q collegiate education would, at first
thought, seem to be a well-nigh i'm
possible task. That it is a rare thing
is demonstrated by the fact that. up
to the present time. there have been
but two blind men who have gradu-
ated from any of the American col
leges. The first of these. now dead.
graduated some twelve or fifteen
years ago from Harvard. The second.
Arthur Elmer Hatch, of this city,
graduated from Bates College this
year. As an example of a plucky
struggle for an education in the face
of almost insurmountable obstacles,
the career of young Hatch has rarely
been equaled or excelled. He was
born of poor parents, about twenty
seven years ago, in Franklin County,
Me When about two years old he
was deprived of his sight by disease
In 1870. at the age of eight years. he
was sent to the school for the blind
at South Boston. His parents were
too poor to accompany him, and,
young and helpless as he was. he
made the trip alone. He went by
boat, and on arrival at Boston he
asked bystander to call a police
man to aid him in getting across the
city, and to be certain that he was
not being deceived. made the officer
lift him up until he could feel of his
shield, and thus be certain that it was
an officer.
He remained at the South Boston
institute for ten years, taking COM
mon English course and learning the
trade of chair-bottoming. He did not,
as most of the pupils did, take a mu-
steal course. He left the school and
returned home in 1880. Soon after
his return, as he expresses it. II con-
ceived the idea that blind man ought
to have a college education as much
as any one else, and 1 determined to
have one if possible" In the fall of
that year he entered Wilton Academy,
of which Prof. I. c. Phillips. a Bates
graduate, was principal Prof. Phillips
took much interest in young Hatch
and aided him materially in fitting for
college. His lessons were learned by
the aid of his mother and his fellow
students. His mother read his En-
glish studies to him until he had them
firmly fixed in his memory. and his
Latin and Greek he learned with the
assistance of the other boys. When
his turn came to recite, instead of
reading the text from the book him
self, the teacher would read passage
and he would then translate and give
its grammatical construction. Geom-
etry he mastered by means of cush-
ion upon which he outlined the propo-
sitions with pins and Irvine. Some
times his mother would draw the geo.
metrical figures, reversed upon a sheet
of paper. and then prick them through
so that he could feel the figure in its
proper form upon the back of the
paper. He was also aided in the
study of geometry by the use. of kim
dergarten blocks. At the academy
he also undertook the study of French
duu 0OIIu DIS IL dS St111 uhCSI-
tain whether he would be able to get
through college. His expenses he
met by working at his trade of chair
bottoming, getting work from the New
Sharon chair factory in 1884, and after
remaining out year to earn money,
entered Bates College in the fall of
1885, with the class of 'S9, with
which he graduated. His studies at
college were pursued in the same
manner as at the fitting school.
The expenses of his course he has
met himself, chiefly by lecturing upon
educational and temperance subjects
in different parts of the State. A year
ago he issued a volume of original
essays and poems. entitled 1.-The Pro-
gressive Annual" the sale of which
added somewhat to his income. On
one of his lecture tours in Northern
Maine he met with an adventure which
might well have proven disastrous
but from which, with his usual pluck,
he extricated himself safely. Travel
ing alone through the woods. he acct
dentally turned off from the main road
on to an unused wood road which
penetrated for miles into that Maine
forest of which it has been said: ''The
whole State of Massachusetts might
be set down in the middle of it and it
would take her p eople a days journey
to make their way out through the
surrounding forest" Hatch wandered
into this woods for a distance of six
or seven miles, but finally discovered
T. 81
succeeded in retracing his steps and
getting out into civilization again
Lewiston (Me-) Cor. Boston Globe.