Reference has been made to the fact that music in its various branches
furnishes the best and most lucrative employment for the blind. But
those who have not the ability, or are too old to be trained for music
or some other profession, must depend upon handicrafts for their
support. The principal ones taught in the various institutions are the
making of baskets, brushes, mats, sacks, ships' fenders, brooms and
mattresses, upholstery, wire-work, chair-caning, wood-chopping, &c.
Females are taught to make fancy baskets and brushes, chair-caning,
knitting, netting, weaving, sewing--hand and machine--crocheting, &c. It
is difficult to find employment for blind girls. It is hoped that
typewriting and massage will prove remunerative.
The blind, whether educated for the church, trained as teachers,
musicians, pianoforte-tuners, or for any other trade or occupation,
generally require assistance at the outset. They need help in finding
suitable employment, recommendations for establishing a connexion,
pecuniary assistance in providing outfits of books, tools, instruments,
&c., help in the selection and purchase of the best materials at the
lowest wholesale rates, in the sale of their manufactured goods in the
best markets, and if overtaken by reverses, judicious and timely help
towards a fresh start. Every institution should keep in touch with its
old pupils. The superintendent who carefully studies the successes and
failures of his pupils when they go into the world, will more wisely
direct the work and energies of his present and future students.
Within recent years great improvements have been made in some of the
progressive workshops for the blind. At the conference in London in 1902
Mr T. Stoddart gave the following information in regard to the work in
Glasgow:--"We are building very extensive additions to our workshops,
which will enable us to accommodate 600 blind people. We mean to employ
the most up-to-date methods, and are introducing electric power to drive
the machinery and light the workshops. We have to do with the average
blind adult recently deprived of sight after he has attained an age of
from 25 to 40 or even 50 years. In Glasgow we have developed an industry
eminently suitable for the employment of the blind, namely, the
manufacture of new and the remaking of old bedding. There are industries
which are purely local, where certain articles of manufacture largely
used in one district are useless, or nearly so, in another; but the
field in which this industry may be promoted is practically without
limit. It is perhaps the employment _par excellence_ for the blind, and
among other advantages it has the following to recommend it: employment
is provided for the blind of both sexes and of all ages; there is no
accumulation nor deterioration of stock; it yields an excellent profit,
and its use is universal. We have been pushing this industry for years,
our annual turnover in this particular department having exceeded L7000,
and as we find it so suited to the capabilities of all grades of blind
people, it is our intention to provide facilities for doing a turnover
of three times that amount. Instead of the thirty sewing-machines which
we have at present running by power, we hope to employ 100 blind women.
At cork-fender-making, also an industry of the most suitable kind, we
are at present employing about thirty workers. It is also our intention
to greatly develop and extend our mat-making department."
In the United States many blind persons are engaged in agricultural
pursuits, and some are very successful in commercial pursuits. When a
man loses his sight in adult life, if he can possibly follow the
business in which he has previously been engaged, it is the best course
for him. In the present day, work in manufactories is subdivided to such
an extent that often some one portion can be done by a blind person; but
it needs the interest of some enthusiastic believer in the capabilities
of the blind to persuade the seeing manager that blind people can be
safely employed in factories.
In England, at the time of the royal commission of 1889, upwards of 8000
blind persons, above the age of 21, were in receipt of relief from the
guardians, of whom no less than 3278 were resident in workhouses or
workhouse infirmaries. The census returns for 1901 indicate that the
number at that time was equally large. It would certainly be more
economical to establish workshops where the able-bodied adult blind can
be trained in some handicraft and employed.
The papers read at the various conferences show that, even under the
most favourable circumstances, some are not able to earn enough for
their support; nevertheless, employment improves their condition; there
is no greater calamity than to live a life of compulsory idleness in
total darkness. The cry of the blind is not alms but work. One of the
workshops in western America has adopted the motto, "Independence
through Industry," and it should be the aim of every civilized country
to hasten the time when blindness and pauperism shall no longer be
synonymous terms.