REMOVING STUMBLING-BLOCKS
"Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice."--WORDSWORTH.
Throughout 1856 Bessie was mainly occupied in writing letters to all and
sundry. She wanted money, and more even than money, she wanted custom.
From the very first she saw that customers were of greater importance to
her than subscribers, for it was customers who could ensure the
stability and permanence of her scheme. If the blind were to be
employed, there must be a sale for the articles produced; and the
greater the sale the larger would be the number of workmen required.
Hence the sale of goods, the appointment of agents in country towns, and
the sending out of price lists, were important matters.
She received help and encouragement from many friends. Letters, which
came from those who had known and loved her as a child, gave her great
pleasure, and were carefully preserved.
The following is from a former fellow of Brasenose, the Rev. J. Watson:
OXFORD, _2d June 1856_.
MY DEAR BESSIE--I fear I shall not quite respond to your wishes
exactly in the way you desire. But I will do something; I am not
fond of annuals, I forget them; and arrears are discreditable. Nor
indeed am I sure but that the enclosed (L10) may be more effectual
than an annual L1. _Vita brevis._
All nations have some prudential maxims about present possession.
La Fontaine has a fable to the point, but I cannot call it up.
There is our own famous English proverb, the very Magna Charta of
prudential security. A bird actually in grip is worth the more
abundant but doubtful contingencies of the distant bush. I am glad,
however, of the opportunity of being able to do so much in the way
of donation, following in a modest way the example of our most
gracious Queen and governor.
Thankful too I hope that, being reduced myself to almost a state of
helplessness by the same calamity, I am not obliged to appeal to
the charity of others; and have even something to give to relieve
the necessities of fellow-sufferers.
So much for request second. As to request first, I will do what I
can. But I am a bad beggar, and people are not very easily
persuaded (far from it); 6d. in the pound property tax, poor rates,
champagne, lighting, anything will do to stop the mouth of a
petitioner. I doubt not in the range of your philanthropical
experience you have met with many a cold shoulder. I believe you
might disperse a mob more effectually by the exhibition of a
subscription list than by reading the Riot Act. It is very useful
in clearing your room of officious visitors. Produce a list for the
conversion of somebody to some thing which he was not before (to
wit, the Pope to a coadjutor of Dr. Cumming or Lord John Russell to
an honest statesman), and, presto! the whole scene changes. "Well,
Watson," says one, "I must be off, I have several calls to make."
"Bless me," says another, taking out his watch, "it's getting on to
half-past five (the clock has just struck three) and it's my week
to read in Chapel." Helter-skelter away they go, like Leonora
pursued by the ghosts.
Der Mond scheint hell,
Hurrah! die Todten reiten schnell.
Well, Bessie, you have called up old times. Merry days they were,
and have left no sting. I sometimes see Mary. I go occasionally to
Didcot, where there are nice children; but Milton Hill is just a
mile and a half too far off. I can't walk as I could in those days
when we used to saunter through the scented glades of the happy
valley, or penetrate the mysterious horrors of Bagley. The last
fragment of those excursions was with Fanny and Henrietta to
Headington and round by Marston (as intended), but time was getting
on, and your good uncle would be waiting for his dinner. So in an
evil hour we made a short cut across the fields and verified the
proverb,--Hedges without a gap; ditches without a plank; gates
guarded with _chevaux de frise_ of prickly thorns. It was then that
Henrietta, madly pushing at an impracticable passage, uttered that
famous parody:
I'll brave the scratching of the thorn,
But not a hungry uncle.
But I am spinning out a double-thrummed homily, and you have better
things to attend to. My love to you all. Believe me, my dear
Bessie, _vuestros hasta la muerte_,
J. WATSON.
Bessie had sent as a Christmas present to Dr. Kynaston a silk
watch-chain of her own make, a favourite gift of hers to dear friends.
In his reply the doctor proposes to make an appeal to the public on
behalf of the blind. He writes:
ST. PAUL'S, _26th December 1856_.
