The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-06-28

Facsory In ~Philadcaphle 1hst Has
No Equal Anywhere.


Philadelphia has a factory where
only those who are sightless are m
ployed, which is a veritable hive or
industry and which hoes q business
Of over $125. 900 every year.
It's superintendent Is blind. It's
bookkeeper is blind and its rs work
men, whose skill In their separate
caliings is remarkable. are all blind
In spite OF the fact tnat a ray OF
light is an unknown quantity In the
lives of all these workmen. they ac-
complish what they do by remarkable
exercise of the faculties they are pos
sessed of and their products haye a
| most enviable reputation for excel
lence.
A handsome buY-brick building.
| Jour stories in height, the factory
stands at the corner Of Thirty-sixth
| street and Lancaster avenue. A
stranger visiting II might go through
its various departments per
/ ceiving that it differed at all from
any other factory. He would find
men working dexterously at rafting
looms or running up and down stairs
| or handling sharp knives or dodging
| swift and dangerous machines quite
as seeing men do.
There are only two things at h
| fact ~ tina would inform HIM OF Its
PECULIARLY One of these things Is
\ the cheerfulness of the workmen. they
sing and laugh at their labor. The
other thing is the workmen's eyes.
which have the a blank stare OF
the blind.
Feel Their Way TO Work.
These men come TO work at 4
O'Clock in the mornings. They APP
proach the factory quickly a
half-dozen directions with a sharp
tap-tapping of their ;ron-pointed
sticks upon the pavement. The mo-
ment they are within they lay their
sticks, with their hats and coats, aside
and all set briskly and cheerily to
work, blind men no longer. for train
ing, habit, in the tasks they perform
takes the place of sight quite de-
quatelv.
Sometimes IN the winter 1t Is dark
at z O'Clock nnen the factory opens.
Sometimes il = dark at s o'clock, the
closing hour. Then, should there be
perhaps a visitor, the electric lights
are not urned on, in order that the
visitor may enjoy the novel spectacle
Of a factory running hastiiy-men
rushing to and fro, men minding clat-
tering machines-when it Is hardly
possible to see the land before the
face.
H. L. Hall conducts the factory; he,
indeed, founded it. A blind man.. tall
and erect with a white beard, with
a look of energy and intelligence, Mr..
Hall sits all day at his desk, telephone
beside him, a clerk at his elbow. Ask
him the meaning and history of the
plant. n he takes his cigar from his
mouth mt
Il have always been interested In
blind men. 1 go about a great deal,
and I keep my eye peeled for chaps
who are blind-my guide, you know,
leads me up to these chaps. Now, sup
pose We run across an organ grinder.
He sits On a stool, his little machine
whines and wheeZes; he has on his
breast the placard I am blind and he
holds in his hand a tin cup. I stop
before him.
Hello 1 say. are you a blind
MANI
Yes he W
Well that's good; So am 1. Now,
how is it you can't get along better
than this? Have you an education ?
Have you been to chool
"'Yes, sir; I've been to school,
"tDo you know how to work-how
to cane chairs. make rag carpets,
make brooms?'
Yes, sir; I can do all that
well, then, why don't you pitch
in and work? Why don't you be a
man? What do you sit here on the
street and beg for??'
81 can't get along at c~hair-caning
or carpet-weaving, or broom-makfng,'
the blind man
Can get along. Ell? Wen, maybe
you drink whiskey. Do you drink
~whiskey?'
mo, sir; I don't drink
WI can't you get along, then: =
Ingram carpets says the blind
l man soan he ha,~ht 1,-. 4- n
can rag ones; there is no de-
mand for chair-caning, and, as for
Recommending, the raw materials of
a broom cost me more. in the small
quantities I can buy them, than a
broom itself costs me in a store
That is the iii of talk" said Mr..
Hall. that I used to hear before the
establishment Of this factory. The
talk was true and there was no an
Swer / could make It. The bInd were
deoarred from engaging in the trades
they had learned at the institutions In
their childhood, for the reason that
working at these trades singly I'm a
small way they could produce nothing
that did no cost 200 to 800 per cent
more than its market price. You, to-
day, II you should decide TO make
rooms at home. would pay more for
the corn and other raw materials for,
say, a gross nf brooms than a gross OF
hohN "ouIu COSl d L a DIOOlD
factory.
;, Pities Their Infirmity.
Il saw blind men everywhere who
either begged or. supported by their
families. moped in kitchen corners
industrious men,, willing to work, de-
string above everything else to work,
but doomed to fdleness, wretched
q%uerulous, unable to eat, unable To
sleep.
Il Il saw that what was needed was
a factory for these men-<a factory
where raw materials might be bough,
in great quantities, where 1abor-say-
ing devices might be employed, where
many blind men. working together
might compete with the men who have
sight.
s I'm a small way we started the
factory that you see here. It has
p~rospered. It has grown. The men
work here ten hours a day and they
1 can earn from t2 a Wack nv tn err