The Portland daily press., 1899-08-12
MISS HELEN KELLER.



Miss Helen Ee,lsr, having completed
her preparation for college in thres years
instead CT In the four which had been as
signed by sore of her friends for the pur-
pose, went to Cambridge to take the reg.
ular entrancs examination fer Radcliffe.
she had successfully given tho usual sui
jscts at the preliminary examination,
two years ago, and these renamed fer
this entrance examinations: Gecmstiy,
Algetra, elementary Greek, advanced
Greek and advanced Latin.
1t Ia quite certain that no person ever
took college examination with so heavy
q hanidoap-we may say with SO many
kinds of handicap-as. Helen Keller's or
this occasion, sal the Boston Transcript
As all the world knows, she could not
see the examination papers nor hear the
voice OF an examiner. The natural meth
! cd Of communicating the questions to her
/ would have been to make use Of the I'm
I gers of her old-time Teacher and inter-
Iprsssr, Mas sullivan. Miss Sullivan
docs not know Greek or Latin or the
higher mathematics, ard while she Is
able to s,rve Ii en- ty Communication TO
her of printed creek and Latin letter hy
letter, she could not, even II she had been
80 disposed, have given her the slightest
assistance in answering the examination
Questions. But it was deemed best by all
concerned to avoid even the remotest
suggestion or possibility of assistance.
= saf
the Perkins institution-who had meter
met Helen Keller and who was quite un-
known to her and unable to speak to her
--who could take the examination papers
as fast as they were presented and write
them out in Rraille characters. the sys.
tenn of writing In puDctured points now
much used by the blind. The questions,
thus transcribed by him., were put into
Helsn's hands In the examination room,
In the presence of a proctor who ecu d
not communicate with her, and she
wrote out her answers on the typewriter.
Her e, however, came In on, OF the ad-
ditional points of Helen's handle q }.
There are two systems of Braille writing
--the English aud the American. There
are marked differences between them
very much such differences as those be-
tween the two principal systems of short
hand writing. Helen ksller has been
accustomed to the English system, In
which nearly all the books which have
been puis nto Bale are printed. AS the
arrangement with Dir. Vining was COM
plsted but q day or two before, and as it
was not known to her that he did not
write the English Braille, it wes impo. I.
sible to make any other arranRement.
- .. ~ SkA g..
method Of writing, much as a writer OF
the Pitman stenography might us5 lis
sense OF logic and general intelligence by
q tonr d 3 force. to enable him to read sha
Graham shorthand; and this labor was
added to the other labor OF Helen Kel.
ler's examination. TO add to her diff
culties. her Swiss watch, made for the
blind, had been forgotten at home, and
there was no one at hand, on either of
the days of the examination, to give her
the time. She worked in the dark wita
regard to the time which remained to
her as she went along from question to
question.
But she passed the examination tri-
umphantly Ia every study. In advanced
Latin she passed with credit" In ad
vanced Greek, which her tutor regard as
h,r estar" study, she received ID, :"
which is a very high mark. Yet here,
t1e time and the Braille difficulty worked
most heavily against her. What her
marking was In the other studies is not
known; 1t is only known that she passed
them.
Helen Keller Is now ready for matricu-
iation as a student of Radcliffe college.
Her passing of the examinations, especi-
ally under such circumstances. is in IT.
self wonderful achievement. No par
ticle Of its severity was abated to her be-
GAUGE she is deaf, dumb and blind, and
no precautions were remitted because SIZE
Is known to be incapable cf deceit. She
sas IN total darkness and alone, without
the touch of any frjendly hand. A slip
pricked with unfamiliar charsoters was
! put before her ard her typewriter clicked
out Its quick and true responEe TO the
hard questions. That was all. VIII any
other human being. living In such a
world Of silence and darkness, ever do as
muchp
The question may well bs asked, will
/ Helen Keller now take the regular ool-
I lege coursef Who will interpres to her
} the lectures In foreign languages which
/ she cannot hearf No one can do this.
| No lecture, even In English, can he tram.
lated to her In the manual alphabet rs
( rapidly as 1t Ia SPOKEN. Her usual intet-
, prefer knows no foreign tongue. Who
: will read to her all the required matter ef
} the courses of reading. mono of which has
! been put into raised print? 1t is beyond
mechanical possibility to give her this
through her fingers. The obstacles ap-
pear insurmountable. But that is the
principal reason why Helen Kellar Is in
cliEed to surmount them.