The age-herald., 1899-08-27
Helen KeIIer's Examina tion

From the Boston Transcript.
 s Miss Helen Keller having completed, un-
 der the tutorship of MT. Merton S. Keith,
 her preparation for college in three years
 instead of the four which had been as-
 signed by some of her friends for the pur-
 pose went to Cambridge in June last to ! take the regular entrance examinations for
 Radcliffe. She had successfully given the
 usual subjects at the preliminary examina- ! ton, two years ago, and these remained for
 ths entrance examination: Geometry, al-
 zebra elementary Creek advanced Greek aid advanced Latin.
 [. It is quite certain that no person ever
 took a college examination with so heavy 5 aShandicap-we may say with so many
 kinds of a handicap-as Helen Kellers on
 this occasion. As all the world knows, she
 could not see the examination papers nor shear the voice of an examiner. The natural
 method of communicating the questions to her would have been to make use of the fingers of her old-time teacher" and in-
 terpreter, Miss Sullivan. Miss Sullivan
 does not know Greek or Latin or the high
 CT mathematics and while she Is able to serNe Helen by communicating to her print ed-1ireek and Latin letter by letter, she could not, even if she had been so disposed
 have given her the slightest assistance in
 answering the examination questions. But
 1t was deemed best by all concerned to 2 avoid even the remotest suggestion or pos
 sibility of assistance. A gentleman was
 found-Mr. Vining of the Perkins institu-
 ton. who had never met Helen Keller and
 who was quite unknown to her and unable
 to speak to her, who could take the exami-
 nation papers as fast as they were present.
 ed and write them out in Braille charac-
 ters, the system of writing in punctured
 points now much used by the blind. The
 questions thus transcribed by him. were put into Helen's hands in the examination
 room, in the presence of proctor who
 could not communicate with her, and she
 wrote out her answers on the typewriter Here, however. came in one of the addi-
 tional points of Helen's handicap. There
 are two systems Of Braille writing-the
 English and the American. There are mark
 ed differences between them-very much
 such differences as those between the two principal systems of shorthand writing He- len Keller has been accustomed to tha English system, in which nearly all the
 books which have been put into Bralle are printed. As the arrangement with MT. NininS was completed but day or two before. and 1t was not known to her that he did not wrie the English Braille. 1t was impossible to make any other arrangement. She had to puzzle out the unfamiliar method of writing much as the writer of the Pitman stenography might use his sense of logic and general intelligence by a tour de force, to enable him to read the Graham shorthand; and this labor was added to the other labor of Helen Keller's examination. To add to her difficulties. her Swiss watch, made for the blind had
 been forgotten at home. and there waseno one at hand on either of the days of the examination. to give her the time. She
 worked in the dark with regard to the time which remained to her as she went along from question to question.
 But she passed the examination triumph antly in every study. In advanced Latin she passed with credit" In advanced Greek. which her tutor regarded as her "star" study. she received "B," which is
 a very high mark. Yet here the time and the Braille dificutv worked most heavily against her What her marking was in the other studies is not known; it is only known that she passed them.