Part 10 (2/2)

Circulated together with the more official and, of course, less affectionate ”statement” which was lately sent about, a little ood to the cause I should entitle it ”God's Fondness to the Blind,” and it need not exceed es

If you approve I will set about it at once, and let you have the results of my labour of love in the shape of proof sheets in a few days

We join heartily in wishi+ng you and all your home party a happy Christmas, and with much affection, I am always, my dear Bessie, most truly yours, H KYNASTON

Miss Gilbert, Chichester

Dr Kynaston's suggestion was not carried out, it must have been most distasteful to Bessie

Just in proportion to her desire to make known the cause for which she worked was her dislike to personal notoriety She felt keenlyreh a calamity or a defect She could appreciate the writer's ratefully; but the proposal was at once put firmly aside

Her eldest brother, Mr Wintle (he had taken his grandfather's na 1856 He and Mr Henry Bathurst, brother of her friend Caroline Bathurst, acted so the year, cohtened her as to thewhich would have to be adopted so soon as the Coement of the institution This was not done until January 1857 Bessie was probably anxious to draw up rules for the institution which should e the infancy of the schee upon which to establish them She had still much to learn as to the powers as well as the defects of the blind, and she shrank froislation until she understood ”her people”

Mr Wintle opened an account at Dru the Blind,” to which donations and subscriptions were paid In reply to her own appeals, as well as in consequence of newspaper accounts and sermons, she received dom persons interested in the blind applied to her for advice, or wrote on behalf of men who professed a desire to learn a trade and earn their own living Some of these were really in earnest, but ements had been made to send theed

She becaar is de seen that old people will not give up begging, and that all efforts to i An extract frole letter will suffice to show the frequent result of a prolonged correspondence and of final arrangehted to see Miss Gilbert's letter, and immediately had a talk with him [the blind man] which was not satisfactory, for he said that, even if we should succeed in getting him the employment, he is sure he could not support himself by work, as he was a much shorter time under instruction than is usually the case He see a basket occasionally and carrying it about the streets for sale, and begging of the few people who know him I am sorry it ends so for the present, for I think his case a very distressing one He was born in New York, and has no parish in England; he has one tiny child here who leads him about His wife, with, I think, two more children, is in the Bristol Union

Many similar cases helped Bessie to understand those on whose behalf she laboured; but they never closed her heart to the appeal of a blind person as in need The area of her as enlarged, as well as that of the aid which enabled her to carry it on Not all those who clamoured for employes_, and drew back in disgust from the offer to teach the They were often even raded and vicious than poor

To see and know this, and yet not to lose heart, to ”hold fast to that which is good” when evil abounds, is a difficult task Bessie did not shrink from it, and she did not misunderstand her work She was merciful and compassionate to those who had fallen, felt for them in the solitude, the poverty, the despair that had driven them to evil courses, would relieve the could be done with or for theht be reached, and indeed encies, but the _teacher_ could do nothing

The practical outco the persons to be taught and employed, and a very tender compassion in reference even to the hopeless and abandoned Their lonely, sad condition was never overlooked

Bessie was very cautious in the selection of overn the Institution, and a letter written about this time on her Foucault frame to an old Oxford friend will be read with interest She not only wrote many of her own letters at this ti the postman must have sometimes found them

PALACE, CHICHESTER, _16th January 1857_

MY DEAR MRS B--I hope you will not think this letter very troublesoain the infor you with these lines I re blind workmen I have now formed an association under the title of ”The association for proeneral welfare of the Blind,” in order to extend its usefulness, and to place it upon athan it could have had when in the hands of one individual Nowto you is to ask whether Mr

A, who is, I believe, a clergy about a Mr D, living, I believe, at C He is a very large fur dealer, very rich; he is blind, and I am anxious to have him on the Committee of the association, but must know more about him before this can be done He has a warehouse in the city, I think, in Cannon Street or Cannon Street West I want all the inforard to his character and principles, etc I thought perhaps you would be able to get this for h Mr A's family, or direct from himself if you would kindly write to him on the subject I send you some of the present price lists

Brushes, hassocks, and servants' kneelers are now reater nue at which they can be admitted into institutions, so that inanything by which they can earn a living I a taught trades ould not be admitted into other institutions, and this branch will, I hope, be gradually verylibrary in raised books to which the poor can belong free of charge, and others by paying the subscription required by the Committee If you think it would be well, and will tell ht you knew hiht perhaps you would be able, and would kindly undertake the e family party now M

with her husband and three children, and E with her two children, are all here Robert is gone back to London and law Papa and es did they knoriting I hope you can give a good account of Mr B With very kind New-Year greetings from us all to him and yourself--I a the whole of 1856 the possibility of giving e Bessie's close attention, and it was one of the things she wished to arrange whilst the ement was in her own hands She found that the ordinary work of blind wo, crochet, etc, could not be relied upon as a means of livelihood

Experi, basket work, wood chopping, and the trades that were being opened up for blind ht not be sanctioned by a Coreater nuard to them date back to the time when Bessie was the supreme and ultimate authority; and they were made at her own cost