The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-06-24
Blind Girl A Success
 As StenOg

1 | resolve, a head to contrive and a hand to execute"
 In this old but familiar quotation might be summed up the extra ordi- l nary capabilities of Miss Matilda Al lison, California's first blind steno- grapher.
 Miss Allison is stenographer at the Napa State Hospital. position in which an intimate knowledge of | medical terms is quite as important as fast and accurate typing. Her routine day consists of taking clini- cal. path ological and basteriological ictation from nine physicians There many sighted stenographers who lt obably would shy at such an as s.gnment, you may observe: Then, how did a girl who is totally blind Iloyment? Here is the story in br :ef:
 When she was only seven years of age an accident which occurred at made Matilda Allison totally blind.
 Even then. although only a child, she was possessed of an iEdomitable will which recognized no afflict1on too great to overcome Determlned to achieve independence and conf dent in her ability to do so. she en- tered the California School for the Deaf and Blind. in Berkeley. Here she became accustomed to the new life which she must live. In 1909 she was graduated from the high school section of the institution as the valedictorian of her class. But even then" she says, ''I did not know how to make a living"
 The young blind girl took a, position as a telephone operator and studied stenography in her spare time. Her friends offered sympathy but no en, couragement. How can a blind girl take shorthand and perform the many other duties of a stenographer?' they asked her.
 1Eo 1 ,,-% to resolve Matilda Allison possessed "a head to contrive," and she forced her way past one difficulty after another, undaunted and stea dfast in her determination to become a steno. no. grapher. And then. when she felt equipped to take the State Civil Ser vice examination, the real struggle began. There was no clause in the law permitting a blind person to take the examination, and the Civil Service Commissioners advised her to try some other type of work. But even laws can be changed. and at this juncture Miss Allison brought her ''hand to execute" into play. After steadily besieging the doors of the commission for more than two years she finally convinced them of the practicability of @ new classification of "blind dictaphone operators, typists and stenagraphers."
 When the examination was over it was announced that Matilda Allison
 
 one who has struggled under some similar affliction can know now proud I was on that day. the blind girl said in commenting on her rat ing. ''In securing a new Civil Service classification I opened the way for countless. other blind girls, and 1t is this for which am most thankful"
 Miss Allison for the most part takes all dictafion directly on the typewriter. The dictaphone also is a great help. and there is a system of shorthand especially for the use of the blind. She is one of the fastest ceives the same salary as sighted stenographers in similar work.
 In addition to her regular duties, Miss Allison is assistant editor Of the Imola Times, a trim onthly paper issued by the Napa Hospital. ''I have not reached the height of my ambi- tion yet,'' she will tell you Some day I am going to strike out for a job in the news rooms of a paper. l have always loved to write, and one of my chief aims is to become a newspaper woman.
 In the evenings the blind girl visits the Veterans Home at Napa to teach and entertain the helpless inmates of that place. Her happy philosophy of life has been inSulled in the hearts of many of the old veterans at the finding some new source of enter tainment for them- One of her most prized possessions is a watch-a special watch adapted to the use of the blind.
 The time piece has no crystal, and at each hour there is a small raised point by which the blind girl marks off the time of day. The watch was given her by the veterans as a token of their appreciation of her work.
 During her summer vacations Miss Allison breaches the gospel that Blindness is not an affliction, but an opportunity to blind girls all over the state.
 In lectures before clubs and civic organiza tions she always stresses the point that what the blind need is not charity, but practical education - training which will fit them for actual work.