the following passage
occurs:

We are gratified to report the successful working of the literary
and musical branches of the Institution, and also the favourable
progress of our manufacturing department, in teaching and employing
blind persons in useful trades; experience every year confirms the
necessity of a house of industry for the regular employment of
pupils whose term of instruction has terminated, and of the adult
blind.

The education of the blind is a simple matter; nor is it
susceptible of much improvement in the way of securing their future
welfare. The great idea which encourages the establishment and
support of all such institutions by the several States is the
preparation of the blind for future usefulness and happiness, by
self-dependence. Their misfortune unfits them for the large number
of industrial and professional pursuits open to the seeing; but
there are mechanical arts in which they become good, if not rapid
workers. The difficulty with many, especially those without
friends and homes, is in securing employment, and in earning fully
enough for their support. Without this, the failure, idleness, and
demoralisation which too often follow prove how imperfect is their
previous instruction in this direction.

The "Association for Promoting the General Welfare of the Blind,"
founded in London by Miss E. Gilbert, is an example of a very
practical organisation for the employment of the blind, which has
been alluded to in our former reports. It gives work, in various
ways, to about 170 adult blind persons, many of whom were
previously begging in the streets. The deficiency of their earnings
is supplied by annual subscriptions and legacies, the usual sources
of support in Great Britain for the benevolent institutions.

Such institutions will never be self-sustaining. But the support of
an industrial association which enables every blind person to earn
100, 200, or 300 dollars a year, is certainly better than to throw
such persons upon the charities of the wayside, or to consign them
to pensioned idleness.

In the autumn of this year Bessie was at Chichester, and in addition to
the difficulty of walking, which she experienced after any time of hard
work, she began to discover that vibration from any great or sudden
noise affected her