THE BLIND MANAGER
"While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good."
MARCUS AURELIUS.
The interview in Queen Anne Street was one of the most important events
in Bessie's life.
Her feeble health, her limited opportunities of ascertaining the
condition of the poor, her imperfect knowledge of their requirements and
their powers, made it imperative that she should find an ally with
health and energy, with experience that might supplement her own, and
with equal devotion to the cause she had at heart.
W. Hanks Levy, who called at her request to tell her about the blind
poor, was one of whom she had often heard, and with whom she had already
corresponded. He was an assistant teacher at the school in Avenue Road,
married to the matron of the girls' department.
Levy was of humble origin and blind from early youth. His education,
such as it was, had been received at the Avenue Road School, but he was
essentially self-taught. Outside of the narrow routine of the school he
had worked and striven to obtain knowledge, to find help for himself and
others. He was a man of small stature and of slender build, with
plentiful dark hair on head and face. He wore darkened spectacles, which
covered the sightless eyes. His nose was large and well formed, and the
mouth fairly good. All the features were marked by extreme mobility, a
sensitive tremulousness often seen in the blind. It is as if they did
their thinking outside. Bessie had this same tremulous mobility of
feature; her soul fluttered as it were about a thought, and you saw
hope, apprehension, joy, fear, or dismay when it was first presented to
her.
Levy was a man of eager intelligence and generous heart. He earnestly
desired the amelioration of the condition of the blind. Their
disabilities had pressed upon him from his youth upwards, and upon all
around him.
Living in an institution, and able to measure himself by no higher
standard than that which it offered, he had not, however, realised the
actual limitations of blindness. It is doubtful whether he ever did
realise them. He would, therefore, have been an unsafe guide, but he was
an excellent follower. He would have resented interference from those
whom he called "the sighted," but he submitted to the blind lady; her
nurture, training, and delicate sense of the fitness of things gave her
a strong hold over him. He accepted her judgment when it was opposed to
his own will, and faithfully carried out her views and wishes.
During this first interview in Queen Anne Street he told her of the
various institutions in Great Britain and their work, and especially of
the work done in London. At her request he investigated carefully, and
obtained dates, facts, and figures that were reliable. Bessie found that
the institutions for the blind provided instruction for the young, and
for them only. Statistics showed, however, that by far the greater
number of blind persons lose their sight as adults, from such causes as
fever, smallpox, and accidental injury. They lose sight when others are
dependent upon them, and when blindness means either the life of a
beggar or life in the workhouse. And again she learnt that the existing
institutions dismiss young men and women who have been fairly educated
and taught a trade, on the assumption that, as adults, they can practise
their trade and earn a living. This conjecture tells cruelly upon the
blind. They leave many of the institutions with an adequate stock of
clothes, and either with tools or with money to purchase tools; and then
begins a hopeless struggle. Private friends diminish in numbers, and are
gradually lost. The blind men and women cannot go about from place to
place in search of work, cannot work without special contrivances, which
are not to be found in ordinary workshops, and have no market for their
goods if they work at home.
But do blind people wish to work, or would they not rather beg? asked
many to whom Bessie spoke on this subject. To this she replied that she
did not know; must try to find this out. For some months, at her
request, Levy went into the streets and accosted every blind beggar whom
he met, asking him or her to tell the story of life to a blind man.
"Which would you rather do, work or beg?" he would ask when the speaker
had finished. And in almost every case the answer was "Work." "Why, I'd
rather work, but how can I get work; or, if I get it, how can I do it?
And where can I sell it, if I work at home without orders?"
These were the difficulties that experience brought to light, and after
many months of close and patient investigation, Bessie at length saw a
way open before her. "Don't work yourself to death," a friend said to
her at this time. "Work to death," she said, with a happy laugh; "I am
working to life."
She saw that some one must come forward to befriend the blind poor, some
one who could supply material, give employment, or dispose of the
articles manufactured.
Why should she not do this?
Her parents warmly approved of the course she proposed to take, and
brothers, sisters, friends encouraged her. They saw that it would bring
occupation and interest, which she sorely needed. They could not foresee
how the little rill was to widen into a broad stream, and what
far-reaching results it would have.
