Library Collections: Document: Full Text

The erection of a new building in the girls' department is the most prominent improvement made during the year. This edifice is forty-nine feet long and twenty-five feet wide, and consists of four stories with a good basement, the windows of which are above ground. The first and second flights, together with the basement, when entirely finished, will furnish ample space for school, music, sewing, and knitting rooms, while the whole of the third story will be occupied by a library, which will be provided with cases for books, minerals, specimens of natural history, models, and educational; appliances of various kinds. This building is connected with the girls' schoolhouse by a covered but well-lighted bridge, and with the cottages by an underground passage. It has been carefully planned in all its details by the skilful manager of our printing-office, Mr. Dennis A. Reardon, -- of whose ingenuity we had occasion to speak in our last annual report, -- and it is admirably adapted for our purpose.

An underground arch has been built between the cottages through which the steam-pipes are carried from one block of houses to the other under such protection as to prevent even the smallest waste of heat in the future. This tunnel is high enough to form a convenient underground passage.

In the main building the work of renovation, to which an impetus was given some time ago, has been carried some steps forward during the past year. One of the dining-rooms, the small boys' sitting-room, and three of the schoolrooms have been, thoroughly repaired and put in good order. The walls and ceilings have been painted, the old pine sheathing has been replaced in hard-wood, the heating apparatus improved, the ventilation increased, and various conveniences for keeping things in their proper places have been provided wherever needed.

Several other alterations and improvements of a minor character, supplying urgent wants and calculated to preserve the buildings and to promote the welfare of the household, have been made during the past year; but the limited means placed at our disposition have compelled us to restrict our operations in this direction to a small area. The necessity for continuing the process of renovation in the interior of the main building as rapidly as may be is evidently pressing; for the effects of time and rough usage are very obvious, not only in the corridors and the most frequented rooms, but everywhere. Both safety and economy demand that the loose plastering, the rotten wood-work, the worn floors, the decayed window-frames, the soiled wall; paper, the shaky sashes, and the impaired painting should be replaced, or repaired and made sound, and the sooner this is done, the better. It is our intention to push on the work of reconstruction as fast as we can; but, as our means are not sufficient to meet the ever increasing wants of the establishment, we must depend upon the friends of the blind for assistance.

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NUMBER OF INMATES.

The total number of blind persons connected with the various departments of the institution at the beginning of the past year, as teachers, pupils, employes, and work men and women, was 162. There have since been admitted 17; 23 have been discharged, making the present total number 156. Of these, 137 are in the school proper, and 19 in the workshop for adults.

The first class includes 125 boys and girls enrolled as pupils, 8 teachers, and 4 domestics. Of the pupils there are now 57 boys and 47 girls in attendance, 13 of the former and 8 of the latter being absent on account of physical disability, or from other causes.

The second class comprises 16 men and 3 women; employed in the industrial department for adults.

Of the 156 blind persons connected with the institution 151 belong to New England, and 5 have come to us from the West and South, -- one from each of the states of Minnesota, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Tennessee. A sixth, belonging to Indiana, is about to be admitted. Some of these young men have already passed through the course of study pursued at the several institutions of their respective states, and have graduated from them. They have come to Boston for the purpose of pursuing their musical education further and of acquiring the art of tuning piano-fortes, -MISSING TEXT-

GRADUATES AND THEIR GENERAL SUCCESS.

Six of those whose connection with the institution terminated at the end of the last school session were regular graduates, having gone through the entire course of study and training given here, and receiving diplomas at the close of the term. They have all labored faithfully and assiduously to qualify themselves for a career of activity and usefulness, and are all well fitted to enter the arena of practical life, and to become self-supporting.

I may add, in this connection, that we continue to receive interesting and favorable accounts from a large number of our graduates, who are succeeding remarkably well in obtaining a comfortable living, and are respected as useful citizens. Many of these have. had great obstacles to overcome at the outset, and all of them have had to fight their way, more or less, through the clouds of incredulity and common prejudice as to their ability and skill to pursue any of the liberal professions, or to work at any of the mechanic arts. But, by diligent application and exemplary conduct, they have conquered all difficulties, and have not only taken their places in the ranks of society, but have, in some instances, even gained a certain degree of distinction..