Year: 1871

The writer Of this article was once
a school teacher of this county
Amongst the goodly number Of pu-
pills who came daily to receive his
instructions was the little boy whose
name Is written above. He was
constant in attendance and faithful
in the discharge Of his duties. He
was not only sprightly and quick Of
comprehension, but withal was Sc
rious and earnest in his work and
exhibited in the preparation of his
| lessons a degree Of conscientious
punctuaIity and care for which boys
are generally not very remarkable.
| Of course, he learned rapidly and
/ gave promise Of a very successful
future.


One day, however, when school
was out, he went into the neighbor-
ing fields, with a gentleman of this
town, for the purpose of hunting.
While thus engaged, he met with a
fearful injury which deprived him
of his sight forever. By accident,
the contents of loaded gun were
discharged in his face, the shot pen
etrating the balls of his eyes, lacer-
ating the flesh and rendering him
totally blind. Since that time, al
though he has entirely recovered
from the shock to his system and
has been for two years in good spir-
it's and health, he has never seen
the light of day or single living
thing. And yet, notwithstanding
1 this total loss of the most impor-
tant Of the five senses, he has not
been idle. We think we hazard
nothing IN saying that from the day
of the accident up to this time, he
has earned more money by the labor
of his own hands and the ingenuity
of his brain than any boy Of a SINH
lar age in the county. The loss of
his sight seems to have quickened
into new life and intensified the
power of every other sense. Mem
Ory, attentivencss, ability to com
prehend, all the faculties of mind
seem to have acquired a treble
strength in their efforts to supple
ment the loss of this one sense
For instance, who ever heard of a
blind boy attending school and re
citing his lessons daily, anywhere
else except in a Blind Asylum
And yet, this boy, during months
Of the year 1870, was a regular pupil
Of ours. We know nothing whatev-
er of the system of teaching the
blind. In fact, at the time he APP
piled to us for instruction we had
abandoned the profession of teach
er. His parents and relatives came
to us with the information that he
was desirous of prosecuting his
studies, which had been interrupt
ed by his sad accident. WHAT
teach a blind boy, we thought
What could we teach him, and how
could we do it? We remembered
what difficulties we had encountered
in teaching boys who had two good
eyes. How then could we impart
knowledge to this pupil who, so far
from being able to see the words
and letters of a book, could not
even detect the presence of the sun
in the heavens at MONDAY? But he
was anxious and confident Of his
ability to increase his stock of
knowledge, and his parents were
desirous of gratifying him; so we
agreed to devote an hour a day to
his instruction. In looking back
over our past labors as a teacher,
we must say that the time spent in
teaching this blind boy the funda-
mental branches ofa good English
education is a genuine, bona tide oa-
sis in the desert of all our previous
experience. He learned with more
rapidity than any boy We have ever
taught. His books were kept with
the utmost neatness. A blue rib
| bon attached to a pure white card
and fastened permanently to each
book, always pointed infallibly to
the commencement and ending of
his daily lesson. His appearance
every morning at our Office was like
clock work. His recitations were
faultless, and during the period of
six months we doubt whether there
was a page or line in the whole
course that had not received his
special attention and indellibly i'm
| pressed itself upon his memory.


Well, some of our readers win
ask, how did he learn without being
able to see? How could he cipher,
read, write, spell or parse without
eyes? Nevertheless, he did it, did
all Of these; and did it well, excel
lently, far better than any two-eyed
boy we had ever seen during many
years OF teaching. He was unaided
too by any of the appliances or lit
tie contrivances always used in in
structing the blind. He used the
same books that you CT I use-in
fact, the same authors that used to
dangle from his strap, when, before
his blindness. as q merry, bright