The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-24
HELEN KELLER AND STRINGER
Two Blind and Deaf Children Talk
to One Another.

to One Another.
In the October st. Nicholas there is an
article on Helen Keller and Tommy
Stringer," written by William T. Ellis.
Helen, the wonderful blind girl, whose
history is so well known, by personal ap.
peals, secures the sum necessary to edu-
cate little boy similarly afflicted. They
were separated soon after the education of
the boy began, and Mr.. Ellis gives the
following account of their recent meeting,
after being many years apart: Helen had
been for weeks longing to see her little
friend. and to many verbal messages had
added her own written invitation to Tom
and his teachers to visit her at her Cam
bridge home Tom himself, although re-
calling little or nothing of his past ac-
quaintance with Helen, and altogether lg-
norant Of the debt he owed her had be
gun to look forward with pleasure to the
visit.
l fear that Helens greetings to her old
friends, Toms teachers, were not so pro-
tracted as they otherwise would have
been; for all the while that she was well
coming them in feminine fashion her hand
was quietly moving about to discover, If
possible, her long-desired visitor. When
she did touch his head her fingers ran
over 1t lightly for an instant, and then
her arms were about his neck. The ex-
pressive features of the blind girl lighted
up with rare joy and throughout the
visit her countenance was shining.
what a fine big boy he is! The dear
little fellow" was her contradictory ex-
clamation Of delight when at last she
found her voice. Then her swift-movlng
fingers began to spell messages of affec-
m. a-t 10 ~
she was running her other hand over his
face or lifting up his hands to her own
face and curls Toms comment of pleas
ure on touching her soft hair delighted
her.
It was many moments before Miss Sulli-
van. Helen's devoted friends and teacher
could persuade her pupil, with the small
company Of friends, TO be seated. The
two blind and deaf children. by some sub
tie instinct, seemed TO know at once their
community of interest, and together they
sat In wide window seat, talking with
eagerness and ease, and absorbed In each
other
This Is not the place to report fully the
merry chatter and eager words Of these
two souls that so marvelously dwell apart
from the world in their realm of inno-
cence.
The strangeness of their meeting i'm
pressed her deeply. She stopped her con
versation with Tom long enough to speak
Of this. She had been reading Toms
hand following the movements of his
fingers as he spelled out the words with a
rapidity that would make an inexperienc-
ed onlooker dizzy. by keeping her own
hand partly closed over his. Il suppose
Tom IS not used to having people read
his hand in this way" she suggested.
The progress that Tom has made since
Helen last met him amazed and charmed
her. In answer to an inquiry concerning
Toms education in articulation his teacher
asked him TO speak to her with his lips
The strange picture that was then pre-
scented l shall never forget. The children
sat together, facing each other, each coun-
tenance illumined with an animation that
the possession of every faculty could not
have increased. The older ones accom-
pishments are remarkable, 50 that in all
things save the senses of sight and hear
ing she is not one whit behind the most
cultured and favored of young women.
The other child is following close after
her, along the same pathway that she
has pursued, knowing not his deficiencies
even as much as his companion knows
hers, and withal richly encompassed by
her tender sympathy.
There they sit, neither having seen since
babyhood ray Of light or having heard
the slightest sound, and yet speaking to-
gether In articulate, audible words that all
present could understand, yet which were
not heard by either Of the speakers.
One finger OF Helen's delicate hana
touched Toms lips, and her thumb rested
lightly upon his throat near the chin
He spoke to her sentence after sentence
and she repeated aloud after him the
words that he uttered, answering then,
with her fingers. The significance. the
marvelousness Of 1t all was overwheim.
ing. / doubt Is the world has ever see,
a greater triumph Of education.