Blind Peter and his Bride.
In spite of his blindness, Peter was a very happy man. A young girl, brought up in the American Presbyterian School in Pekin, emphatically declared that he was the best, the cleverest, and the best-looking of six candidates for her hand. She enjoyed the unheard-of privilege of choosing her husband, and, as her relations approved the selection, settlements were at once arranged. Her hair was cut in a fringe, which in China marks an engaged maiden; the contract was drawn up on a sheet of lucky scarlet paper, and Peter undertook to make a regular allowance to his mother-in-law. Neither the bride nor Peter's relations ever had occasion to regret their decision. He was one of the earliest pupils in the School for the Blind established in Pekin in 1879. As a boy of twelve years old, he was led to the door by his brother aged fourteen. They were orphans, and on their first begging tour, and the elder said that he could support himself by work, but could not gain sufficient food for two without begging. The blind boy was admitted, and he quickly gained a high character. Within two years he was the ablest and best teacher of the blind in Pekin, and he had knowledge and influence which might be the means of bringing light and understanding to untold numbers groping in darkness of mind and body. It is calculated that the blind in China number at least 500,000, and they have the character of being amongst the most depraved of beggars. Miss Gordon-Cumming tells the story of blind Peter in her new book, "The Inventor of the Numeral Type for China." The Chinese Dictionary contains from 30,000 to 40,000 characters. It is true that to read a book so sublimely simple as the Bible it is sufficient to learn 4,000; but the length of this task deters the majority of people from the attempt. Mr. W. H. Murray found it possible to reduce the distinct tones of Mandarin Chinese (used in four-fifths of the Empire) to 408, and to represent them in numerals, embossed in dots according to Braille's system. Miss Gordon-Cumming devotes several pages to explaining the invention and the means by which it has been carried into good effect. The result is that blind men and women have not only been raised from demoralised beggary, but have become teachers of others afflicted like themselves, and in some cases of the sighted illiterate or deaf and dumb.