HALL we pay a visit to some of the blind boys and girls we know? Elsie and Katie say they would "like very much to see them at their lessons;" while Ernest wonders if they are as fond of play as we all know he is, and asks if they know any games?
Perhaps the very best way in which to answer all the questions of my young friends will be by telling them a few facts, which I hope they will fiend interesting, about the way or ways-for there are more than one-in which blind children are taught to read, write and work.
Much has been done, and is still being done, by which blind children are enabled to get opportunities to acquire an education almost, if not quite, as good as that of their seeing companions and play fellows.
“Will you tell me something about your school-days?" I said not very long ago to a blind man. As nearly as I can remember, I give in his own words some account of what was taught in schools for the blind twenty or thirty years ago.
“Well, Miss, since you take so much interest in us poor blind people, that you want to know how we were taught to read, I'll try to tell you a little about our school; for as I was nearly six years at Brighton under Dr. Moon, I ought to know a little of what is called his system.
“We were not taught so many things as blind children who are now at school learn, and perhaps the ways of teaching us were not quite so good. But as I am told seeing children, even those whose parents are poor, can, if they try to learn, and are not afraid of a little hard work, get a much better education than their fathers and mothers, I do not think we had much to complain of" When Dr. Moon first began his work of teaching blind people to read, I am sure he found a great many things that gave him a good deal of trouble: one being that four or five different alphabets, all raised or embossed, were used in a good many schools; and as, of course, he wanted the best to be the one used in his schools, he sat down in his study and began to compare them.
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DR. MOON'S ALPHABET.
“But the choice was far from being an easy one. He found that, though a few blind persons understood one of these systems well enough to read with ease any book prepared in it, when one in which another alphabet had been used was offered them they passed their fingers over its pages without being able to call a single letter by its right name.
“Books for the use of the blind were very dear, and the number of readers was so few that it hardly seemed worth all the time and trouble needed to print or emboss them.
“Day by day the doctor went on with his work, till an alphabet and easy reading book were ready. Though he received a great deal of valuable help from other teachers of the blind, he made so many changes and improvements that the new books were called by his name, and were largely used not only in his own, but after a few years in by far the greater number of schools for the blind.
“Sometimes blind people, who had lost their sight from illness or accident when quite grown up, called upon Dr. Moon, saying they wished very much to learn to read their Bible, if he did not think them too old to begin. Among these were several who had never been to any school, and who had been employed as farm laborers in plowing, digging, and other out-of-door occupations.
“Dr. Moon was just as willing to teach as these pupils were to learn, but he soon found out that hard work had so thickened the skin of their fingers, that when he tried to teach them the letters of the alphabet they could not, they said, feel any difference in the shape of the letters.
“What was to be done? Try, try again,' to be sure; so the doctor set to work afresh, and in a few weeks what is called Lion Type was ready, the letters of which, being formed in brass wire, could be read with ease by blind persons whose hands were rough and hard.
“As you may suppose, all the boys and girls in Dr. Moon's school were taught to read on his system. Our books were not printed. but what is called embossed with raised 'letters. A few of the elder boys were chosen to assist in the embossing rooms. The work required great care, besides taking a long time. Books prepared in this way were expensive, an entire Bible in Moon's type costing about seven pounds.
“We did not learn much writing, though a few of our number knew how to use what we called a writing-frame, something like a desk covered with a thin pad or cushion, over which a framework of metal bars was placed. A sheet of thin paper laid between the pad and frame is pricked with the required letters of the alphabet by the use of small blocks of hard wood in which points of wire have been so placed as to form Roman capitals.
“What trades were we taught?' did you say. I spent some time as an apprentice to the basket-making, though I never took any great liking to it, and having, like many of the blind, been gifted with a quick ear for music, thought I might be able to earn my living as a musician.
“You will hardly need to be told that I was thinking only of how I could best please myself, for like every other unsaved soul, I was not only a stranger to but an enemy of God, without any real desire to do, or even to know, His will.
“But the Lord had patience with me, and though I wandered far in the paths of sin, He in His grace followed me, gave me eyes of faith to see Him as my own precious Savior, and saved my soul. And though it is all dark as to my outward life, I often find myself saying with one of old, One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.' (John 9:2525He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. (John 9:25).)
“Since I became a Christian my employment has often given me pain, leading me as it does into places where I am obliged to be much in the company of ungodly men. But all the foolish, idle talk going on round me has no power to hinder my looking up to my Lord in the glory where He now is, and asking Him to close my ears to all that is going on round me, and in His own time and way to open up some means of earning a living, not only for myself, but also for my wife and little girl.
“Basket-making as a trade used to be taught to blind girls as well as boys, but as the canes have to be prepared for use by soaking them in water, and there is a great deal of rough wet work to be done, so many of the girls suffered in health from their employment, that some years ago it was decided to teach it only to boys.
“Making mats and brushes are occupations found very suitable to the blind, while a few are employed as wood-turners. Some very fine knitting is done by blind woman and girls; a shawl knitted in Shetland wool by one or more of the pupils of a school for the blind at Manchester being one of the presents made to the Princess Beatrice on her marriage.”