MY DEAR BESSIE--Your pleasing remembrance both of me and of old
times was a happy and early beginning to me of yesterday's holy
celebrations. I think you over-rate my love of flowers. Till we
used to pick them together, I fear I was but a Peter Bellish sort
of being, of whom it is said that
A primrose by the river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more.
I seldom look at wild flowers now but I think how you used then to
take them in your hands and feel them, and exclaim, "How beautiful
they are," admiring and loving them far more than any of us, I
always believed.
The chain, too, is highly prized, and I am delighted to show it to
my friends, and both to tell them that you could work it, and that
it was worked for me.
I feel almost inclined to draw up a short account of your
institution, with a little memoir of the foundress, appending some
of the verses suggested in former years to my mind by your cheerful
and happy contentedness in the midst of those sad privations which
you now seek to alleviate in others.
Circulated together with the more official and, of course, less
affectionate "statement" which was lately sent about, a little
memoir of this kind might do good to the cause. I should entitle it
"God's Fondness to the Blind," and it need not exceed many pages.
If you approve I will set about it at once, and let you have the
results of my labour of love in the shape of proof sheets in a few
days.
We join heartily in wishing you and all your home party a happy
Christmas, and with much affection, I am always, my dear Bessie,
most truly yours,
H. KYNASTON.
Miss Gilbert, Chichester.
Dr. Kynaston's suggestion was not carried out, it must have been most
distasteful to Bessie.
Just in proportion to her desire to make known the cause for which she
worked was her dislike to personal notoriety. She felt keenly moreover,
and at all times, the pain of becoming remarkable through a calamity or
a defect. She could appreciate the writer's motive, and would answer
kindly and gratefully; but the proposal was at once put firmly aside.
Her eldest brother, Mr. Wintle (he had taken his grandfather's name),
gave her much valuable assistance during 1856. He and Mr. Henry
Bathurst, brother of her friend Caroline Bathurst, acted somewhat
informally as auditors during the year, compared vouchers, examined
bills, and no doubt enlightened her as to the method of book-keeping
which would have to be adopted so soon as the Committee was fairly
established, and had taken over the management of the institution. This
was not done until January 1857. Bessie was probably anxious to draw up
rules for the institution which should embody her own views; but during
the infancy of the scheme she saw that she had not adequate knowledge
upon which to establish them. She had still much to learn as to the
powers as well as the defects of the blind, and she shrank from
legislation until she understood "her people."
Mr. Wintle opened an account at Drummond's, a "Fund for employing the
Blind," to which donations and subscriptions were paid. In reply to her
own appeals, as well as in consequence of newspaper accounts and
sermons, she received many letters.
From all parts of the United Kingdom persons interested in the blind
applied to her for advice, or wrote on behalf of men who professed a
desire to learn a trade and earn their own living. Some of these were
really in earnest, but many were not. When arrangements had been made to
send them to work in London they drew back. Bessie was not discouraged.
She became more than ever convinced that the life of a beggar is
demoralising; but she knew that already, and had long seen that old
people will not give up begging, and that all efforts to improve their
condition must be made on behalf of the young. An extract from a single
letter will suffice to show the frequent result of a prolonged
correspondence and of final arrangements to receive a blind man as
pupil:
I was delighted to see Miss Gilbert's letter, and immediately had a
talk with him [the blind man] which was not satisfactory, for he
said that, even if we should succeed in getting him the employment,
he is sure he could not support himself by work, as he was a much
shorter time under instruction than is usually the case.... He
seems to think he can do better by making a basket occasionally and
carrying it about the streets for sale, and begging of the few
people who know him. I am sorry it ends so for the present, for I
think his case a very distressing one. He was born in New York, and
has no parish in England; he has one tiny child here who leads him
about. His wife, with, I think, two more children, is in the
Bristol Union.
