New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-20
BUILDING FOR BLIND.
500 900 Needed and $50 900 GiCen
Conditi0nalIY.

The New York Association for the Blind wants
100000 and wants it Immediately. according to
& statement made by Mrs Edward r. Hewitt at a
conference on blindness held at the Charities
Building yesterday morning. twenty-five thou
sand Of this is already promised. but only condi-
tionaIly on the raising Of the rest-S10O00 apiece
ny Andrew Carnegie and Smith Ely and 5000 by
Jacob ScEliff This money is wanted for build
ing in which to house the association. with room
for offices which now located in Miss Hollis
home, No. A East 18th street: salesroom for
the work Of the blind and quarters for the mems
workshop. which is now occupying very unsat-
tsfactory rooms in ramshacHle building with
rickety stairs not at all safe for blind people 10
climb. II is also wanted for educational
propaganda 10 prevent blindness, about two
hfths of which IS known TO be absolutely I'M
necessary.
All these are immediate needs. and the raising
Of the whole designated will not place the
association beyond the reach Of want. 1t VIII
still want workshop for women and an in
come Of $4,000 annually for running expenses.
MISS HoLTs PLEA
Miss Winfred Holt secretary Of the associa-
ton. pointed out that the State Of New York has
been dIsgracefuTy backward in its care of the
blind.
In the face OF countless activities for the
blind abroad and in our own country" she said,
''it is an astounding fact that the State of New
York and our overrich town should have neg
Iected the blind so long. Little Switzerland has
five schools and eight shops for its 2,1O7 blind
people. Are we so much poorer. or so much
more selfish, or so much more stupid in greater
New York than the people Of Switzerland?
Our association has already listed in greater
New York more blind than in all Switzerland.
and in the state we have over 5000 blind We
have two schools for all these. and no independ-
ent shops, excepting the Industrial Home, IN
Brooklyn and the very recent one Of our asso-
citation"
The burden OF Miss Hollis plea for the blind
was that they sleuld be educated so as TO be
able to take their places in the world as nearly
possible on an equal footing with the seeing,
instead of being relegated to uselessness as in
capables in any way regarded a class
apart.
There is practically no limit to what the blind
can do" she asserted. I have not seen pict-
ure that a blind man has painted, though I
have little doubt that a sightless painter could
surpass in artistic expression the work Of some
Of cur impressionists, but ] have seen the stat
made by a blind sculptor. The greatest
Postmaster General of England was a blind
man, who said. when in Office. to have had
an eye everything. IN own country
there was blind judge who reelected
three times, and at Columbia University q blind
man holds life scholarship. At least two blind
men run newspapers in New York. Our own
41NEIesIlDH Is ulIllO. ana lIe GlIer Qay Il PROUD
land win not again be mistress Of the seas I'M
III that blind American stops using his ten
eyes
"An the blind want IS opportunity. It IS the
torch in their darkness. But we have not given
II to them. We have not taught them how to be
blind. There are schools for blind children but
three-fourths OF the six thousand blind in New
York State lost their sight after they had ma ssed
school age To them the state offers only the
hospitality Of its almshouses, hospitals prisons
lunatic asylums, etc, while private charity
off inst HHr -r-.F7e crrfr4 IL
firm. but in which it is an injustice place the
strong and vigorous young blind persons, to
lead useless and impotent lives. To such the
New York Association for the Blind tries to be
guide, counsellor and friend"
WHAT BLIND SCHOOLS SHOULD BE
or schools for The blind Miss Holt said:
They are not what they should be Too often
We find the blind graduate physically undeveI-
oped. feeble illiterate, dirty. bad hammered and
incapable of doing anything so we'll that he can
become wage Garner. \ proper school for the
blind should equal IN all respects the best kind
of school for the seeing. There should be moth
ing mystic about the teaching of the blind spa-
cial appliances for reading and writing are
needful for them, but these can be easily under
stood and used by the average seeing person Il
is not true that it IS possible for the blind alone
10 read by touch. To prove this I bound nay,
eyes, ana exclusively through the sense Of touch
learned after a few short lessons TO read ana
write as the blind do.
A school for the blind should excel in attn
IeucS, Tor blindness produces a tendency TO
feebieness. a professor in Scotland found that
2 guinea pig deprived Of its sight could NOT
i've more Than six months. There should he =
swimming pool. because the blind are likely 10
stO0p, ana che cannot swim with ones head i'm
me wafer TcaTe should be the best ohtajna Ilo
obstruction IN T.lusic and a department Of ria,o
construction and tuning. This has been proved
practlcaSie In Europe and it scnle parts Of this
Tie after caro- CT pacing OF blind pupils is
one OF tas most inport5n: parts . the duty ~
the-r eGlo2tors. and IS so regarded in Europe
mater " a2t Eocd WI Ell ekoge honor marks
Whtoh STE %. school do he- 81 +he r,oo~bC,1so2
she has never been tsEEht 70 earn I,annv and
mere Is 1ot soul N ms void to help her
SAVED FROM SUICIDE.
The despair produced by Dlin7=esz is incred-
tSie 10 those who have rot sssn Its conse-
queaces," Miss Holt c9Gcluded .Recent1,y a
blind man. seventy-sev7,l years old. was sent to
the association by the ChzTi.y O-.aaizRtion So
ciety They said he wanted 10 kill himself and
they could not prevent it, lie was a graduate
OF the University Of Heidelberg = q 5ad been
private secretary 10 q T,"n.-~I Of he English
royal family. ] persuaded li-. not Ia talge bis
iTe Tor two weeks. and. mean time set hin, 10
Work teaching English 10 three blind Gernoa,e
who could not earn money 4. This co,,ntr-- al
they knew the language. Al the end az tLat
time he was telling the Blind Mems Club how
much use blind man could be to the com
Miss Holt showed some lantern slides films
uating the work Of Ihe association and yvbiIa
she was talking she had before her rup made
IN two colors by detective blind child near
Paris This she displayed as a flag Of triumDb
Eben y. Morford, superintendent Of the IN
oastrlal Home for Blind Men. in BROOKLYN and
one OF the commissioners OF the blind was an
nounced 70 speak on Industrial and Education
al Training for the Blind" but he said that
Miss Holt had spiked ali his guns and left him