This Department is conducted in the interest of Girls and Young Women, and the Editor will be pleased to answer any question on the subject so far as possible. Correspondents should address Editor.
Probably most of you have heard of Helen Keller, but I have seen and talked with her, and to see Helen and hear her sweet voice, which she, dear child, cannot hear, is to have an experience which you never can forget. "Come and take a cup of tea with me, and meet Helen Keller," wrote my dear friend, and I went.
It was on a winter day, late in the afternoon, when I entered my friend's drawing-room. I saw, sitting beside her teacher, a fair young girl, perhaps fifteen years old. Helen is straight and robust. She carries herself finely, her head held up, her shoulders thrown back. Her little hands are very white and finely shaped, with tapering fingers, which are to her what eyes and ears are to us. Helen sees and hears with those wonderful delicate hands of hers, and everything they tell her is reflected in an instant on her sweet sensitive face. She has a very merry laugh, and responds in a moment to the moods of others, whether they are happy or sorrowful moods. Helen has fair curling hair and a lovely complexion, and you would select her in any group of girls for her beauty and air of grace and distinction. Better than looks is, what her teacher says she possesses, a very sweet, patient, and loving disposition. You discover this as you watch her, for there is so much sunshine in her face, and her manners are so gentle and natural. Then, too, she is very quick to express her thanks for any kindness shown, or gift presented to her, and at any bit of fun her laugh is like a peal of silvery bells.
Helen Keller was a baby not two years old when she had the illness which shut her into darkness and silence for the rest of her life. With sight gone and hearing gone, it seemed as if a very mournful fate would be hers. At eight years of age she was deaf, dumb, and blind, and knew no more than some little docile animal, for nobody had found out how to waken up her brain, or to enable her to communicate her ideas to her fellow-creatures.
It was at this period that her father and mother brought their little girl to Boston, to place her in an institution designed for such helpless children as she was then. Here she came under the immediate care of the lady who has ever since been her friend, sister, and teacher. Miss Sullivan says she had not taught Helen a single week before she was aware that she had an extraordinary pupil. The child learned so fast that her progress was amazing. Something of what Helen has gained you will understand, girls, when I tell you that she reads beautifully in the raised type the blind spell out with their fingers, that she writes a clear, fine, strong hand, operates perfectly three different typewriters, and is now beginning French and German in addition to her English studies. She writes a very creditable letter in French, and translates fables and stories with ease.
Her contact with the world is, of course, through touch, and her senses of smell and taste are acute. She lays her fingers on the lips of the one speaking to her, and rapidly repeats whatever is said, answering at once as any other child would, only Helen's answers are usually quicker and brighter than those of girls of her age. Her teacher talks with her by means of the mute alphabet, taking Helen's hand in her own, and in this way Helen "sees" all sorts of things, Miss Sullivan being her interpreter. When Miss Sullivan is talking to Helen, the latter has a look of the most genuine attention; her whole face is full of interest. You forget that she cannot see, so alert and alive are the features.
Every day this dear young girl writes in her journal, and she puts into this book just the same confidences, and tells it the same happy stories, which other girls write and tell in their diaries. Helen Keller is a happy, contented, merry girl. I am glad I know her, and I wish you all might know her too.