Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1914-03-17
THE BLIND MADE TO SEE
THROUGH FINGERS
Keen Sense Of Touch Taught the
SigbtIess at Maryland Work
shop for the Blind
BLIND MADE SELF-SUPPORTING.
Work Done bT The Blind on Ex-
hibiIiOn at The State HOurs in
Old Senate Chamber.


Kelly, who is In charge Of the exhibit
Of the Maryland Workshop for the
Blind now st the State House in the
old Senate Chamber.
This is an exhibit that every resi-
dent of Annapolis should see, as well
as every member of the Legislature.
II will make you feel better, and
thank Coo that you a-e not sightless
Miss Kelly's work is far-reaching.
She, through various agents, looks
up all the blind in Baltimore aud vi
cinity and then visits them, teaches
them to read and write through the
blind systtm and later on teaches
them some kind Of work that will
help them earn something for them
selves.
Those who are taught first at home,
later go 10 the Workshop for the
Blind, corner Fayette and Paea SITS,
Baltimore. Here they begin to earn
SO a week and as they become prof.
cient get less, to make them more
ambitious. They are paid by piece
work and grow very much interested
in their work. earning a good living
after q time The first step in the
line of instruction is chair Gaming,
the simplest method. This teaches
direction in training the fingers.
Then a more difficult and intricate
Gaming IL taught. In time the men
are taught to tune pianos, make ham
mocks weave bask Its and other useful
lines Of work that can be accomplished
by the sightless.
Women are taught to do weaving,
using the old-fashioned loom. Samples
Of their work show the great strides
made. OF course, they cannot see the
colors, which are chosen for them.
One table scarf shows a COW eating
butter cupJ. The stitches ere all
evenly done, and the work as com
plete and perfect as any accomplish
cd Dy those blest with 81 ght. In the
exhibit in the old Senate Chamber are
emhrnidered laundry lists, book COW
ers, Irish crochet collars, tattiug,
hand bags. There are knitted slip
pers, sacques, shawls, scarfs, all done
by blind women. Everything is on
sale in the exhibit, the cost of the
work going to the makers.
The real old blind men make peach
baskets. The Maryland Veneer Bas-
ket Company furnishes the material
and apparatus, the blind are given 80
cents per 100 for the making Miss
Kelly says she finds most Of the blind
between the ages of 40 and 65. All
the blind she teaches are people who
have once had eyesight, but lost it,.
When she teaches them writing she
gives them a corrugated board that
they may write straight, feeling the
lines on which the words are Written.
She tells them to write just as they
once did before they were blind (those
who could write) but to follow the
lines on the board over which their
writing paper is placed. She showed
representative of The Capital let
ters received yesterday from her
blind friends.
Those VINO cannot write or read
she teaches by means Of pegs in q
board, ceriain-pegs representing Ger.
tain letters Of the alphabet. In the
exhibit we're brooms, sold at different
prices, made by the blind men in the
workshop
One of these brooms outlasts three
Of those bought in the stores, so well
are they made. A baby's secque and
cap, made by an old lady s5 years OF
age, was among the articles 10 the
exhibit Miss Kelly said in one yesl
she has prevented six blind people
from self-destruction. One man hae
planned and arranged bis suicide by
hanging when she reached hin ir
time. He thought life was not wortF
living to one who was blind. Miss
Kelly persuaded him TO believe thai
the sightless could be made to see
through their fingers and he coulC
learn TO be self-supportiDg
At Bay View Asylum, Miss Kell,
has found old blind men and blinr
women who have been taught work
that brings them in small change
An old blind woman, by hemming ter
towels, makes 19 cents per dozen
With this money she buys sugar fol
her coffee, as no sugar is given the
inmates of Bay View. An old blinC
man at Bay View has a horror of be
ing buried by the city or resting in {
pauper's grave. He is earning
enough money to bury him. He hsi
already earned neat SUN from wesv
ing hammocks, which sell for from s:
TO s5,strongly made of macreme cord
Miss Kelly is here TO ask an increase
in the State appropriation for The
Workshop for the Blind, as it has not
the facilities to accommodate all who
need to be taken therein for instrue
tion. There are now from 30 TO a.
on the waiting list. II is hoped Z
reach out into the State and gather
in the blind from all parts Of Mary
land, and TO make them self-support
ing.
There are now FIVE blind young
ladies who are switchboard opera
tors. One is at the Shepherd Pratt
/ A os.1srr~ 49,. -w@sx~t 49,