HOW THE WORK WENT ON
"He who has but one aim, and refers all things to one principle,
and views all things in one light, is able to abide steadfast, and
to rest in God."--THOMAS A KEMPIS.
Goods manufactured by the blind had been for some years advanced to
blind agents on a system known as "sale or return." This had proved
satisfactory so long as the agents were carefully selected. But there
had been some relaxation in the requisite caution, and large
consignments had been made to blind men who returned neither money nor
goods, and who were found to be without either honesty or cash. In 1864
the loss to the Institution by sale and return amounted to more than
L1200.
Bessie was not discouraged by the loss. She felt so keenly the force of
the temptations to which the blind were exposed, and the possibility
that they had at first hoped and intended to be honest, and had only
gradually fallen into evil ways, that it was with difficulty she could
be induced to acquiesce in the abolition of a system which worked so
badly. However, it had to be given up, and she set to work to pay the
debts incurred.
Instead of the annual meeting of May 1865, a bazaar in aid of the funds
of the Institution was suggested.
The first idea of this was very distasteful to Bessie. She had a horror
of the ordinary bazaar. But it was pointed out that a sale of goods on
behalf of the blind, held in the right place and by the right persons,
would have none of the features to which she so justly objected. Her
scruples were overcome, and after she had given her consent she devoted
the autumn and winter months of 1864 and the early part of 1865 to the
necessary preparations for the undertaking. She applied to the Duke and
the late Duchess of Argyle for permission to hold the sale in Argyle
Lodge. They very kindly consented; and the Duchess suggested that if any
use was to be made of the grounds of Argyle Lodge the date fixed should
not be too early in the spring. In consequence of this advice it was
resolved to hold the sale on the 21st and 22d of June.
As the time appointed drew near, Bessie's labours were saddened and
rendered difficult by a great loss. Her brother-in-law, Colonel the
Honourable Gilbert Elliot, who had never quite recovered from the
effects of the South African and Crimean campaigns, was taken seriously
ill in March and died on the 25th of May 1865.
The arrangements for the sale, which was a public undertaking, were now
completed, and it was decided to proceed with it, but the work was
carried on by Bessie at great cost and with a heavy heart; for, as she
says in one of her rare autograph letters, sent to Mrs. Elliot on the
25th May: "You know how we all love dear Gilbert."
Many friends came forward to offer such help as could be given, and the
sale promised to be a success. The list of stall-holders was excellent,
and encouraged Bessie to hope for a good attendance and good results.
Lady Constance Grosvenor, Lady Blantyre, Lady Jocelyn, Lady Victoria
Wellesley, the Marchioness of Waterford and Lady Anson, the Marchioness
of Ormonde, Miss Gilbert, Mrs. Imwood Jones, Mrs. Green, Mrs. King, Mrs.
Fox, Mrs. C. Dyke and Lady Geraldine St. Maur held stalls. Gate money
and the sale of goods produced L1078. Over L200 was received in
donations, and the net result of the sale was more than L1300.
Bessie had good reason to be satisfied, not only with the money but with
the influential patrons she had secured for the Institution. The report
for the following year gives an imposing list of vice-patrons,--the
Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Dukes of Rutland and Argyle, the
Earls of Abergavenny, Chichester, and Darnley, the Bishops of St.
David's, Chichester, Lichfield, Oxford, St. Asaph, and Lincoln, Lord
Ebury, Lord Houghton, Mr. Gladstone, Sir Roundell Palmer, the Dean of
Westminster, and Professor Fawcett.
The pecuniary result of the sale, though perhaps not all that was
expected, seemed to justify the Committee in taking a West-end shop.
They secured No. 210 Oxford Street, and decided to keep the old houses
in the Euston Road as workshops.
Mr. Levy, in a letter sent to Chichester on the 30th September 1865,
announces the completion of the arrangements for a lease on the terms
offered by the Committee. He adds that one brushmaker has a shop nine
doors off, and another brushmaker has a shop twenty-four doors off, but
he thinks their vicinity will not injure the Association. He probably
expected that influential patrons and their friends would purchase from
the blind, and that no orders would go astray. This expectation was not
realised, and in the course of two or three years the vicinity of the
two brush shops was found to be a serious disadvantage.
During the early summer of this year Bessie received a letter written on
behalf of the Committee of the Blind Asylum at Brighton; asking if their
schoolmistress and her assistant, who were not themselves blind, could
be received for "a few days" in the "asylum in the Euston Road." They
wanted to see the working of it, and more especially to learn the trades
taught to women.
Bessie replied that the Institution was not an "asylum," and that no one
could be received to live in the house. She expressed her disapproval of
the employment of "sighted" teachers, but offered to arrange with the
Brighton Committee for the reception of one or two blind persons to be
taught brush-making and other trades, with a view to becoming teachers.
