Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-14
READING TO THE BLIND


| A<ipidiy. oue VI w pei
| thropies is this bringing Of literary light
before the darkened windows of these souls
| for whom the government of the United
| States has set aside this apartment
The service is one of love alone. For no
other reward than the consciousness of
well doing do the men and women of WASH
fngton see to 1t that for one afternoon
hour of each work day some one is present
to read aloud to the sightless ones who as
semble in their corner of the library to
hear the reading
Society girls steal away from the light
and color of their gay world and return re-
freshed with the sweet peace which comes
with the doing for others. Students devote
part of the moments they refuse to value
in money. Professional women and men
give UP some of the time too precious to be
measured by the gold standard. And days
to be marked with white stone are those
when great writer's. out of the goodness of
their hearts. retrace, with master hand,
the sharp lines of their own ma tchless
word painting. There have been some such
days in the two years these readings have
been going on. Hopkinson Smith has read
there. So has Paul Lawrence Dunbar
Kate Douglas Wiggin, Thomas Nelson
Page and others. 1t is one of these days
with which this story is concerned.
Rows of chairs are filled with the men,
women and children to whom the green of
the earth and the blue of the sky are as
one vast blackness, who can never behold
the glad flush which warns the welcome
of friendly face, and who know no other
pictures than word pictures. There are
those in the comfortable garments of the
well-to-dO and others in the worn and
threadbare of the poor. But all one
in their common affiiction. Friend recog-
nizes friend with that instinct which we
call marvellous when it is developed by
blindness. Late corners are carefully led
to chairs by a little boy in knickerbockers,
for whom the hopeless darkness of total
blindness is pierced by few feeble rays of
light which great oculist is patiently try
ing to transform from sunset into
dawn. The young woman in charge of the
room moves through the assembly with a
soft football. which every member knows
instantly and loves.
There are long tables in The corners of
the room covered with the perforated sheets
which constitute the reading matter of the
blind. Back of the rows of chairs is an i'm
nIense desk covered with beadwork. wood
carving ard knit slippers wrought by their
busy, dextrous fingers.
A screen. prettily colored as if to be
viewed by critical eyes, shuts the too ambi-
tious draft from the piano, where a young
girl quietly seats herself, and with her
sghtless eyes turned-St. Cecelia-ike-
hcavenward, softly plays a Schumann air.
At the opening notes the audience exclains
Katherine, in chorus of delighted muir
murs and listens with every appearance Of
rapturous enjoyment.
The plaintlve heart tones of Schumann are
evidently more to the fancy of the auditors
IMAM more joyous melody. Tor during the
niazurka which follows a pianissimo hum
of conversation swells into a crecendo,
which, not ceaSing with the music. is only
brought to a full stop when the young wo-
man with the soft football ushers a gray
trousered black frock- coated gentleman to
the reading desk in front of the piano, and
prefacng her Introduction with a soft,
warning 'hush-sh'' says: Friends / want
to introduce Mr.. Thomas Nelson Page who
will read to us from his writings this after
neon"
Some lines of sympathetic appreciation at
the hearty applause show for an instant on
the authors face and then lose themselves
among the character wrinkles. Il am glad
to be here is all he says, but the simple
words have the clear ring of sincerity.
One short story follows another; a spe-
cial request from some one in the audience
for favorite chapter of a popular book is
granted; cries Of More" Just one more,
are responded to with a generous number
of encorcs. until the afternoon sun and the
hands on the big clock mark an hour past
the one named for the close of the reading.
The author brings 'P'lask' to the igno-
minious finish of his tournament experiences,
closes the book and goes with the young
woman toward the storm of laughing APP
pause. TO shake hands with a slver-haircd
biack-robed old lady in the front row, who
has wiped the tears from her blind eyes
during these quantity told "reminiscences of
''Ol Hanover County" where she was born |
and bred. Others are waiting to follow the
old lady's pathetic cry. 'Oh. sir. it took me |
right back home" with "Oh, Mr.. Page, it |
was so funny. and you talked just like an
old slave. If Miss Giffen hadn't said 1t was
you that was to read ] wouldn't have be |
lieved that it wasn't a real darby" |
1T has been such treat" asserted over
and over again, and reasscrted, as the |
reader goes from one to another in his |
round of Misunderstanding, reaching across |
shoulders and going past each row of |
chairs second time, that rot one may feel |
sighted at being missed. Something more
that the memory of perfume
is to be carried away by this audience. |
which has not failed to catch every point |
and follow every shade of meaning though |
1t saw not one twinkle of the eye or |
sensitive soul the author says something |
personal, and the handclasp is as full of |
meaning as If he, too, were blind. |
Not until every one Of his audience has !
been spoken to does the literary man glance |
at his watch and leave, with a by jove. |
tEree-quarters of an hour late" and a |
parting sympathetic glance. |
The audience disperses lirseringly, talk !
ing it over like children, and each saying |
goodbye to the young woman, who |
smiles with deep content ct the happiness (
of her afflicted prOteges. The small boy |
who can see just a little, pushes the disor-
goes out, the proud and happy escort of |
the young woman saying, Being blind |
wouldn't be so bad would it. Miss Giffen if |
every day could be nice as this
As 1t Really Is.
The blind audience Is present. discernible
If the observer is possessed of the patience
TO pick out its component parts from the
mob of chattering girls, simpering young
women, self-assertive matrons and pink tea |
ren. So is the young woman with the soft
tread and the little boy who can see Just
well enough to play usher for his more I'M
fortunate companions. But the tread of the |
young woman threatens to become an angry |
stamp, and her eyes flash as she sees her |
sightless charges pushed this way and that, |
until they turn white or grow hysterical |
with fear and bewilderment.
The little boy. too, grows frightened, as
n the pushing and crowdng for desirable
seats his please. these chairs are for the |