The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-08
HELEN KELLER
Will Enter Harvard Annex in the
Fall.

Fall.
HELEN Keller, deprived when nine
teen months old Of the powers of
speech, hearing and sight, is now, at
! the age of sixteen years, entering up
on course of studies which, she ex-
poets, will result in her receiving from
Radcliffe College, the annex of Har-
ward University. the degree of Bachelor
of Arts. She expects to recfte in the
same classes, to pass the same exam
nations, and to enter in the same COM
petitions with young women who are
in possession Of every faculty. She will
enter DR.. Gilman's school in Cambridge
this fall to complete her final prepara-
ton for Radcliffe.
| Much was printed several years ago
concerning this exceptionally gifted
| girl. She is developing into a woman
of beauty and attachments. She is full
| filling all the promise of her younger
years, when Richard Watson Glider
and Edmund Clarence Stedman ded-
| icated poems to her, and the scientific
world was discussing her remarka BILE
case.
Her father Is an editor in Tuscumbia,
Alabama. He is descendant of the
FairfaxeS. of Virginia, and her mother
was a Massachusetts Adams. She In
herited a taste for literature and the
study of languages.
She lost three Of her senses when
an infant, and practically nothing was
| done for her education until she was
taken in charge when seven years old
by Miss Sullivan, who has been her
companion and teacher ever since.
FINGERS AS EYES.
The child learned to understand Ian
guage by feeling the organs OF speech
or the persons who addressed her. She
learned to talk by initiating the mo-
tons of the lips, larynx and teeth,
which she observed in others. Her
sense of touch became her eyes. She
| received impressions from the outside
world by vibration, by touch, and by
the spelling Of words into her hand
by means of the so-called manual al
pha bet
Miss Keller has in this way learned
to speak English, French and German,
with almcet equal facility. Since she
has been pupil Of the Wright-Hum-
ason school, she has read many
| OF the German and French clas-
sizes by means of raised letters. In a
clear, well modulated voice she quotes
Shakespeare. Schiller and Racine.
Frenchman whom the girl met re-
Gently heard her speak and did not
| detect her inability to see and hear un-
til she astonished him by putting her
fingers to his lips to ascertain what he
was saying. Her eyes are clear and
bright. Her face is cheerful and she
has none of the hopeless lock so COM
mon to those who are blind
She has made some progress in
| mathematics, although on account of
her imaginative and poetic disposition
she does not reach the average in the
exact sciences. She has written some
sketches which show an insight and OBJ
servation which would hardly seem pos
s1ble to one with such limitations She
has an exceptional gift of language.
and her productions are rhetorically
perfect. M efs8s.Frss
HER POETIC SENSE.
Here, for instance, is an extract
from her diary descriptive of her
visit to the Statue of Liberty at Red
loe's Island
We climbed up to the head, which
will hold forty persons, and viewed
the glorious scene, on which the bronze
Liberty gazes day and night. And Oh.
now wonderful it was! We did not
wonder that the great French artist
thought the place worthy to be the
home of this grand ideal The glor-
lous bay lay calm and beautiful in
the October sunshine, and the ships
came and went like idle dreams: those
| seward going slowly disappeared like
clouds that change from gold to gray.
and those homeward coming sped
more quickly, like birds that seek their
mothers nest. The city's busy noise
and turmoil were hushed. and how
beautiful she was, as she stood wrapped
In October's misty VEIL I saw it all
with the eyes Of my soul-all its beauty
ana mystery, and in my heart I cried
on, glorious Liberty, guard well this
h1ghroad to the nations; look down in
tender benediction from thy majestic
emlnence on this fair home of freedom
unul the sun shall sink to rise no
morev" ~
She will be accompanied during her
coiiege course by Mrs Sullivan, who
Will interpret to her by a sort of tel
egraph upon the palm of the hand
what the teachers are saying. She will
sit In the class room, and were it NOT
Tor the woman beside her constantIv
holding her hand 1t would be imnos.
slple to distinguish her from the wide
eyed and bright faced young women
around her. She has attained such ner-
fectlon in using the voice. which she
mas never herself heard, that her &C.
cent and emphasis are entirely natural