"Helen Keller should be an inspiration to every girl here today. Learn from her life the great principles of true living.
"Let us first ask the question, 'How did she reach the high place to which she has been able to attain?' She must have had help. Yes, she did have help. It came chiefly through a dear friend, Miss Sullivan, who, through patient years, sent the light into the darkness which enveloped the poor deaf and blind girl. And listen:
"Never, during those years of patient endeavor, did Miss Sullivan allow Helen Keller to receive a wrong impression of things about her.
"Stop a moment and think what all that means! Nothing came into the life of the girl but clear, certain truth. The false, the unlovely, the hideous, the deceitful, the unreal, never came in to distort her view while she was a child, and so, when she later learned of the sadder side of life, through her extensive reading, she was well prepared to sympathize with those whose youth was not so well favored as her own. Let us be careful in helping to shape the lives of the children, never to leave with them a wrong impression which may require a lifetime to remove from their minds.
"'It must be,' says Helen Keller, 'that when the Lord took from me one faculty, He gave me another, which is in no way impossible. I think of the beautiful Italian proverb, 'When God shuts a door, he opens a window.'
"Truly, God has opened a window to let in the sunshine of His love and care, and this blind girl is one of His brightest children.
"What an example to the world is Helen Keller! What an example to every girl who has heard of her great success. Up with a monument to her memory! Build it high and strong! She has shown the world how difficulties can be overcome by determination and perseverance, and to what rugged, lofty heights one may attain, even though he carry the heaviest of burdens!"