The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-03-20

ets'
tBy Mrs. Cynthia Westover Alden,
President-General of the Inter
national Sunshine Society.l
A baby born blind presents a
strangely pitiful problem. 1t has a
soul. 1t has mind that conditions
combine to stunt. 1t has physical
organs that need to be kept in normal
operation. The eye, through which
babyhood receives, commonly per-
haps nine-tenths of the Impressions
that mean the earliest education" :"
is lacking. The baby in it's first year
works harder than at any other time
in life, getting a grip on vital things
Tennyson's lines emphasize this:
The baby, new to earth and sky,
What time his infant hands are
pressed
Against the circle of the breast
Has never thought that this is a."
But, as he grows he gathers much,
And learns the use of "I" and
me"
And finds | am not what | see
And other than the things touch.
Now the blind baby has to come to
this apprehension of the ego by de-
vious processes, through touch, hear
! ing, and the sense of smell. The
work is heavier. And help from the
unframed parent is not to be ex-
| pected
Until the International Sunshine
Society established it's first Home
| for Blind Babies" such infants took
! hni oh ttyffh io1 Il,
always unscientific and often unsym-
I pathetic, if the parents were more
than well-to-do people; or in middle
class homes, were fed and washed
and pitied by affectionate mothers
whose ideas of drawing out the mind
were primitive and impossible; or in
the wage earning class they were
left long hours each day, locked in
rooms or even tied up, to guard
against accident, while the mother
earned living; or, if foundlings,
they were picked up and classed as
idiots and made to become idiots by
institutional surroundings.
Randalps Island, which takes all
children of New York city who are
direct dependents on public charity,
took blind babies with the rest 1t
had no place to put them save with
the other detectives. In all the
United States there was and is now,
so far as i have been able to dis
cover, no institution of this kind
(home-nursery, hospital and kinder
garten combined) for Blind Babies,
outside of the International Sunshine
Society's activities. The State insti-
tuition at Batavia keeps them at five
years, if they are bright and normal
outside of their blindness and have
been taught to care for themselves in
measure. The age limit at six
schools in the United States is five
years, at one it is twelve.
Mother Love" Often the Baby's
Enemy.
Help toward mental unfolding and
normal physical development is what
the blind baby needs, rather than
pity; and pity is even a disadvantage,
In that it saps the self-respect of any
human being to be pitied. Mother
love" in the home too often shields
the blind child from what is best
for it. The little legs are unemploy-
ed, for fear of a fall downstairs or
some other injury. The child is fed
on liquids because it is afraid of
solids in the mouth, even of sugar
Jumps, instead of being encouraged
to chew and digest what is strength
ening. The picking at the eyes, COM
mon to all blind children-a peril |
Gus phase of the sight lust, probably
producing a sensation like the "see-
ing OF stars" from a fall-goes on
without check in the home. The
mother does not understand that it |
means the idiocy or death if not
restrained.
In the Dyker Heights Home in
New York the little body is nourish-
ed, oiled, massaged, while the mind
is being slowly awakened. Out of
eighty-two cases only one has been
given up as hopeless. But often it
was months before any sign of mind
appeared. In that of one little girl !
1t took two years to teach her that
her hand could grasp an object and !
lay it down at will. Now she walks /
and talks, and shows much intelli- |
gence.
Another little girl was five years
old when five years ago we took her
from the Randalps Island Idiot de-
partment," where she was thought
to be untrainable, hopelessly feeble |
minded. She Is now in the fifth |
Teauer, new 1ork point, The other |
day she said to a gentleman who |
called at the Home: "Oh, / am TAX
ing the literary course at the city
school,"
There are about $4,000 adult
blind in the United States. How /
many died in babyhood is a pitiful |
question. Most of the adult blind |
are absolutely dependent persons,
without grace, without poise, with
out the inner life that means so !
much to all of us, the life of imagi- |
nation which books and thought de-
velop. Taken in babyhood they
might in many cases have been made /
self-supporting. In nearly all cases |
their lives could have been rendered !
richer, fuller, better worth living.
In the constructive Imagination of
the author, in the art of the orator,
In music, instrumental or vocal, in
terpretative or creative, a blind per-
son has almost an equal chance with
one who can see. because of the mem
tai concentration easy to one not con-
fused or distracted by sight Images.