Gloucester County Democrat., 1912-02-08
HAVE YOU A. BLIND BABY /?


Until few years ago there was no
institution fully equipped for the care,
maintenance and education of the
baby blind. But now there is an ex-
|ceptionally fine one, known as the
Arthur Home for Blind Babies, on
Pinegrove Avenue, Summit, N. j. 1t
is large stone building, with Nursery,
Hospital, Home and Kindergarten de-
partments.
There are twenty-five children there
already. The kindergarten teachers
are graduates. The Hospital Depart
ment is headed with one Of the best
graduate nurses; the Hospital staff is
composed of the best surgeons and
doctors of the country.
The Institution is maintained by the
International Sunshine Society, the
largest philanthropic newspaper clnb
in the world. Headquarters, So Fifth
Avenue, New York City, N. Y. Origi-
nally all the members were newspaper
writer's, but since the dues are only
! kind deeds, the ranks have been joined
by good people from all parts of the
country. These newspaper worke
discovered there was no provision for
blind babies; that they were put in
i the Poor Houses of the different
/ counties, or sent to the Idiot Depart
ments or Institution for Feeble Mind
ed.
Mrs. Cynthia Westover Alden, a
newspaper writer and editor, is the
president of this Society, and right
fully maintains that we have no right
to assume that a child has no brains
because it is blind. The Society has
proven that if proper care and train
ing is given, the blind baby will grow
lup into a beautiful normal health
loving child, with the exception that
it has no eyesight. The Society took
the so-branded idiots and feeble mind
ed from the different states, put them
in the Institution and gave them the
best care and training that could be
secured, and has proved the truth ef
Mrs. Alden's statement, for out Of
eighty-two children supposed to be
beyond all help, only two failed to
respond to the training.
1t has also been discovered that the
mortality among the blind babies is
something alarming. The light hun
ger is created than that of food, and
the blind babies, instead of sucking
their thumbs, dig their little fingers
into the eyes and rub for the light
THAT never comes) until the eye is
injured, and as a result often blood
poisoning sets in and the baby dies
When the Summit Home was open
ed, of the thirty-one children on the
list, when the workers began to pre-
pare the Home, only one could be
found.
Not one of the children now in the
Home were on the list for admission
when the Home was opened.
Love and money will not save a
love that hugs the baby closer and
closer to her, is the greatest enemy
the child can have. Daily the mother
Twill see her baby grow more feeble
and feeble right under her eyes. 1t
takes "a graduate nurse to carry out
the doctors orders as to its physical
care, and it takes a graduate kinder
gartener to train the mind that should
be trained daily, yes, hourly. The
mother can no more save her blind
baby from becoming feeble in mind
than she can give it college educa-
tion and do her other duties at the
same time.
If you know of blind baby, tell
the parents of this Institution, where
it can be sent and be saved from
/ growing up feeble in mind and Grip
pied physically.
| Letters directed to Mrs. Cynthis
Westover Alden, So Fifth Avenue, New
York City, President-General, Inter.
national Sunshine Society, or to NJ
! Kate Coleman, Superintendent of tn;
Summit Home for Blind Babies, Pine
grove Avenue, Summit, N. j., will re-
ceive prompt attention.
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