e female pupils
are taught to make all kinds of ornamental bead-work, to crochet and knit
woolen and worsted goods, to sew by hand and with machines, and some of
them acquire surprising skill, though my own experience does not give me a
high opinion of the efficacy of attempting to teach sewing, so very few
ever practice it after leaving school, though I have found it convenient
to sew on a button or repair a rent on occasion. Sewing by the blind,
though it may surprise the beholder for the skill acquired under
difficulties, will seldom claim their admiration for its own merit.

I have more faith in the efficiency of the industrial education of the
boys and men, because, in the course of my travels, I have found numbers
of them prospering in the pursuit of the trades learned in the
institutions, and some of them carrying on quite extensive operations.
Boys are taught to make brooms, brushes, cane seats for chairs,
mattresses, door mats, to weave carpets and do many other forms of useful
work. It looks strange to be shown a brush in which black and colored
bristles are formed into lines of beauty--initials, flowers, etc., and to
be told that a blind man made it. It looks like a miracle, but when you
learn that the forms were traced on the block by cutting grooves in its
surface to form the figures, and that the black bristles were kept in a
round box, and white ones in a square box, near the maker's hand, the
mystery disappears.

Connected with the Philadelphia Institution are extensive manufactories,
in which large numbers of workmen are employed. They are the largest in
the United States that are operated almost exclusively by the blind. These
shops enable numbers of men to support themselves and their families in
decency and comfort.

The great interest manifested in the education and training of the blind,
by thousands of noble people and earnest workers throughout the country,
deserves the gratitude of not only those who suffer the great deprivation,
but of the whole people; for the benefits they have conferred on us by
educating and rendering us useful and independent, rank in the scale of
beneficence next to giving us sight.

POEMS BY THE BLIND.

I take the liberty of introducing a few poems by blind authors, feeling
that they will be appreciated by the public. Poetry seems to possess
peculiar charms for blind people, who, deprived of material sight, seem to
love to revel in the beautiful visions pres