CHAPTER IX
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 (£10) may be more effectual than an annual £1. 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 £435, £75 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 £5:5s. 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.