The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-08-24
A TRIUMPH OF EDUCATION.
Two Blind Children, Who Never Heard
Sound, Talk to One Another.

Two Blind Children, Who Never Heard
Sound, Talk to One Another.
In st. Nicholas there is an article
on "Helen Keller and Tommy Strin-
GER" written by William T. Ellis
Helen, the wonderful blind girl
whose history is so we'll known, by
personal appeals secured the sum
necessary to educate a little boy
similarly afflicted. They were sep
arated soon after the education of
the boy began, and Mr.. Ellis gives
the following account of their meet
ing, 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, al
though recalling little or nothing of
his past acquaintance with Helen,
and altogether ignorant of the debt
he owed her, had begun to look for
ward with pleasure to the visit.
1 fear that Helen's greetings to
her old friends, Toms teachers,
were not so protracted as they other
wise would have been; for all the
while that she was welcoming 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 it lightly for an in
stant, and then her arms were about
his neck. The expressive features
of the blind girl lighted up with
rare joy, and throughout the visit
her countenance was shining.
What a fine, big boy he isl The
dear little fellowl" were her contra
dictory exclamations of delight
when at last she found her voice.
Then her swift moving fingers began
to spell messages of affection into
Toms chubby fist. All this time
she was running her other hand
over his face or lifting up his hands
to her own face and curls. Toms
comment of pleasure on touching
her soft hair delighted her.
1t was many moments before Miss
Sullivan, Helen's devoted friend and
teacher, could persuade her pupil,
with the small company Of friends,
to be seated. The two blind and
deaf children, by some subtle in
stinct, seemed to know at once their
community of interest, and together
they sat in wide window seat, talk
ing with eagerness and ease and abb
sorbed in each other.
This is not the place to report full
ly the merry chatter and eager
words of these two souls that SO
marvelously dwell apart from the
world in their realm of innocence.
The strangeness Of their meeting
impressed her deeply. She stopped
her conversation 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 rapid
ity that would make an inexperi-
enced onlooker dizzy, by keeping her
own hand partly closed over his.
II suppose Tom is not used to hav-
ing 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
presented I shall never forget. The
children sat together, facing each
other, each countenance illumined
with an animation that the posses
sion of every faculty could not have
increased. The older ones accom-
plishments are remarkable, SO that
in all things save the senses of sight
and hearing she is not one whit be-
hind the most cultured and favored
of young women. The other child
is following close after her, along
the same pathway that she has pur-
sued, knowing not his deficiencies
even as much as his companion
knows hers and withal richly en-
compassed by her tender sympathy.
There they sit, neither having
seen since babyhood ray of light
or having heard the slightest sound
and yet speaking together in articu-
late, audible words that all present
could understand, yet which were
not heard by either of the speakersl
One finger of Helen's delicate
hand 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 them
with her fingers. The significance,
=, &c - III xroo