The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-01-12

When the legislature of Minnesota I
made the first appropriation of $3.50 for
the institution for the care and educa-
ton of the deaf of the state, to which
as early as 1855, during the first legisla--
tive session held, it had given name and
a local habitation, but naught else 1t
now included in the title and purposes of
the appropriation a department for the
blind.
In 1886, three years after the opening
Of the school for the deaf, at Faribault,
department for these other detectives
was organized The old Fitzgerald house,
in what is now locally called Frog
town." was rented and Miss Harriet N.
Tucker began the new work with a class
of three sightless children. This house.
on the west side of the Straight river
lies in an almost direct line with the
present building of the state school for
the blind, on the bluffs on the east side
of the river.
The little school, which was in reality
only a department of the school for the
deaf was under the same superintend-
ent, J. L. Moves, the same state board
managed, it, and the same steward
bought for and attended to it's other
needs. Soon, however, it grew too large
for the first building, which had only
been rented, and it was moved into the
O'Brien house. down near the present
Faribault gas works. In 1868 the blind
children We're on the east side of the
river, in the same building with the deaf;
but some years after the old Faribault
home, which still forms a part of the
school for the blind, was purchased for
the combined schools.
About eight years after its inception
separate building was erected for the
deaf about a mile north of the school
for the blind, but even after they were
in a separate building, each had a resi-
dent superintendent, the blind and the
deaf were under the same general super
intendency, and reported to DR.. Noyes,
and the same board continued to manage
them. On this board were r. A. Mott,
who also acted as steward, and Mr. T. B.
Clement president of the First National
bank, who for twenty-five consecutive
years gave the institutions the benefit Of
his financial care and business expert
ence, and was for many years their
treasurer.
To turn once more to the history Of
the institutions: ]. J. Dow became SUI
perintendent of the school for the blind
in 1879, ami the internal management of
the schools was SO changed that each SUI
perintendent became responsible only for
his own school. But it was not until
five years later that the school for the
blind became in name. as it was in real
ity, a school by itself. From that time
on it has been legally the state school for
the blind, and Supt. Dow is still at its
head.
So much for the history of this second
state institution at Faribault, so large
portion of which is bound up and entwln-
ed with that of the state school for the
deaf, its forerunner, that it is difficult
to speak Of one without the other.
And what a vivid contrast 1t is to look
across from the windows of this great
institution on the river, to that little
frame house, where Miss Tucker began
This xVOrlr with that litf1a lonely class Of
three So modest the beginning and so
splendid the present status Of this same
school!
Course OF Study.
The scholastic course at the state school
for the blind requires eight years in the
grades and four years for the high
school course. For though the blind pu-
Pill labors under disadvantages never
n dreamed of by the normal learner, his
time in school is no longer, and he must
accomplish the same amount of work in
the same time as the seeing child More
over, he is marked and graded exactly
as though he had the full use of his
faculties and was under no handicap
whatever
In the kindergarten are little sightless
ones who are much interested as any
other child in weaving, or in doing what
is frequently called spool work, be-
cause it is often done with an empty
spool and four pins. In the primary de-
partment the pupils learn to write that
curious pin-pricked system called, tech
nically, 'New York point
One delicate, quiet little girl attracts
the attention of many visitors, and as
she sits learning her lesson the sober de-
termination and patience of that little one
and the perseverance and gentleness of
the teacher are equally pretty. She has
a piece Of thick white paper, and on this
she lays a metal guide, open meshed
with square holes about an eighth Of
an inch thick in size, and with a sharp
pointed stylus she pricks holes in the
paper Sometimes she makes only one
or two holes and sometimes she makes
three or four dots, and most curious
of all. she writes from right to left The
reason for this last unusual proceeding
is that when the roughened side OF the
paper is turned over it can be read in the
ordinary way from left to right.
Anyone who makes a few pin holes in
a piece Of paper viii see at once the diff
ference between the side which is writ
ten and the roughened side to be read,
for when the writing of the blind, who
use no pen, nor ink, nor yet a pencil,
is to be read the paper is simply turned
over. This writing leaves the sheet OF
paper as colorless as before and lends
the letters a strange, blank, unseeing