This partially blind woman does the work practically as well as a seeing person. The manager of Imagine, if you can, the feelings of a tive, dependent on any one he may chance to stumble against, and if he has no relatives or friends, he becomes an object of charity along with the pauper and the degenerate. He flounders in a stagnant sea of apathy, without course or horizon or guiding star or haven. Or he grows bitter against a fate that he cannot master. The blind are brave, they try to be cheerful, but the "happy disposition with which seeing people so often tell you the blind are endowed is a fiction more comforting to the seeing than to the sightless. With new hope the blind man hears that there are people who will teach him to read with his fingers. That is something; but it cannot lead him back to the active joy of work. Perhaps he visits the school for the blind in his State, with the hope that he may find something to do and something worth doing. He is speedily disappointed, for he learns that the blind children will be almost as helpless as he is when they graduate from school! Great as the misfortune of blindness must always be, it has been much greater in this country than it need be. For the blind of Europe have advanced far through their limitations toward selfmaintenance. The causes of failure in America are not far to seek: lack of initiative, intelligence, and enthusiasm on the part of those to whom the public has intrusted the welfare of the sightless, including the managers of the schools for the blind, whose attitude toward industrial ventures the Massachusetts Commission characterizes as unsympathetic, to say the least." What we need, and what we have not, is expert supervision, adequate industrial training, some the blind such a policy is ruinous. A blind man cannot, like his seeing fellow-citizen, learn his work after his school ing is done, bear the brunt of learn ing it alone, and know the excellence of his work without the eyesight of another. Suppose a young woman tries to knit and crochet in her home. She may work constantly, yet earn nothing. This is one of the kinds of work for the blind which can be profitable only under careful supervision. Hand-made articles must be of the finest design, color, and workmanship in order to compete with the cheap machine-made articles, and only the well-to-do will pay THE WIDE VARIETY OF BASKETS MADE BY THE WISCONSIN WORKERS for them. Now, most of the blind are poor, and have but crude ideas of design, so that if their shawls and afghans are to fetch anything in the market, they must be done under the eye of a skillful teacher. Even if a blind person can do something supremely well, he cannot find a position for himself. Some sympathetic and intelligent agent is necessary to help him, not only to hunt a place, but to overcome a prejudice against him. Unfortunately, there is a presumption in the public mind that a blind man's work must be inferior to that of a seeing com petitor. The blind organist hears of a vacancy, goes to the church committee himself, applies for the position, and proves his musical powers. They refuse his services simply because he is blind. It is assumed that he cannot read new music, that he cannot teach others, that he cannot even be depended upon to get to church and find his seat at the organ. The deepest pitfall to the feet of the sightless is the black gulf of ignorance in the minds of the seeing. Modest, disappointed, abashed, the blind man does not argue his case. He needs a special for the blind, instead of taking a minimum of interest in this work, ignoring it as outside their province, even openly or secretly opposing it, ought to be the leaders in all undertakings for the welfare of the blind. Does the real friend of a class, head of a respected and powerful institution specifically intended for a part of that class, bound his interests with the walls of his institution? A great educator like President Eliot understands that, if only for his own sake, if only for the welfare of his institution, he must concern himself with the entire CUTTING CORNERS IN A BOX FACTORY This blind boy works in a factory with seeing people, and does as good work as his companions friend whose business it shall be to insist that people give the blind man a chance. What State in this country has long had any such authorized agent? The existing schools for the blind are good as far as they go; there is little to censure in their instruction of children. They cannot do everything for all the blind, but they should feel that the problems of the blind are related, and they should be the first to encourage, inspire, and demand, with all the influence of their institutions behind them, the right kind of industrial aid for the sightless who need it. The directors of the schools problem of which his special work is a part. We find him interested in a trade school across the world from his university, and laboring upon the curriculum of the lowest primary school. We quarrel with none of the excellent work for the blind which the existing schools are doing, but we say to the directors and trustees, "Encourage others to do for the blind what your excellent school is not intended to do for them. Do it all if you can and will, otherwise do not look with unfavorable eye upon efforts guided by other wisdom than that which emanates from you and your institution." All these circumstances furnish a clue whereby to understand a great deal about the actual condition of the blind and explain the nature of the assistance that must be given to them at once. America, proud of being "progressive," has not learned the lessons which the practice of conservative European nations has mutely striven to teach us these many years. What the blind of America need, to open the door of usefulness and keep it open, is organized aid and intelligent encouragement. Europe affords good types of such organized aid for the blind. When the graduate goes into the world as musician or weaver, an agent persuades the doubting employer to give the blind applicant a fair trial, and pledges his word for the candidate's ability. The blind man comes, surprises his judges by his skill and ease and freedom of movement, and conquers his fortune. The results of the energy and good sense of these societies and agents are splendid. At the Glasgow Asylum for the Blind the average annual sales for three years were twenty-nine thousand A WIRE WORKER This man, after he became blind, was encouraged to continue his trade at home, which The "Saxon system " in Germany aids blind men and women in their homes, secures raw material at favorable rates, and markets their wares. The Valentine Haüy Association in France, and the associations connected with the institutions for the blind in Great Britain, find positions for capable blind persons and hold up their hands until their employers approve and accept their work. The schools co-operate. They strive to give their pupils a good industrial training and then pass them on to an agency that will turn that training to practical account by finding employment for it. pounds, and for eighty years the workers have produced salable articles. Not only do the women make bedding for the institution, but they have secured contracts with shipping firms and other institutions. In London, which is declared behind the times but is far ahead of us, six per cent. of the blind are in workshops. In other English cities thirteen per cent. of the blind are employed. The chief industries open to them are many kinds of mat-weaving, a few kinds of carpentry, cordage, massage, brushmaking, mattress-making, and the manufacture of all kinds of baskets, from |