The Daily Alaska empire., 1931-07-28
HELEN KELLER
 OF NORTH BACK
 TO BEGIN WORK
Melba Call, Eskimo Girl, to Become Alaska s First
 Te a oh e r of Blind

l
 To begin her mission of light bringer to the blind children of the Alaska Indian and Eskimo races, Miss Melba Call, foster daughter of Miss Corinne Call, pioneer teach er Of those people, spent a few hours here today visiting Charles w. Hawkesworth, Acting Chief of the Alaska Division of the Office of Indian Affairs. She is enroute to Panama where that bureau will soon open it's first school for the blind p@rss
 Miss Call, few months short of 21 years of age, has been aptly named the Eskimo Helen Keller , Not always was she blind but She remembers but little of what the world of light looks like
 Blind at Three
 Born at Sovanuska, on the east ern shore of Naknek Lake on the lower Alaska Peninsula in October, 1910, she saw as other normal children do until 1913, when she lost her vision through illness. Later, while in an orphanage con- ducted by the Bureau of Educatior, she was adopted by Miss Call, then a teacher in the institution.
 Personally, Miss Call directed her carly education. So bright was the little girl, that she was eventually sent to a school for the blind at Vancouver, Wash She completed her course there in 1928, after II years of unremitting effort. Her work won for her a scholarship in Perkins Institute for the Blind, just outside of Cambridge, Mass, near historic Harvard University, where she did postgraduate work for two more years.
 Returns to People
 Now she has returned to her own people, to bring light to those of them whose days might otherwise be spent in darkness Her school at Panama will be open next Sep tember. A recent survey by the Office of Indian Affairs showed 10 children who can enter the in- stitution at once. There are, also, 53 adults who might benefit from .hcme work, but for the present it is not planned to undertake this.
 The Eskimo girl is a slim, small figure, with a winning smile and most pleasing personality. She is bright and cheerful and enthusias- tic over this chance that has come her way to impart to moth CTS some of the fine things she has learned in the past 13 years
 Doesn't "TeII Stories"
 Well, tell us a story suggested MT. Hawkesworth to this northern Helen Keller. i"I don't tell stories. I just answer questions, she retorted smilingly and without hesitation. It was easy to see this was not her first Interview
 She had no hesitancy about ail- swering questions, even the one about her age. "I'I be q next Oc- tober,' she said
 She can play bridge with any, one,' but only with her own cards. She has marked them with fine ebrasions, probably using pin. And she likes the game.
 Is Good Musician
 She is an accomplished musician. She has shown real ability as pianist and has broadcast over number of stations.
 And she fairly makes a type writer talk. She doesn't use any special machine, either. Of course, she uses the touch system, and makes fewer blunders than the average person who has the use of both eyes. She can, and did, ad- dress in strictly proper shape and envelopes. The address es were as neat as could be. She signs letters and other papers with