566 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



A blind girl is operating the Braille typewriter which 

 uses a system for the blind invented by a French teacher, 

 Louis Braille, in which the characters are represented by 

 raised dots. The "touch method" in typing here reaches 

 the point of perfection 



A deaf and blind girl reads proofs of The Matilda 

 Ziegler Magazine and records errors on the tj'pewriter. 

 Useful employment removes the greatest burden, idleness, 

 from the shoulders of the blind 



when one told him a thing was 

 red it came to him as a shrill 

 whistle; he knew that the foli- 

 age was green and a restful 

 color, and when told a thing was 

 green it came to him as soft 

 music. My brother's sense of 

 liearing is so acute that he can 

 tell when we are passing tele- 

 phone poles or lamp-posts at the 

 edge of the sidewalk from six to 

 ten feet away. If we are driving 

 along a country road, he can tell 

 hy the sound when we are pass- 

 ing a tree and when we are in 

 open country or in woods. This 

 comes from the law of compen- 

 sation—he has to depend on 

 sound and he has cultivated this 

 sense. I have heard it said that 

 the blind can tell color by touch, 

 l)ut I have never seen one who 

 could, and I do not believe that 

 there is anyone who can do this. 

 I do know a 1)1 ind lady, though, 

 whose sense of touch is so acute 

 that she can tell the denomina- 

 tions of paper money. She really 

 feels the ink in which the num- 

 Ijers on the bills are printed. 



The blind, as a rule, have a 

 keen sense of humor, which is 

 surprising to the average person 

 who supposes that they think 

 gloomy thoughts only. One blind 

 person once said to me, in com- 

 plaining that most of the litera- 

 ture printed for them dealt with 

 religious matters : "They seem 

 to think that we blind can have 

 no pleasure in this world and 

 must always be thinking of and 

 preparing for the next." 



I rememl^er, on one occasion, 

 my brother and I called to see a 

 very pious old relative in a dis- 

 tant state, who had never met 

 him. She w'anted in some way 

 to express her sympathy for him 

 and she said: "Oh, James, you 

 should be so thankful that you 