She explained fully the objects of the Association, and expressed her
opinion that an attempt to acquire any trade "in a few days" could only
result in misconception and failure.
There were several letters on both sides, but neither yielded. Bessie
would not consent to train "sighted" teachers "in a few days," and
Brighton would not send blind pupils.
Three years previously the Davenport Institution had applied for a blind
teacher. A man trained by the Association had been sent, and had given
entire satisfaction. He succeeded a "sighted" teacher, and was said to
have done more in six months than his predecessor in two years. Bessie
always urged the necessity of employing blind teachers, on the ground
that they alone could know all the difficulties of the blind; and it
would have been impossible for her to sanction so retrograde a step as
the training of "sighted" teachers in an institution full of blind
persons, many of whom were quite capable of teaching others.
Bessie left London much exhausted by the labours and sorrow of the
spring.
She required a long rest to restore her strength. We have a short
account of her summer in the following letter to Miss Butler, written in
October, from Queen Anne Street.
MY DEAR MISS BUTLER--... I am sure you must have thought it
strange that I have not answered your letter long before this, but
I wanted to have the pleasure of writing to you myself, and I have
just lately had a good deal of work, I mean handy-work, which has
prevented my so doing. Added to which I only returned home about a
fortnight ago after, for me, a wonderfully long absence, about
which I must tell you presently.
I have come up to-day from Chichester for our Committee to-morrow,
and am talking to you in this way in the evening. I too am very
sorry not to have seen you this year, but I hope we may see you
still. How are you after all your nursing and anxiety. You must
want some refreshment, I should think.
Now with regard to Mr. ---- I shall be very glad to do anything I
can, but I really hardly see what I can say or do. My father
generally likes these sort of things to be official, and I really
don't think I should do any good by mentioning Mr. ----'s name
before the ordination. Papa would only say to me: "The examination
must take its usual course, and I cannot do anything," he would
say. Still I will take an opportunity of saying something, nor
would I hesitate at all about it, but that I really think that with
papa such a mention would do no good. I hope you will quite
understand that I have not said all this from any unwillingness to
do what you ask, but really because I don't see how to do so to any
purpose; otherwise it would give me particular pleasure to do it
for you at your request. I am very glad indeed you have succeeded
so well with ----. Every such practical proof of what a blind person
can do is a help more or less to the general cause. Thank you very
much for making the experiment with her.
I told you I had been long away from home. I felt I wanted a
complete change. I don't know when I ever felt this so much. Well,
I paid some visits, one at about twenty-three miles from
Birmingham, and from thence I went to the festival. I heard _St.
Paul_; and the day but one after the _Messiah_. I cannot tell you
what enjoyment this music was to me; never did I hear such
choruses. Each individual singer seemed to love the music. I shall
never forget the wondrous beauty of the singing. However, I was
completely knocked up afterwards for three or four days, but it was
well worth all the headache and exhaustion which I had after it.
The journey there and back was a very great additional fatigue.
Altogether I enjoyed my visits very much, and am all the better for
them, ready, I hope, please God, for plenty of work this winter.
Will you please send me the money in your hands before December. We
have deposited money towards the working capital, and I am most
anxious if possible to find money for current expenses without
touching this capital, and also if possible to add to the deposit.
Of course the more custom the better; I very much want regular
custom from wine merchants for baskets, that we may employ
basketmakers accordingly.
Can you get some such custom with my love to your Mother I am yours
ever affectionately Bessie Gilbert my sisters are well only Sarah
at home Papa very well good bye.
The last sentence is printed as it stands, and gives a specimen of the
occasional want of capitals and of punctuation almost inevitable when
the writer is hurried. But think of the concentration required to write
letters which allow of no interruption and no revision.
In the autumn of this year an excellent scheme was inaugurated, capable
of a development which it has never yet received. The object of it was
to enable blind persons living in the country to learn a trade suited to
their own neighbourhood, and to be instructed in reading and writing
without the expense and very grave risk of a prolonged residence in
London.
It was proposed to send a blind teacher, with his wife, to lodge in any
village or town where there were persons whose friends were willing and
able to provide for their instruction. These persons were to be taught
at their own homes, or in some more convenient place, a remunerative
trade, such as cane and rushwork, the making of beehives, rush baskets,
and garden nets; mat-making, chair-caning, etc. They were also to be
taught reading, and the use of appliances for writing and keeping
accounts.
