The Opelousas courier., 1894-10-06
DIVERSIONS or BLIND PEOPLE,

DIVERSIONS or BLIND PEOPLE,
Occupation They Must Have, and They Arc
Likely to Work Too Much.
Much sympathy is felt for persons
who are born minus some OF
their faculties, such as those who arg
born blind, but probably those most
need sympathy who have been deprived
of sight after reaching maturity.
.'The first thing which I thought OF
was suicide % said one of these recently.
He wa a young man of good education.
who was just upon the verge OF bus
mess success when atrophy of the opti.
nerves left him in darkness.
81 presume he continued, that
this is the thought of every man WHO
loses his sight suddenly. He feels
helpless and hopeless"
The percentage of such persons who
go crazy is large. Those who have the
care of such u~nfortunates find theif
ingenuities taxed to devise means to
take their thoughts away from them
selves. 1t is well known that ip
prisons the one thing which inmates
long for most, except liberty, is work.
Deprived of work and shut day after
day in their cells. life becomes almost
insupportable. =.
But these prisoners have the use of
their eyes, and even the sights In =
prison corridor afford some diversion
of the mind. Think, however. of all OF
the,'e being in the dark cell is generally
z.z.AlS% l~,o11 down }ho nhcfinan,r
of aSefractory prisoner. The freshly
afhitfed blind man is virtually in d
darAcell. All the training, all the re-
souEHs of his previous life go for
naught;
Women are nit so badly off. 1t is
remarked in institutions for the blind
that the narrower life of women is to
their advantage when they become
afflicted.
They take refuge in gossip" said
the matron of an asylum recently, land
if they have exhausted all the known
scandals of their acquaintance they
invent others about one another"
Fortunately, in a sense, the greater
part Of mankind belongs to the work"
ing forces of the world, and so a great
percentage of those stricken blind are
workingmen and workingwomen,
Work is their great refuge from the
contemplation of their loss.
Two kinds of manual labor are
taught to the blind in our institutions
the cane-seating of chairs and mat
tress making. Just why these were
chosen it would, perhaps, be difficult
to find out. 1t is a rule in such insti-
tutions to require that the inmates
spend a certain number of hour every
day at these kinds of work. One might
suppose that at times this would be Il
difficult rule to enforce. The contrary
has been found to be the case. When
institution a few months ago she dis.
covered that certain inmates were i'll,
worn out, and, in fact, dying, appar.
emily from overwork.
II cane-seat chairs all night in my
one of them told her.
The matron watched and found that
these inmates were working from early
in the morning until late at night, and
that there was a general tendency
among all under her charge to over
work.
"What can we do?' they asked. ''We
don't want to sit and think"
Rules had to be made to keep the
patients out of the workshops. Not
many of these afflicted persons who
find their way into public institutions
Or private charities have within them
the means to distract their
Those who do may find
in some places a variety of books,
in raised letters or in the point
alphabet, and they can take up music
for a diversion. Readers are found to
offer the best general diversion to blind
persons. Bright novels are great fav-
critics with the blind, both men and
women, and for men who have
taken part in the busy affairs of the
world before their loss of sight the
newspapers offer the greatest interest
IN. Y. Sun.