The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-04-01
LITTLE BLIND CHILDREN
AN INsTRUCTIVE ENTERTAINMENT
 AT CENTER CHURCH CHAPEL.
Presenting the Work of the Blind School at Hnrtford-Interestlng Exercises.

Presenting the Work of the Blind School
 at Hnrtford-Interesting Exercises.
 A most pleasing and instructive en- tertainment was given yesterday after non at Center church chapel. Under the tutelage of Mrs. Foster and Mrs, Olmstead, two of the officers of the Connecticut Nursery and Kindergarten school located at Hartford. Some tWen- ty little blind children presented to the ladies of Center church a most favor able idea of the good work being done at the capital city
 The children rendered some fine mu- sic, both orchestral and vocal and some of the younger children played few of the song games of the kindergarten, In the course of the afternoon Mrs. Foster told of the origin, growth and prospects of the school.
 It was during the fall of 'SS, while visiting in the Italian quarter of Hart ford that Mrs. Foster first thought of some school or other means of educa tion for the blind of the state. In the worst part of the Italian quarter one day she noticed a little ragged, blind boy seated on a door step. She tried to speak with him, but this was impossi- ble, as she neither knew Italian nor could he see the signs she made. Thinking ofthe wretched condition of the limitations of the little fellow she at last took him to her home for few days at a time, trying to teach him the rudiments of English The young Ital- ian made such rapid progress that Mrs. 1 Foster became interested in others in | like affliction. She was surprised to find that in Hartford there were some ' fifty blind people, many of them in in digent circumstances, and often cut off from any means of communication with one another From this she conceived the idea of a school for blind children to be located in Connecticut. In 1893, through the efforts of Mrs. Foster and others, a state board of education for the blind was organized, and at present Connecticut is the only state in the union which has such a board. In our school at Hartford, she said, we take children of all ages and conditions. The work is necessarily expensive since most of the apparatus has to be adapt ed. especially for the little blind people. | The tables, blocks and paraphernalia ! of the modern kindergarten we have, but of course all has been changed to suit the little fingers that have no eyes to guide them in their work. It would be amusing to listen to the endless 1 questions that the children ask. Mrs, Foster related some of the questions asked by the little Italian boy about a picture. A gentleman told him that there was some rocks, woods and a deer in the picture Well, is the deer alive? No. Well, is it dead? No, not exactly. | the dear must be alive. And it was with the utmost difficulty that the little one was told that the picture was only a representation of the real deer. Mrs. ! Foster. in her pleasant, genial way, went on to tell of the curious likes and dislikes of the children. Among other ] things the little ones formed a great delight for the frog chorus that nightly was croaked forth in the lowland fields | IedE Dy. SO great d Lfedl lb lHe tllll- dren did this become that promise of early retirement before the chorus be- gan was sure to secure good boys and | girls all day.
 | Mrs Olmstead, another officer of the society, then made a brief address. She stated that at present they had some | twenty-five children, of whom four were from Hartford, as many from | New Haven, and the remainder from various parts of the state. The eX- penses of the school are partly met by the appropriation from the state. But this was not sufficient to meet all the l demands, as many of the children would be homeless unless cared for by the school. Then often there would be surgical operations necessary besides other expenses which had to be met
 mostly by voluntary contributions. The 1 two ladies gave their interested au- dience a most cordial invitation to visit the school.