Many similar cases helped Bessie to understand those on whose behalf she
laboured; but they never closed her heart to the appeal of a blind
person who was in need. The area of her work was enlarged, as well as
that of the aid which enabled her to carry it on. Not all those who
clamoured for employment really wanted it. They meant _alms_ when they
said _wages_, and drew back in disgust from the offer to teach them a
trade and make them self-supporting. They were often even more degraded
and vicious than poor.
To see and know this, and yet not to lose heart, to "hold fast to that
which is good" when evil abounds, is a difficult task. Bessie did not
shrink from it, and she did not misunderstand her work. She was merciful
and compassionate to those who had fallen, felt for them in the
solitude, the poverty, the despair that had driven them to evil courses,
would relieve them in actual want, but she soon learnt that nothing
could be done with or for them in the workroom. They might be reached,
and indeed must be reached by other agencies, but the _teacher_ could do
nothing.
The practical outcome of this experience was extreme care in selecting
the persons to be taught and employed, and a very tender compassion in
reference even to the hopeless and abandoned. Their lonely, sad
condition was never overlooked.
Bessie was very cautious in the selection of members of the Committee
who would henceforth govern the Institution, and a letter written about
this time on her Foucault frame to an old Oxford friend will be read
with interest. She not only wrote many of her own letters at this time,
but addressed her own envelopes, and very puzzling the postman must
have sometimes found them.
PALACE, CHICHESTER, _16th January 1857_.
MY DEAR MRS. B.--I hope you will not think this letter very
troublesome, but I know not in what other way I can gain the
information I wish than by troubling you with these lines. I
remember you have heard of my undertaking for employing blind
workmen. I have now formed an Association under the title of "The
Association for promoting the general welfare of the Blind," in
order to extend its usefulness, and to place it upon a more
permanent footing than it could have had when in the hands of one
individual. Now my object in writing to you is to ask whether Mr.
A., who is, I believe, a clergyman at C., knows or could find out
anything about a Mr. D., living, I believe, at C. He is a very
large fur dealer, very rich; he is blind, and I am anxious to have
him on the Committee of the Association, but must know more about
him before this can be done. He has a warehouse in the city, I
think, in Cannon Street or Cannon Street West. I want all the
information I can get with regard to his character and principles,
etc. I thought perhaps you would be able to get this for me through
Mr. A.'s family, or direct from himself if you would kindly write
to him on the subject. I send you some of the present price lists.
Brushes, hassocks, and servants' kneelers are now made, besides
mats and baskets.
By far the greater number of the blind become so after the age at
which they can be admitted into institutions, so that in most cases
these have not even the opportunity of learning anything by which
they can earn a living. I am anxious to have this want supplied,
and six are now being taught trades who would not be admitted into
other institutions, and this branch will, I hope, be gradually very
much extended. Then there is a circulating library in raised books
to which the poor can belong free of charge, and others by paying
the subscription required by the Committee. If you think it would
be well, and will tell me so, I will write to Mr. A., but as I
thought you knew him, or, at all events, his family, I thought
perhaps you would be able, and would kindly undertake the matter,
which is only one of inquiry. We are a large family party now. M.
with her husband and three children, and E. with her two children,
are all here. Robert is gone back to London and law. Papa and mamma
are really very well, and would send kind messages did they know I
was writing. I hope you can give a good account of Mr. B. With very
kind New-Year greetings from us all to him and yourself--I am most
sincerely yours,
BESSIE GILBERT.
During the whole of 1856 the possibility of giving employment to women
as well as men had been occupying Bessie's close attention, and it was
one of the things she wished to arrange whilst the management was in her
own hands. She found that the ordinary work of blind women, knitting,
crochet, etc., could not be relied upon as a means of livelihood.
Experiments had to be made in brush making, chair caning, basket work,
wood chopping, and the trades that were being opened up for blind men.
These unremunerative experiments might not be sanctioned by a Committee;
and in fact the greater number of those made and the decision with
regard to them date back to the time when Bessie was the supreme and
ultimate authority; and they were made at her own cost.
