A NEW EMPLOYMENT FOR THE BLIND.
By J. W. Scoles
FOR years it has been a leading thought with philanthropists as to what vocations could be most profitably engaged in by the blind. Various occupations have been suggested, and tried, some of them with a fair measure of success; others have proved sorry failures. Recently, however, an avenue of employment has been opened which bids fair to prove unusually successful in placing the blind upon something like an equal footing with their more fortunate neighbors. A short time ago the Legislature of California appropriated $500 with which to purchase type-writers for the blind in the State asylum at Berkeley. And although confronted by a host of incredulous objectors and critics, Superintendent Wilkinson has demonstrated that the blind can be educated and prepared for the most practical duties of life by this very means. Some of the results already obtained are but little short of the marvelous. A stenographic machine is employed very similar to the one already in use by reporters, in which, by the combination of a few keys, the short-hand characters at present used can be duplicated in the form of dots and dashes and curves deeply indented in the paper. These indentations, after a little practice, can be read as easily as the raised letters used in blind schools at present. Equipped with a machine of this kind, it is possible for a blind person to take down any dictation of an ordinary character, and afterwards reproduce it in the usual manner upon an ordinary type-writer, to which, by the way, the blind seem to take with remarkable aptness. Not only this, but a phonograph has been ordered for the asylum, which, with the other appliances already mentioned, will not only open up a new channel of education, but will be the means of placing remunerative employment readily within the reach of those who belong to this class of our afflicted fellow-beings. J. W. SCOLES.