1 APRIL 1911, Page 17

AN APPEAL FOR THE BLIND.

[To THE EDITOR 07 THE "SPECTATOR."] Sns,—We have taken a consensus of opinion amongst the intelli- gent blind, and are rather startled to find the almost unanimity with which they agree on one point. Their deprivation does not distress them in the least. They scarcely spare a thought to the circumstance. What they dread is the penury and helplessness too often arising from their affliction. Sympathy with them in their blindness is, if anything, rather distasteful. Sympathy with them in the efforts they make to surmount its real difficulties is always acceptable. " Teach me how to earn my bread," said one, " and this long darkness will not trouble me one jot." It is to meet this great need that we are working year by year. Come and see for yourselves the effect which self-support has on the men and women who work here so cheerfully. One hundred and six blind persons received the benefits of the Institution during the past year, and then think of the hundreds who as yet are kept out of this better life and are compelled to beg or sell in the street. Many a young man or woman would be only too glad to enter into these privileges. But, though we have accommoda- tion, we lack the necessary' funds. We have opened a special fund to meet this moat pressing need. Will you help us to extend the benefits of an active and useful career to these unfortunate people ? "A little help," says the proverb, "is worth a great deal of pity," and the help will not be despised because of its small-

Welfare of the Blind, 258 Tottenham Court Road, W.

(Written from her Braille shorthand notes by the 'blind typist, Ruth Davies.)