By the close of 1856 she had drawn up a set of rules to be submitted to
the Committee. One of the most important of these was that a
Sub-Committee should be appointed, whose duty it was to select the blind
persons to be employed. She would not hear of giving votes to
subscribers and enabling them to force upon the institution worthless
and incompetent persons. Careful selection was essential to her scheme,
and was one of the chief causes of its early success.
Another matter which she deemed of importance was a stipulation that the
"present superintendent, William Hanks Levy, is to be continued in his
office until he shall withdraw, or be removed by the General Committee."
The rules recapitulate the object and set forth the work of the
Association. They were submitted to a general meeting of the
subscribers, held on the 19th December 1856.
The meeting having first resolved itself into the Association for
Promoting the General Welfare of the Blind, unanimously approved of the
rules, and adopted them as the laws of the Association. They are
interesting as the outcome of Bessie's endeavours to ameliorate the
condition of the blind, and are therefore given at the end of the
chapter.
A Committee was appointed on the 1st of January 1857, and in May of the
same year a report was issued, with a balance-sheet, showing
subscriptions and donations to the amount of L435, L75 of which had been
contributed by Bessie herself. Interesting tables were appended, giving
the age, address, cause of blindness, family, income, to what amount
employed by the institution, and nature of trade of all men working for
the Euston Road shop, together with similar lists of men and women
desiring employment, of applicants at the institution, and of members of
the circulating library.
The three months' report was a preliminary to a meeting held in Willis's
Rooms on the 26th of May 1857. The Bishop of London was in the chair,
the Bishop of Oxford spoke, and afterwards wrote to Mrs. Gilbert:
LAVINGTON HOUSE, PETWORTH, _30th May 1857_.
MY DEAR MRS. GILBERT--I must tell you with many thanks what
pleasure your kind letter gave me, and how glad I was to be able to
take part in _that_ meeting. I did not at all please myself in what
I said, _because_ I wanted to show in the instance of your own
daughter how God brought good out of such suffering; how the inward
character, intensifying and become sanctified by grace, made the
sufferers as an angel in the house, do what otherwise they never
would have done, by the example of her becoming the foundress of
this institution--but she was present, and I could not trust myself
to say all I felt. May God's blessing rest abundantly on this good
work.--I am ever, most sincerely yours,
S. OXON.
Mrs. Gilbert.
We have now the result of Bessie's three years of arduous labour. Her
institution was fairly afloat. The Bishop of London had consented to act
as president, and the Rev. Thomas Dale, Canon of St. Paul's, was the
vice-president. Notices of the meeting appeared in the London papers,
and were copied in provincial papers. Donations, inquiries, and orders
increased, and so did applications for employment from blind men and
women. The Bishop of Chichester had written a prayer to be read before
Committee meetings, and this prayer was used by Bessie until the last
day of her life. She looked upon it as a solemn sign of her father's
approval, and as sanctifying all her efforts on behalf of the blind.[6]
No period of her life was so rich and full as the few years that
followed the first development of her scheme. She was surrounded by
friends who were enthusiastic in the cause, ready to serve her, and
willing that she should guide and control the work which she had
initiated. Some of those who gathered round her in 1857 are still
working for the institution. Captain, afterwards Colonel Fyers, who for
a time filled the part of honorary secretary, was a faithful and
generous friend to the blind from 1857 until his death in July 1886. Mr.
Summers still sits on the Committee.
One of the first things done by the Committee was to take a lease of the
house occupied by Levy, then known as 21 South Row, and subsequently as
127 Euston Road. It was prepared as a factory for the blind. Rooms were
set apart for the various trades, and the requisite fittings and tools
were supplied. A large front room on the first floor was assigned to
women.
Many informalities and irregularities which had sprung up insensibly
whilst the undertaking was small and private had now to be abolished.
The Committee directed that subscriptions and donations should no longer
pass through the trade cash book, and we may assume that a strict method
of book-keeping was adopted.
