feeling a way to the support of their families,
by skill and industry, as brush-makers or
Bass broom-makers. Bass broom-making
is one of the occupations lately pressed
into the service of the blind. Up narrow
stairs,—for the infant society is not wasting
its means on costly premises,—we are led
to a small room, at the door of which the
blind superintendent meets us. He has
all his wits about him, and with but a few
touches, like those of a man walking in
the dark, mounts difficult steps with promptness
and decision; rounds the ends of tables;
avoids chairs, and, on entering the work-room
in which blind women are taught,
observes to us, "You see that there is one
of these good women getting her tea
ready."

Certainly there was a blind woman at the
fire, fearlessly pouring boiling water from
the kettle into a small teapot. Whether
the sound of pouring water or the smell
of tea supplied the place of eyes we do not
know. There was in this room much to
suggest to us that, though a sun-beam
quivered on the floor, the whole space was,
except to the visitor, pitch dark. There
was a company of busy women sitting or
standing, one busily combining stamped leather
with ornamental basket-work; one making
bead toys; one modelling a bouquet-holder on
a block; all variously engaged, but with eyes
not directed to their work. Visited as they
were by a stranger, though they were women,
there was not among them one faint glance
of woman's curiosity. Feminine eyes are
commonly so busy, feminine hands are usually
so decisive in their movements, that, in this
work-room of blind women, the stranger must
especially find darkness visible. It is, however,
darkness without gloom. The women
are all cheerfully at work. One or two of
them have been very swift in running through
their lessons. Others are battling steadily
with difficulty. So it is with the men whom,
in another room, we observe safely working
with edged tools, and, by the help of wooden
guides, adjusting accurately the extent and
smoothness of the cuts they have to make
in the course of their brush-making.

Upon the shelves of the circulating library
for the blind we find books printed in relief
on six or seven systems.

The collection contains a body of instruction
or amusement in one hundred and
twenty volumes, which are being circulated
among more than fifty readers. But to the
workers in the house itself a wider range of
literature has been opened by the kindness
of two ladies, who find every week a little
time for reading to the blind.

Upon a bookshelf in this library we observe
a draught-board for the blind, with draught-men
and chess-men made for their especial
use. On the board the black squares are
raised; black chess-men are distinguished by
small top-knots on their heads. There are
also two or three sets of contrivances for the
assistance of blind writers. For those who
could write before they lost their sight the
simplest and best aid is a writing-pad cut on
the surface into ridges. The pen runs along
the depression corresponding to each line of
manuscript, and makes the tails of letters
upon the raised spaces above and below.
Such a pad costs only two shillings, and
answers better than more complex contrivances
which cost, perhaps, two pounds.
For blind writers who have all to learn
there is a most ingenious little desk, which
spreads before the writer a soft pad over
which he can accurately and firmly fix
a sheet of paper of a certain size. A narrow
wooden ruler is then moved as a guide to the
hand down a succession of equidistant holes
into which it fits for indication of the lines, and
six-and-twenty little wooden types, stamping
each letter, as a capital, in pin-holes upon
the paper, are in six-and-twenty little cells
close to the writer's hand. There are also
the ten numeral figures. The writer then, if
he has such a word as Wife to write, presses
his W upon the paper close above the ruler,
leaves it there till he has picked up his I and
pressed it clown close to the W; restores the
W to its cell, leaving the I till he has pressed
down the F beside it; then returns I to its
cell, and leaves the F to guide him in the
printing of his E. Of anything written or
printed in this way, two or more copies can,
of course, be produced at once; but the great
advantage of the plan lies in the fact that
it is blind writing in raised letters legible
by the blind. The pin-holes emboss the
surface of the paper, and the letter writer can
himself, without any loss of privacy, run not
an eye but a finger over what he has written,
and make any addition or correction before
sending it away. To collect and employ all
such contrivances, even to establish, if
possible, a museum for help in the education of
the blind, is a part of the scheme which the
conductors of the institution in the Euston
Road hope to develope.

All substances of which the chief
characteristics can be learned through the sense
of touch, would be fit contributions to a
Museum for the Blind. Stuffed beasts and
birds, preserved insects, and vegetable
productions, shells, specimens of various grains,
minerals, and manufactured articles,—nothing
would be inappropriate that can be
delicately handled without injury. Persons
who are making collections in any
department of physical science open to the
intelligence of the blind, and who have specimens
which they do not want, would do good by
sending them as contributions to this
projected museum. Mr. Levy will know what
to do with them.

Musical talent is very common among the
blind. The best means of developing this,
and turning it to account for the artistic
gratification of others, as well as for the