The Association did not undertake to supply any work, it had to be found
in the neighbourhood. With the help of the charitable it was considered
that this ought not to be difficult; and even if the blind did not
entirely earn their own living, the little they could do would be a help
so far as it went. Bessie had proved long before this that employment,
with the intercourse it brings, is the greatest alleviation to the
suffering of many a blind man or woman. During the autumn of 1865 two
blind persons in the country were taught trades at their own homes, and
also learned to read and write. The cost was not more than L10 for each
person, a sum much less than that which has to be provided for those who
are sent to London for training.
Some day, perhaps, these peripatetic blind instructors may once more be
sent out by the Institution, with advantage both to themselves and
others.
A period of steady quiet work was now before Bessie. Letters, appeals,
investigations, and reports filled her time.
The Archbishop of York presided at the annual meeting in 1866, and the
balance-sheet for that year shows receipts amounting to L7632. She found
herself engaged in a large commercial as well as a philanthropic
undertaking; and the success of her industrial work began to tell, not
only in Great Britain, but in the United States of America. She was much
gratified by the report of the Principal of the Pennsylvania Institution
for the Instruction of the Blind, 1866, in which 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 painfully. She drove with her father and a sister
from Chichester to Kingly Bottom, a vale in the South Downs, for the
last day's shooting of the rifle volunteer corps in September 1866. The
sharp crack of the rifles tried her greatly, and brought on so much pain
that she was glad to accept a seat in the carriage of a friend and go
home, instead of waiting, as the Bishop wished to do, for the end of
the match. The noise seemed to exhaust her.
During the autumn of 1866 Mr. F. Green, who for many years had rendered
great service by his work on the Committee, presented to the Association
five shares of L100 in the Marine Insurance Company, of which he was a
director. They yielded at that time L40 a year, and the gift was a
source of much gratification to Bessie.
She was at Chichester in December, and wrote thence on the 21st to her
widowed sister, Mrs. Elliot, dwelling on the service she could render to
others:
"Having you must make all the difference," she says, when alluding
to a succession of troubles which had fallen upon Lady Minto, with
whom Mrs. Elliot was staying. "Really there is not and will not be
any lack of work for you. You have had, I should think, quite as
much as you could do for some time past.... There is a chance of
Tom's coming in January.... I suppose you know all about him and
his doings. I can't think how he would have got on without you."
Then she gives news from home:
I am expecting them in after the ordination every moment. This time
it is in the cathedral; twelve candidates I think. Papa came down
to breakfast this morning, and was to go in time for the whole
service. Only think, one of the priests has been in agonies of
toothache all through the examination; but in spite of it Mr.
Browne was delighted with all he did. The poor man had two teeth
taken out, and happily to-day was flourishing.... I do hope you
will like the little paper knife which I am so very glad to send
you. I was quite taken with the little bells of the lilies.... Nora
to-day is quite in her element and full of work, putting up a
number of parcels to send off in different directions.... Ever your
loving sister,
BESSIE GILBERT.
"Tom," of whom she speaks, had recently been appointed Vicar of
Heversham, near Milnthorpe; and Mrs. Elliot had visited him at the
vicarage, and superintended the domestic arrangements of her bachelor
brother.
Bessie received no Christmas box which gave her more pleasure than the
following poem, which appeared in _Punch_ on the 29th of December:
A BOX FOR BLINDMAN'S BUFF.
Sit down to eat and drink on this glad day,
And blest be he that first cries, "Hold, enough!"
Gorge, boys, and girls; and then rise up to play.
You _can_. A game in season's Blindman's Buff.
The ready fillet round the seamless brow
Of youth or maiden while quick fingers bind,
Beneath the golden-green pearl-berried bough,
What fun it is to play at being blind!
But some at Blindman's Buff with eyes unbound
Might join, for whom less sport that game would be
Because it is their life's continual round:
The Blindman's Buff of those that cannot see.
If poor, for alms they can but grope about.
But Science to their need assistance lends;
And "knowledge, at one entrance quite shut out,"
Puts veritably at their fingers' ends.
Thus they who else would starve to labour learn.
Does that consideration strike your mind?
Their living do you wish that they should earn,
Instead of crying "Pity the poor Blind?"
Then know there's not a charitable Dun,
Subscription seeking at your gate who knocks,
That more deserves your bounty than the one
Who for the Blind requests a Christmas Box.
At Oxford Street's two-hundred-and-tenth door
Inquire within about the Blind Man's Friend.
Or send your guinea, if you like, or more;
As many more as you can spare to send.
_Punch, 29th December 1866._
In August 1867 Bessie paid her first visit to the Vicar of Heversham.
She writes a "frame" letter from the North to Mrs. Elliot, and sends
warm appreciation of her work in the house, and of the "little
three-cornered things in the pink room." The "nice woman" was probably a
certain Jane Todd, formerly a servant, but at that time settled in a
home of her own. Quite an extraordinary friendship sprang up between her
and Bessie, and to the end of her life Jane Todd daily offered up
special prayers on behalf of her friend the blind lady.