An initial difficulty there was, and always will be, in the management,
by amateurs, of business which involves the purchase of material from
foreign markets. Prices rise and fall, quality is open to deception,
wages have also to be adjusted, and manufactured goods must be sold
wholesale as well as retail. This is taken in hand by a Committee
consisting of ladies and gentlemen, many of whom could probably not
dispose of a basket of oranges on advantageous terms.
Bessie herself by this time had acquired considerable information in
matters of business, and she knew the difficulties that surrounded her.
Practical knowledge of this kind would have justly given her a prominent
place on any Committee. Her own Committee placed her without hesitation
in a position from which she was never deposed. They looked upon
themselves as elected to carry out her aims and objects for the blind,
and they believed her to be the best guide they could have. She on her
side gave her whole time and attention to the mastery of all the
intricacies of trade and mysteries of book-keeping. She was soon
familiar with stock-book, ledger, cash-book, and banker's accounts. When
she discovered that her wish would be law, she became doubly anxious
and scrupulous. She had always treated every one around her with
courtesy and generous consideration, and now to the grace of nature was
added a strong sense of the duty she owed to those who trusted her and
relied upon her. She was careful to ascertain the wishes of her
Committee upon every subject to be presented to them, and she never
urged her own views until she saw that her friends were ready to receive
them.
One further development of her work was of doubtful utility. Schools to
teach reading to the blind were formed in different parts of London.
Each scholar was paid threepence for his or her attendance, and guides
were also paid for. It was found some years later that classes for the
blind, under similar conditions, were rather extensively carried on,
were indeed a favourite form of private benevolence, and that there were
blind men and women who earned a living by going about as pupils.
RULES FOR GENERAL MANAGEMENT.
_Title._
1. That this Society be denominated THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR
PROMOTING THE GENERAL WELFARE OF THE BLIND.
_Objects._
2. That the more immediate objects of this Association shall be to
afford employment to those blind persons who, for want of work,
have been compelled to solicit alms, or who may be likely to be
tempted to do so. To cause those unacquainted with a trade to be
instructed in some industrial art, and to introduce trades
hitherto unpractised by the blind. To support a Circulating Library
consisting of books in various systems of relief printing, to the
advantages of which the indigent blind shall be admitted free of
charge, and others by paying the subscription required by the
Committee. To collect and disseminate information relative to the
physical, mental, moral, and religious conditions of the blind. To
promote amongst the supporters of the various institutions for
their benefit, and among other friends of the blind, a reciprocal
interchange of the results of their efforts for ameliorating their
condition.
_Members._
3. That donors of L5:5s. at one time shall be life members of the
Association, and subscribers of half a guinea annually, members so
long as they shall continue such subscriptions.
_Committee._
4. That the management of the affairs of the Association be vested
in a General Committee, to consist of the founder, Miss Gilbert,
and two ladies chosen by her, a President, Vice-President,
Treasurer, and seven gentlemen, to be chosen annually by the
members from among themselves; which General Committee shall meet
on the first Wednesday in February, May, August, and November, or
oftener if necessary; three to be a quorum.
4b. That out of the fourteen elected members of the Committee, Miss
Gilbert shall nominate one to be Vice-President, who, together with
herself, the two ladies chosen by her, and two gentlemen, elected
from among their own number by the President, Treasurer, and
gentlemen of the General Committee, shall be a Sub-Committee, whose
business it shall be to select the blind persons to be employed by
the Association, and to regulate the details, subject to the
correction of the General Committee. This Sub-Committee to meet at
least once a fortnight, and three to be a quorum.
4bb. The President or Treasurer shall be capable of being nominated
Vice-President, and Miss Gilbert shall have the privilege of
introducing at the meetings of either the Committee or
Sub-Committee, her mother, or one of her sisters, who may take part
in the proceedings, but not vote.
_Auditors._
5. That two subscribers be chosen annually, by the members of the
Association, to audit the accounts of the ensuing year.
_Treasurer._
6. The Treasurer shall be elected annually by the members of the
Association, and shall present his accounts to the members, and
also to the auditors or the Committee whenever required. All drafts
upon the Treasurer shall be signed by two members of the Committee.