In May 1854 "Bessie's scheme" was started. Seven blind men were employed
at their own homes, material was purchased for and supplied to them at
cost price; the articles manufactured were to be disposed of on their
account, and they were to receive the full selling price, minus the cost
of material.
A cellar was rented in New Turnstile, Holborn, at the cost of eighteen
pence a week, and Levy was engaged as manager, with a salary of half a
crown a week, and a percentage upon the sales. The cellar was to be a
store-room for materials and goods, and as the basket-makers could not
bleach their baskets at home, a binn was fixed so that this part of the
work could be done in the cellar. Levy recommended a young man named
Farrow to put up the bleaching binn. Farrow had lost his sight at eleven
years old in consequence of a gun accident. He had been educated in the
St. John's Wood School, was a very good carpenter and cabinetmaker, and
a man who could readily turn his hand to anything. But like many others
who had left the school, he was without work or prospect of work.
He fixed the bleaching binn and arranged the cellar as a store-room
without any assistance, and from 1854 to the present time he has been
employed by the institution which sprang from that small dark cellar in
Holborn.
Levy's theory was that no man with sight should interfere with the
blind; that an opportunity ought to be afforded them of showing that
their work is thorough and complete, and that they can stand alone. It
may, at that time, have been necessary to take such a step in order to
convince the general public that blind men and women could do anything
at all, but the theory involves a limitation which is to be regretted.
Bessie's education, experience, and sympathy would naturally lead her to
try to restore the blind to their place and their work in the world, to
ameliorate their condition but not to alienate them, not to separate
them from home and companions. Her own happy youth, her work in the
schoolroom at Oxford, her enjoyment of the home at Chichester, all
tended to prevent her from being drawn into the current with enthusiasts
who looked upon the blind, less as afflicted, than as persecuted and
oppressed. She had gradually learnt that blindness is a limitation which
the most loving and tender care cannot entirely remove. To be blind, to
be a woman, both imply considerable restrictions: but Bessie was not
predisposed to consider one state any more the fault of society than the
other. She would labour to remove the disabilities of either condition,
but she always recognised that they were inherent, and did not arise
from persecution or ill-will.
It is necessary to say so much at this time, because we shall see that
in many points Bessie did yield to the judgment of one who took an
extreme view; who, himself educated in an institution, surrounded only
by blind people, often of a very feeble capacity, had learned to look
upon himself more as a member of an oppressed and persecuted race than
as an afflicted man. Levy wished to show that the blind could do their
work and manage their affairs in their own way, and that it was as good
a way as any other. No "sighted" man was to interfere in the workshop.
He invented a system of embossed writing, and he used to send to
Chichester weekly accounts of the money paid for basket and brush
material, and in wages. This money was remitted by Bessie, and when
brushes and baskets were sold she was to receive the price paid for
them. The liabilities that she undertook were rent, manager's salary,
percentages on sale, incidental expenses, and losses. These, with only
the cellar and seven blind men at work, would not be more than she could
afford, and with the approval of her family she set to work bravely to
sell her brushes.
The only point on which the Bishop gave advice was, that difference of
creed should not be taken into consideration in selecting the workmen to
be employed. He urged this very strongly, and Bessie carried out his
wishes.
Levy's bills, in embossed writing, were copied by Bessie's mother and
her sisters; the weekly accounts were kept by these ladies from May
1854, when the cellar was taken, until the end of the year.
In the earliest records comes the pathetic entry: "Man to see colour."
This man, in spite of Levy's resolve to employ none except the blind,
reappears pretty often as the "Viewer." He used to "view" the baskets
and their colour.
On the 16th of August 1854 Levy's wages were raised to 10s. per week,
and at that time the cost of rent, postage, and porter for one week
amounted to no more than two shillings and two pence.
The cellar was, however, found to be inadequate to the requirements of
the undertaking, and it was decided that Levy should take a small house,
No. 83 Cromer Street, Brunswick Square. Bessie rented one room from him
at half a crown a week. It was to be used as a shop, and was known as
the Repository. The cellar in Holborn was given up.
As the work of the seven blind men depended mainly upon orders, there
was no great accumulation of stock, but some few specimens were on hand.
During the year 1854 Levy's accounts were copied sometimes by Mrs.