There are again ominous allusions to her difficulty in walking. "I walk
better here," she says; and again, "I can't tell you how much I enjoy
moving more freely."
HEVERSHAM, MILNTHORPE, _23d August 1867_.
MY DEAR K.--I meant my first frame letter from here to be to you,
so now I am beginning it. I have the morning room which you used
to have, and enjoy it very much. How nice the house is, and how you
must have worked to make it so. Mrs. Argles and Mrs. Braithwaite
seem very much impressed with all your hard work. Is it true that
those little three-cornered things in the pink room with the china
on them were washhand stands? You have made a capital use of
them.... I walked up the lower Head yesterday, then stayed there
and had some tea brought me, and afterwards walked to the school
through all those stiles. After the meeting we came back by the
road. I have been able to walk better here, and it is such a
pleasure. I can't tell you how much I enjoy moving more freely.
Wednesday I walked as far as the house at Levens and back after a
rest at a cottage near, where we found a very nice woman who
certainly talked Westmoreland, but really with a pretty accent....
Your loving sister, BESSIE.
The difficulty in walking, to which she alludes, had again increased;
and in 1867 or 1868 she consulted Sir James Paget with regard to it. He
thought it proceeded from weak ankles and general debility, and
prescribed rest and care.
She was at Queen Anne Street in February 1868, and much interested in a
public dinner at Chichester at which her father was to be present Dean
Hook wrote to give her an account of the proceedings.
THE DEANERY, CHICHESTER, _5th February 1868_.
MY DEAR MISS GILBERT--I cannot help writing to tell you that the
dear good Bishop was yesterday more animated and more eloquent than
I ever heard him. He seemed so well and so happy that I am glad he
went. It was indeed an ovation to his lordship, as much as to the
Mayor; he was so enthusiastically received. As I knew that you were
anxious about him, under the notion that he was doing too much, I
trouble you with this note. The calm serenity with which he always
does his duty, and in performing it does his best, is a very
beautiful trait in his character, and I doubt not now that he will
get through his visitation duties without suffering too much from
fatigue. It is not work, it is worry which tries a man, and all his
clergy will exert themselves to save him from worries.--Believe me
to be, your affectionate friend,
W. F. HOOK.
Bessie's own work at this time was mainly the preparation for the annual
meeting in May, together with appeals for custom to the secretaries of
public institutions.
The Lady Superintendent of the Hospital for Sick Children in Great
Ormond Street replies that brushes for the Hospital are always purchased
at the depot in Euston Road.
The Secretary of the Islington Shoe Black Brigade tells her that so far
as he can, consistently with the interests of his Society, and as
regards the price charged for various articles, he has always given the
Society for the Blind as much custom as possible. These are types of
innumerable answers; and she went on with this drudgery year after year;
every ignoble detail of it glorified by the constant presence of the aim
for which she worked. The sufferings of the blind poor were always borne
in her heart; the hope of alleviating them was the mainspring of all her
actions. Letters, accounts, appeals, petitions, these are all the
machinery with which she works. She has learnt the proportion of result
to be expected, and is seldom disappointed or disheartened by
indifference or coldness. But encouragement and approval from those whom
she honours is very helpful to her.
At the meeting held on 14th May 1868 Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Fawcett, and
Professor Owen were amongst the principal speakers. Mr. Gladstone wrote
as follows on the 8th:
11 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE, S.W., _8th May 1868_.
MY DEAR MADAM--If Mr. Levy will kindly call on me at half-past one
on the 14th, I will take the instructions and information from him
with reference to the meeting. I cannot be quite sure of escape
from my duties in the House (which meets on Wednesdays at twelve)
but unless necessity keeps me away you may depend upon me.--I
remain, very faithfully yours,
W. E. GLADSTONE.
Miss Gilbert.
Mr. Gladstone's speech at that meeting is best described by its effect
upon Bessie herself. She writes as follows:
PALACE, CHICHESTER, _20th June 1868_.
MY DEAR KATE--I have long been wishing to write to you, and,
indeed, before the meeting a dictated letter was just begun to you,
but there was no time to write it. After the meeting I was only too
glad to do anything rather than write letters; any, therefore,
which I could avoid I did, and also I wished to wait until I should
have time and opportunity to write to you quietly myself. So now
you see I have begun. Had it been at any other time I should have
liked you to have been present at the meeting. To you I can say
without fear of reproof that some of Mr. Gladstone's words often
come back upon me with a force and power that seems to kindle new
life within me. I long to realise them, that I may more really feel
them to be deserved. Professor Owen's was a beautiful speech. I
think we shall clear about a hundred and twenty pounds.... From
your ever loving sister, BESSIE.