Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Helen was born June 27, 1880, with all her faculties. At the age of about nineteen months she had a violent attack of congestion of the stomach, and this illness resulted in total loss of sight and hearing. On the 15th of July, 1886, her father, Capt. Arthur H. Keller, wrote me a letter, giving me a brief account of the deprivations as well as of the mental activity of his little daughter, and asking me whether I could procure a competent teacher for her. I responded in the affirmative, and my thoughts were almost instinctively turned towards Miss Annie M. Sullivan. She had just graduated from our school, where she had stood at the head of her class, and her valedictory address -- a beautiful original production, teeming with felicitous thoughts clothed in a graceful style -- was a revelation even to those who were acquainted with her uncommon powers. After due deliberation I decided to make known to Miss Sullivan the contents of Capt. Keller's letter and to inform her that the position would be open to her provided she could fit herself for its requirements. She replied that she would try, and began immediately the work of preparation with great earnestness and unremitting application. She studied Laura Bridgman's case thoroughly in all its phases, perused voluminous books on mental development, read the reports of Dr. Howe with assiduous care, mastered his methods and processes in their minutest details, and drank copiously of his noble spirit and of the abundance of his faith in the efficacy of human capacities and innate powers for redemption and improvement. Having become convinced by actual observation that she was well equipped for her work and absolutely competent to take charge of the little girl, I wrote again to Capt. Keller, recommending her most highly and without any reservation. In consequence of this correspondence liberal terms were offered, an agreement was readily effected, and my dear friend and former pupil started for Alabama the last week in February.

On entering upon her work Miss Sullivan was struck with the extraordinary intelligence and remarkable aptitude of her little pupil. She commenced to give her instruction, and chose for the object of the first lesson a beautiful doll which had just been sent to the child from Boston and for which she seemed to cherish a warm maternal attachment. For obvious reasons, the greatest difficulty and most perplexing part of the task of introducing blind and deaf-mute persons to the mysteries of language is to make them understand that all objects have names which can be expressed by arbitrary signs. This is the principal and most important part in the whole undertaking. As the French say, it is the first step that counts more than anything else.

"C'est le premier pas qui coûte."

When this is accomplished all else goes well, and success is assured. Now, in looking over the record of every known case, we find that this starting point, this initiative step has invariably been slow, tardy, uncertain, and not infrequently vexatious. It was nearly three months before Laura Bridgman -- the brightest and quickest of them all -- caught the idea. It was not so with Helen. The thought flashed across her marvellous brain as soon as it was transmitted to it by one of its "lackeys or scullions," the sense of touch. In three lessons she perceived, clearly and distinctly, that words stood for objects; and in less than a week's time she was in possession of the mystery of this relation in the fulness of its meaning, and became mistress of the whole situation. As if impelled by a resistless instinctive force she snatched the key of the treasury of the English language from the fingers of her teacher, unlocked its doors with vehemence, and began to feast on its contents with inexpressible delight. As soon as a slight crevice was opened in the outer wall of their twofold imprisonment, her mental faculties emerged full-armed from their living tomb as Pallas Athene sprang from the head of Zeus. Her thoughts, long suppressed for the want of adequate means for expression, --

"Burst their confinement with impetuous sway."

In illustration of the wonderful mental activity and the rapid development of this remarkable child, and as showing also some of the prominent traits of her character, the following extracts are taken from Miss Sullivan's letters: --

MAY 2, 1887. -- Helen is truly a wonderful child. It seems to me that one with all her senses could not have accomplished any more than she has done in these three months, -- indeed, it is not yet quite three months since she began. She knows almost three hundred words and is learning five or six a day. Their length does not seem to make any difference to her. One day she pointed to the railing of the stairs and wanted me to give her the name for it. I spelled balustrade to her two or three times. Two days afterward I thought I would see if she remembered any of the letters, when, to my surprise, she spelled the word without a mistake; and such words as ice-cream, strawberry, raspberry, and rocking-chair she learns as readily as words of two letters.