The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-21
LITERATURE FOR THE BLIND.
A Great Variety of Books Printed
for Their Use.

A Great Variety of Books Printed
for Their Use.
From the New York Sun.
Have you playing cards for the blind p"
was asked by a customer of a New York
bookseller.
The question was asked in the interest
of an old gentleman whose chief amuse-
ment is playing cards. who seems about to
be robbed of that by reason of fast ap-
preaching blindness The bookseller had
no playing cards for the blind but he re-
ferred the customer TO a house that makes
a speciality of printing for the blind, and it
IS as likely as not that playing cards for
the. blind Will shortly. be provided.
There are several institutions in this
country that make a specially of printing
for the blind, and the multiplication of the
so-called embossed books and of special
devices for the amusement or profit of
the blind has been very great within the
past ten years. There have been primers
and standard books of English literature
began to be printed for the blind soon
after the matter of their spiritual welfare
had been provided for. But now popular
libraries for those who cannot see. As
yet the strongly evangelical influences
that have prevailed in institutions for the
blind have restricted the choice of books
TO be printed in the embossed type Al
colt, Mrs. Burnett, Susan Coolidge, Ed
ward Everett Hale, Bret Harte the Kings
legs, Kate Douglas Wiggin, and Mrs.
Ewing have found their way into the IL
braries for the blind. Half a dozen plays
of Shakespeare have been printed in the
embossed type by the Perkins Institute
of Boston You may have in this type
the essays of Emerson, the poems of Long
follow, Lowell, Bryant and Whittier, be-
sides Millions Paradise Lost" selections
from Pope Byron. Sir Walter Scott and
Some of John Fiske histories have
been printed for the blind, and so have Sc
lecte5 novels of Hawthorne, Dickens and
George Eliot Full sets are seldom at
tempted, the object being to furnish as
large a variety as possible of the most
popular classics. Elementary scientific
works have been published in the embossed
issue a Latin-English lexicon. There is a
considerable variety of sheet music pub
lished for the blind. including pieces for
orchestral rendering, for the violin and
for the piano, as well as for the voice.
Works on the science Of music have also
been prepared for the blind.
The cost of books for the blind prevents
the multiplication of such works, and, of
course, the small demand for embossed
books helps to keep up the price. The
works of Dickens in embossed type cost
from S12 to So each. George Eliot's Adam
Bede" costs 50 HaWthOrne's Scarlet Let
ter is IS. Paradise Lost" is So The New
Testament costs as much as $50, though
it is published in cheaper form Caesar in
the original costs IS. There is an encyclo-
pedia for the blind a. 1872 Music IS com
parativeiy cheap at from cents TO Is cents
a piece. Some of the best classical music is
sold at less than 81 piece. School books
are cheap.
Blind persons of abundant means are
able now to acquire a knowledge Of many
foreign tongues through the aid of books
specially prepared for the purpose and
may be fairly well read in the great mas
tiers of English literature, but not in the
masters that have ceased to be truly pop
ular As to the blind of small means, their
opportunities for reading are still narrow,
unless they can have access to the library
of some public institution for their fellows
in afiliction. The unwieldy bulk of books
for the blind makes the collection of even
a small library a serious undertaking. and
such a library demands great space for
its housing. An octave book of 450 pages
in one volume. small plea type. is expand
ed in the embossed printing to TWO great
folio volumes, each four inches thick To
house a library of 500 volumes in the en-
bOssed type would require a space large
enough to hold more than 5000 volumes OF
ordinary printed books