s in the load,
And too few helpers on the road,"

I clung to the belief that some day help would come, and I should be
permitted to enlarge my scope of usefulness, and reach all who needed
re-education. And this hope was realized in July, 1914, when the State
Library asked me to accept the position of Home Teacher of the Blind of
the state.

As early as 1890 Pennsylvania started home teaching in this country, but
its work was privately maintained. Since then other states have
established such departments, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Illinois,
but these have special appropriations for carrying on the work. Our
State Library is doing it out of its general appropriation, and as a
phase of its extension. It is the only state library maintaining such a
department in connection with regular library work. Some of the large
cities have reading rooms in their public libraries, where books are
loaned on application, and where reading is taught to those who can go
there for lessons.

The duties of the State Library home teachers are manifold. This
department has steadily grown in importance until now it is recognized
as the very bone and sinew of work for the blind in this state. Some of
the teacher's duties are, first, to teach raised type to all who can not
see to read ordinary print, (a person need not be totally blind in order
to read in this way, as many learn who can see to go about alone):
second, to search for, and when possible, place either in the school at
Berkeley, or the special class in Los Angeles, all blind children who
have reached the age of six years; third, to conduct a campaign for the
prevention of blindness and conservation of vision in adults and
children; and, lastly, to set forth the needs of the blind, convince the
public that its attitude toward them is often an added affliction, and
correct a few of the many mistaken ideas concerning those deprived of
eyesight, who are, necessarily, somewhat handicapped in the race of
life. The importance of this last duty can not be overestimated, and so
my next lecture will present this subject in its many phases, with the
hope of creating a better understanding between the blind and the
seeing--an understanding which will not only help the blind adult now in
our midst, but aid materially in the re-education of the blinded
soldier. My task is not an easy one, but I love my work and my pupils,
and I have come to know that the public needs, not so much to be