The times., 1899-03-19
A WORTHY ENTERPRISE.
Little Blind Girls Taught Cooking
and Homework.
(From the New York Press.)

(From the New York Press)
-Four little girls, with the fronts OF their
gowns we'll covered by checked gingham
aprons, with bibs reaching up TO their
chins stood by four gas stoves, intently
watching four boiling pots, though not
one OF them could see what was going on.
Yet the class in cooking at the Institution
for the Blind was making no less progress
because all the measuring and mixing and
testing had to be done by touch aided by
an instinct which compensates the sight
less in some degree for their great depri-
| vation.
AS comparatively few OF the blind are
| able to go out into the world and earn
their own living after they are graduated
| from the institution, and as their home
| lives are necessarily limited and monoto-
nous. 1t is great boon to the girls to
know something about housework and TO
be able to help their parents in domestic
duties. Every girl, some time in her
| course. is expected to have a years in
struction in household science, and some
of them have two. in which they learn
the principles OF hygiene and chemistry
as applied to food, besides the practical
preparation of food for the table and tn 2
cleaning necessary to keep a house in Or
der.
Glasses are necessarily small, number
is set apart twice a week for cooking, and
a third for theory and an examination and
general clearing up of what they have al
ready learned.
To see the girls. moving about their
work SO easily and effectively one would
not guess that they were blind. There is
nothing in the realm Of plain cooking that
they cannot achieve, and many go beyond
that. into fancy cooking, ana, besides
they know the why's" and 'wherefores"
of everything they do
Meat is cut up and put on the stove in
cold water and then brought to boil
rapidly" small unseeing cook explains,
because one wants part of the juices in
the meat and part In the water. and the
cold water takes out part of the Juice and
the boiling keeps part in the meat"
In the same way the methods of boiling
meat and making soup are carefully ex-
| planned. gGt
The children light. the gas stoves them
selves and put on the various articles to
| cook in the oven, broiler or on top, as re-
| quired, and never but once did one burn
| herself and that was not at q regular
| lesson, but when she was experimenting
on her own account. They can tell when
water boils by the sound. although their
sense of time is SO accurate that they can
gauge it pretty well by that alone.
| 1t is a great sight to see them peeling
potatoes Round and round the knife
goes following the thumb carefully, and
the skin comes off of every particle of
| the surface with no extra waste. Next
the eyes are dug out by the delicate fin
gers Other vegetables and fruits are
| prepared In the same careful and thor
ough manner, and never cut or scratch
| cd finger.
Cake, pies, and all such things are pop
| ular with the cooking pupils. They are
more interesting than humdrum meat and
potatoes, and, besides, they are better to
| eat; and the product of the afternoons
cooking is placed upon the tea table each
day for the delectation of the youthful
cooks and their friends.
! The blind children are unusually acca