Gilbert, sometimes by Bessie's sisters or her sister-in-law. They were
quite clear to the two principals, but outsiders found them confused and
confusing. Bessie's younger brother took them in hand and tried to
reduce them to order, but the task was a hopeless one. Some bills were
entered more than once, whilst others were not entered at all. To
Bessie, who kept these accounts with unfailing accuracy in her head, the
difficulties with regard to entries must have seemed one of the
disabilities of sight. We learn some particulars as to the original plan
from a statement by Mrs. Gilbert; for each amanuensis kept her own
special copy of accounts.
"As much is to come back from the men for material as has been
originally expended by Bessie for material.
"The men take material weighed out by Mr. Levy one week and pay for it
the next week.
"This, with the value of the stock of material on hand, should tally
with what has been originally paid for materials of mats or baskets."
Some light is thrown on the view of all concerned with regard to these
pecuniary details by a letter from Levy, dated 5th December 1854, and
written from
W. H. Levy's
Repository for Articles
Manufactured by the Blind
Books and apparatus for their use
83 Cromer Street
Brunswick Square.
He writes with regard to a description of mat which only one man, Burr,
can make, so that it will take him two or three weeks to execute an
order from Brighton, wanted immediately. He asks Miss Gilbert to have
the kindness to advise him concerning this matter, and says he has
enclosed last week's accounts, but is "fearful through the multiplicity
of business that the items, although correct in general, are somewhat
confused in detail." Then follows a lengthy superscription--
I remain
Dr. Madam with
Gratitude and Respect
Your obedient
Humble S^t.
W. H. LEVY.
The "confusion in detail" seems to have been considerable, and Mr.
Gilbert's summary for 1854 was as follows:--
Total of disbursements on Levy's account L159 11 0
Total of Mandeville's bills not entered 60 5 8
------------
L219 16 8
Total of receipts for material (presumably
from workmen) L54 4 11
Total of other receipts (presumably sales) 32 8 9
------------
Total receipts L86 13 8
Loss 133 3 0
To this are added the following remarks:--
This account is only approximate. To the disbursement should
certainly be added about L6 paid to Levy for himself and not
entered, and one lost bill of Mandeville's (L4: 18: 6), if not more
than one. The receipts also are probably imperfect.
The word _loss_ is one that would not approve itself to either of those
chiefly concerned. Bessie was _giving_ freely of her income, Levy was
spending economically and carefully. Each knew that there was no error,
though there might be irregularities which seemed considerable to those
who were not primarily concerned in the great cause.
For three months in 1855 there follow a most bewildering series of
accounts. Disbursements, receipts, sales, and a few donations are all
entered on one page. Such a course probably induced further remonstrance
from _the sighted_, and in March 1855 a more orderly system is adopted.
Receipts and disbursements are neatly kept on separate pages, and
confusion henceforth ceases.
We may recall that Bessie always hated "sums," and found them
bewildering. She was, however, very accurate in mental calculation. She
knew what money she had advanced, on what occasions and to whom. No
amount was omitted or entered twice over in her memory. It was only by
slow degrees that she learnt the value of written records, the nature of
them, and the necessity of absolute accuracy in matters of business.
Ledgers and cash books and journals at first indicated merely a certain
incapacity in _the sighted_; but time and experience taught her that
they were indispensable.
The work of the Repository had engrossed much of her time, but in the
summer she accompanied her parents and other members of the family on a
tour in Scotland. She was in very good health, and walked with a brother
and sister from Stirling to Bannockburn and back. Her love of early
Scottish history gave her a special interest in the places visited. As
they drove through Glencoe it was carefully described to her. Inverness,
as being near Culloden, was specially attractive. At Oban she heard of
the taking of Sebastopol, and this recalled her to the interests and
anxieties of that time. She enjoyed staying at Scotch hotels; but on the
whole she had derived less pleasure from the Scotch than from the Irish
tour. She found nothing so beautiful as the Killarney echoes, and missed
the warm-hearted sympathy and genuine interest of the Irish peasantry
and guides.
The one point that stood out pre-eminent as the outcome of her visit to
Scotland was her inspection of the School for the Blind in Edinburgh.
The work done there gave her many ideas, inspired many hopes and plans.
But she saw more clearly than ever that her scheme was a new departure,
and returned with confidence in her own power, and that of her blind
workmen, to carry it forward.