Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-18
AID FOR THE BLIND
GRADUATES OF INSTITUTIONS
ASK CHANCE TO WORK.
Rumor of Miss Helen Kellar's Illness
Denied-Her Address in
Portland.

The Washington friends of Miss Helen
Keller, blind and deaf mute, are very
much relieved to learn that the report that
she had collapsed recently ard is suffering
from a serious physical breakdown Is In
correct. 1t is stated that Miss Kellar is
enjoying her usual good health and is de-
voting her time to the betterment of the
condition Of the afflicted. The story was
to the effect that as a result of her recent
trip to Portland, Me, where she delivered
an address before the students of a deaf
mute college. she became i'll and was con-
fined to her bed.
As a matter of fact Mss Kellar delivered
only brief address and was only exhaust
ed temporarily from the severe strain at
tending the delivery of her speech, which
was done through an interpreter. After the
reception she returned to her home IN
Wrentham, Mass, where she resides with
the family OF Mr.. John A. Macy. Her visit
to Portland was q success in every partlc-'
ular. A brilliant reception was given in her
honor by the superintendent of the college,
and the students greeted her cordially. Her
address was of peculiar interest. for she
declared that the education of the blind has
not progressed as far as it should In that
ii leaves the student unfit to cope with the
problems of the world.
Blind Ask for Opportunity.
''In his struggle to emerge from dark
ness ne Sdll, iile iAlItu Iittti NtSf-I CO
generous support He does not ask you for
charity, but for opportunity to become
useful, seIf-supporting citizen. The sight
less have will and strength and hands 10
work with, and they ask you to remember
that every citizen redeemed from fdleness
adds TO the wealth of the state and lessons
the burden of maintaining the dependent.
You have heard the command: Feed the
hungry, clothe the naked and shelter the
homeless. l ask, and all the blind ask
with me, that you enable them TO feed,
clothe and shelter themselves.
work is the only gift that can soften
the cruelty of blindness. 1t is always hard
to live in darkness. even when one is sur
rounded by sympathy and love. But in
this country it has been much harder than
it need be. There are thousands of blind
men and women, eager and able to work,
who are burden to their friends and to
themselves, because they have not had the
advantage of. industrial training and be-
cause there are no adequate organizations
to help them find such work as they
can do.
Graduates Left to Sink.
even the graduates of the institutions
for the bird are turned adrift and left to
swim or sink Thus the liberal education
that our schools give the young blind is
rot completed. IT is not brought TO the
highest human cOnsummation-fitneSs to
work.
MANY grown people are stricken with
blindness in the midst of active self-sup
porting lives They are usually the bread
winners of families, working in mine. in
factory, in quarry. Accident turns their
services to Dependence their strength to
weakness. Through no fault of their own
they drop out of the living world of men
and sit apart, helpless, wretched. Wrung
Ey the hunger and thirst of the spirit
Within they cry out for work They long
for 1t more than they long for the restora-
ton of their sight But they only fail and
are doubly cast down. and the active joy
of life dies out in their hearts, and they
spend their dark days In baffled aimless
thinking. The heart of blind man sit
ting in darkness is like a milestone that
grinds no corn. Ever It grinds, and the
grinding wears away the stone! pray
you, stir the blind from their inactivity
raise them from the dreadful torpor of
despair. make paths through their dark
ness whereon their feet may be led to use
fulneSs.
The System In Europe.
"The assistance we ask you to give the
adult blind is very practical. 1t has pro-
duced excellent results in Europe There
the blind are aided by societies like the
Valentin Hauy Association in France, the
Saxon system IN Germany, and the British
and Foreign Blind Association In England.
These societies train the blind in work.
shops, find positions for them, secure ma
terials for their handicrafts and market
their wares for them. In America even
the blind men and women who are skilled,
our blind musicians, find 1t difficult to Sc
cure positions, whereas So per cent Of the
graduates of the Academy of Music for the
Blind IN London are self-supporting.
But for us a brighter day is dawning.
Good men and women have learned that
the blind in America are not provided for,
and they have formed new organizations,
of which yours Is one of the first and most
promising Pennsylvania, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New York, Michigan, Wis
consin and Illinois have raised the new
banner of freedom for the blind, and in
your state the standard is nobly borne by
a blind man.
II pray you help us to hew a way to
service and self-respect, that all the blind
may follow Remember, the plainest way
must be hard to the cropping feet OF the
blind. We can show whittier the path
should go; it is for you to open It, TO clear
1t and to give guidance to the feet that
stumble until they shall learn at last to
walk with firm and confident tread"