She wrote a letter at this time for publication, pleading for the
education of blind children in the ordinary schools for the poor. She
was also in correspondence with Mrs. Hooper, who was preparing a
magazine article on the work of the blind. She records that she urged
Mrs. Hooper to attach "more importance to donations and subscriptions,
to speak of the Museum, and to tell the educated blind that they ought
to assist the blind poor to help themselves." Through a friend she also
applied for the custom of Cheltenham College for Ladies.
Bessie had decided to give L2000 to the Association as an endowment
fund. The conditions of her gift were brought before the Committee,
discussed, and accepted. The money was invested in the names of three
trustees, and the Association seemed now to stand upon a sure footing.
These conditions will be read with interest.
CONDITIONS.
1. As long as those employed and taught by the Association, or
receiving any benefit whatsoever therefrom, shall be admitted by
the decision of the Committee, or by some one deputed by
themselves, and not by the votes of the subscribers.
2. As long as blindness shall not disqualify any person from
holding the office of Superintendent, Traveller, or Porter.
3. As long as it is a fundamental rule of the Association that the
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;
also 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 upon
payment of the subscription required by the Committee; to collect
and disseminate information relative to the physical, mental,
moral, and religious condition of the blind; and to promote among
individuals and institutions, seeking to ameliorate the condition
of the blind, a friendly interchange of information calculated to
advance the common cause among all classes of the blind.
4. As long as the Committee shall consist of both ladies and
gentlemen.
5. As long as at least six blind men or women shall be supplied
with work at their homes by the Association, each at a sum of not
less than six shillings per week; and so long as at least three
blind men and three blind women shall be receiving instruction at
the cost of the Association.
These conditions deserve the careful consideration of every one
interested in the blind, and should be religiously observed in the
Institution founded by Bessie Gilbert.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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