The Florida agriculturist., 1906-04-25

out under the great oak and willow
| trees that stand like faithful sentineIs
before the quaint old homestead. built
when the last century was just be-
| ginning to open its eyes. Never in all
| its long history. doubtless, had it such
Joyous occupants as the troops of fresh
air children, who. with the blind ba-
bieS. will take possession of it sOon
The fresh-air work the hot months.
but goes on all the year of the Sun
shine Society is not limited to just the
same. Whenever a child is found sick
and i'm need of change from its sur
roundings, he is bundled off to a Sun
shine lodge. In future he will be
sent to the new BensOnhurst home to
play and frOlic and grow strong.
And if there is cause that Mrs
Alden loves just mite better than
the rest home for working girls. it is
the caring for the blind babies of the
poor. With the prospect of adequate
and beautiful homes for both these
pet causes no wonder the president of
this unique organizat ton should he in
a glow of pleasure.
The news of the move has been
spread among the blind babies at the
Gates avenue home. and there are
gurgleS of delight. for they are told
that there are to be baths in the ocean
when the hot days roll around. and
that there will be all the sand that
little hands and bare toes could wish
for to play in. 1t is true that the
blind babies have sand in the back
yard Of the home now, to play in, but
it is sand that has to be bought by
the Sbarrel. and. therefore. boarded.
To have all the sand of a long stretch
of beach to play in seems an alluring
prospect to the blind babies. so allur-
ing that it even tempers the distress
of chickenpOX, with which several of
the babies are just now laid.
The twenty babies already in the
Gates avenue home will be taken to
Bensonhurst and Mrs Alden hopes
that every blind baby that is left to
its own devices during the long, dreary
hours, while mothers and fathers are
at work, will be brought out to find
a welcome corner with the other sight
less children.
The four babies that have been
''graduated'' i'm the past year from the
Sunshine Home to the State Hospital
for the Blind are to be invited out to
spend the summer with their former
companions. if the authorities will al
low them to come. Those blind babies
are theme that Mrs. Alden warns
to. winning the immediate sympathy
of her listener as she talks .'The
four babies that have gone into the
State institute from our home would
have grown up hopeless idiots" she
says. ''if we hadn't got hold of them.
You see. when our home was started
there was no institution i'm the city
or state of New York to look after
dependent blind children under eight
years of age. The state doesn't take
children under eight The blind
children in poor families have no one
to care for them. no one has time to
teach them and so they stay all dav
alone, playing with whatever their
hands can find. With no one to train
their little brains, no one to interest
and amuse them. their minds fail to
work as they would if they found out
let in occupation or play The poor
little things sit and dig their fingers
in their eyes. because the very pain
ana the sensation of reaching a nerve
that emits sparks like those we see
when we hit our heads hard. that very
sensation that StirS the starved little
brain tempts them.
The move TO the big home in the
country will be a great thing for these
1itt1p Hind nannIa who will baun oil