_Annual Meeting of Members._
7. That a General Meeting of the members of the Association be held
annually on the second Wednesday in May, notice thereof to be sent
to each subscriber on the first of that month, to receive from the
Committee a report of their proceedings, and to appoint the
officers for the ensuing year. But should any vacancy occur in the
offices of President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Auditors, or
gentlemen of the Committee or Sub-Committee, the vacancy shall be
supplied by the Committee or by Miss Gilbert, as the case may be,
until the next general meeting.
_Funded Property._
8. All monies directed by the Committee to be funded, shall be
vested in the joint names of four Trustees, chosen by them, unless
otherwise directed by the donors; the dividends arising therefrom
shall be received by the Treasurer, and applied to the current
expenditure of the Association. As often as any vacancy shall occur
among the Trustees, or change appear necessary, the same shall be
supplied or effected by the Committee.
No general meeting shall have power to sell or appropriate any part
of the capital funded property, until the order made by it for such
purpose be confirmed by a subsequent annual or extraordinary
general meeting, consisting of not less than twenty-four members of
the Association, of whom three-fourths at least shall vote for such
confirmation.
_Auxiliaries._
9. The Committee shall be empowered to form or to receive into
connection with the Association, upon terms to be agreed upon,
Auxiliaries in various parts of the kingdom, for the purposes of
increasing the funds and extending the utility of the Association.
_Special Cases._
10. The Sub-Committee may in a special case require the patrons or
friends of any indigent blind person to pay a donation, or provide
an annual subscription of such amount as they shall deem proper and
suitable, before admitting the applicant to the benefits provided
by the Association.
_Secretary and Superintendent._
11. A Secretary, and likewise a Superintendent of the Repository,
shall be appointed by the General Committee, each with a stipend,
if necessary. These offices to be held together if the Committee
shall so appoint. It shall be the Secretary's business to attend at
every meeting of the Committee and Sub-Committee; register the
proceedings, and keep the accounts of the Association. He must
always be ready to produce the books and accounts fairly written
out, to any member of the Committee. On his appointment he shall
give such security as shall be required by the Committee, for the
performance of the duties of his office, and for the due accounting
for such monies as may be paid him for the purposes of the
Association. The Superintendent of the Repository shall also give
security in like manner as the Secretary, and conduct the business
of the Repository with zeal and assiduity. The present
superintendent, William Hanks Levy, is to be continued in his
office until he shall withdraw, or be removed by the General
Committee. He must also be in attendance at each meeting of the
Committee or Sub-Committee, and be ready to give information at
other times also when required.
_Visitor._
12. That a subscriber who is not a member of Committee be appointed
by the Committee to visit the persons employed at their own homes
and the Repository, and other premises of the Association, and
present to them a quarterly report of the results of his
observations.
* * * * *
BISHOP GILBERT'S PRAYER.
_To be offered up at all Meetings of the Committee and Members._
O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, in Thy ministry upon earth, didst make
the blind to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, lepers to be
cleansed, the dead to be raised up (Matt. xi. 5, Luke vii. 22), and
by Thy holy apostle has commanded Thy followers, that we should
bear one another's burdens (Gal. vi. 2), regard with Thy favour, we
beseech Thee, and aid with Thy blessing, our humble endeavour to
remove stumbling-blocks from before the feet of the blind, to
smooth their difficulties, and to strengthen their steps.
Prosper our efforts, we humbly beseech Thee, O Father, to their
worldly relief, and sanctify them, by Thy Spirit, to the increase
in us of humility, faith, thankfulness, and charity, and to the
growth in our afflicted brethren and sisters of patience and
resignation, of goodwill to those around them, and of love to all,
with all other graces that adorn the Christian life. Of Thy mercy,
O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one ever blessed Trinity in Unity,
hear our prayer, and accept and bless the work of our hands. O
prosper Thou our handiwork. Amen.
FOOTNOTE:
[6] The prayer is inserted at the end of this chapter.