In Knitting, Netting, Bead-work, Worsted and Crochet Work,

Hand and Machine Sewing, Cane-seating Chairs, Manufac-
turing Brooms and Mattresses, two hours per day and

over.

Persons to perform the following duties have been employed: Literary Teachers

85

Acting in triple capacity of Matron, Clerk and General As

sistant.

Acting both as Superintendant and Steward.

For assorting Broom Corn, making over poor Brooms, Dozening and attending to Work-shop

4

2

1

7

1

1

1

1

The teacher of handicraft has also acted as messenger, mail-carrier and leader.

The number of pupils admitted since the last report were 88; of these 39 have left or been discharged, 9 have been detained at home by sickness or other causes, leaving the present number 40. The average attendance has been 51. The probable return of 9 and the admission of 6 new applicants will make the number 55 next month. January 1, 1877, we had 46 pupils. April following, 54. The general appropriation Act passed March 26, 1877, limited the number to 60. The following June we had 62. Additional applications for admission were being made, and in the future still other applications were to be anticipated. It was therefore evident that some general rule must be adopted in order to

keep the number within the limit prescribed by law. It was decided after careful consideration to discharge all males over eighteen years old who had attended schcol four sessions, the same rule to be applied to the females whenever the further increase in the number of pupils should make its application to them absolutely necessary, which accounts for the large number discharged. It was believed that if a choice must be made that the preference should be given to those who had never attended the school, and to those who had attended for a very short time. The propriety of this course was not for us to consider; right or wrong the law must be obeyed, and it was only optional to obey it in the way that would be the least injurious to the blind and that would best conduce to the general welfare of the school. That the enforcement of any rule clearly opposed to the interest and well-being of any particular individuals would create dissatisfaction, was to be expected, and the most eligible plan that could be followed would be disliked by all who suffered or fancied they suffered by its adoption. Its application must be unequal, for no two individuals would earn or get their living upon exactly the same terms, while in special cases its operation would be uncommonly severe. For instance, it would be hard that a young blind man without friends to clothe or shelter him, without money but with a half learned trade, should be thrust out into the world to take care of himself as best he might; that, another, equally poor in worldly goods, but richer in a certain amount of musical talent, who hoped to earn his living by teaching music, and who, with that object steadily in view, had diligently pursued his favorite study with hopes new-born of future self-support, perhaps of home and the care of loved ones in his old age, should be told that, although but half prepared for his chosen occupation, he must follow it as best he could. A man with good eyes, under like circumstances, would not have a very brilliant prospect before him-how much less cheering must it be to the young blind man, when he is sure he is but half fitted for the work he undertakes, and who knows that merely on account of the lack of sight he will encounter distrust at nearly every door where he seeks employment. The rule, however, has been rigidly adhered to, with but two exceptions. That it has worked hardship in certain cases is undeniable, but this has been a consequence of the law, and not of the rule adopted under the law. Next month we expect that the number of pupils will be 55. Should

the usual increase from new applications continue to the close of the session, and the same law be re-enacted, the prescribed limit will again be passed and further discharges must be made in the anticipation of an increase that may or may not occur, but which is as impossible to exactly foresee as to foresee the approach of cholera or yellow fever, which last disease has so recently deranged our calculations concerning the reception of pupils. Not much can be said in favor of this law on the score of economy, for it debars certain unfortunate persons from the privilege of self-maintenance, thus preventing the transformation of a drone into a working member of the hive.

The general health of the pupils has been as good as could reasonably be expected, for we have not those who are deprived of sight alone, but those who are heirs to all the ills that of necessity precede or follow that privation. Perhaps one-half of the cases of loss of sight are caused by hereditary tendencies, which diminish bodily vigor, and by diseases such as meningitis, brain fever, scarlet fever, small-pox, and the like, which precede and cause the destruction of the sight, and may leave after them impaired health for many years or for life. Then we have those who were born blind, with, and apparently, without constitutional defects. The cases in which some violent accident has suddenly occasioned the loss of vision, are comparatively few. To preserve the health of so large and miscellaneous a family requires judicious care; that this has been bestowed no better proof need be given than the statement that among all the pupils and employees in the institution for the past twenty-eight years, but two have died here, the one by accidental burning, the other by consumption. We have to regret the death of Franklin Gates, who died of yellow fever last summer at his home in Memphis, not long after leaving school.

In school the usual studies have been pursued, with more advantage than heretofore, on account of additional new maps and other apparatus especially adapted to the touch, but we yet need many books, a large globe, and a series of papier mache maps, with other apparatus for the school room. If, with all the apparatus that can be made to substitute touch for the eye, our pupils improve nearly as rapidly as seeing children at common schools, we have done good work, for the sense of feeling is certainly inferior to the sense of vision, and the frequent cases of enervation, debility, heart-disease,

tendency to consumption and the like, which accompany the loss of sight, do not serve to lighten the task of either teacher or pupil, but upon the part of both industry, perseverance and patience have in a measure compensated for the lack of sight, and the opinion of most of those who have visited the school is that our pupils have progressed as rapidly as those who have all their senses.

Classification is about as difficult with our 50 or 60 as it would be if we had 150 more, for we have a great variety of physical and mental temperaments. They differ moreover from one another on account of age, early training (or the want of it) and other home influences, so that an increase of numbers would not imply a proportional increase in the cost of teaching.

One of our former pupils, N. C. T. Love, is now in the Normal College studying in classes with seeing men and women. He hears the lessons read and finds little difficulty in holding his place among the foremost of his class. Last summer he requested to be continued upon our list of pupils so that he might receive fifty dollars quarterly in order to pay his board and reader. The request was reluctantly denied, because the granting of it, although within the object of the law might not fall within its letter and intent. Among the pupils educated here there are annually two or three who might more advantageously enter the highest school in the State, and now and then one who might so enter any college. If they could, their scocial position would be advanced, their future usefulness and prosperity assured, but poverty not lack of vision prevents; board is to be paid and a reader hired, and they cannot command the money. With two or three years tuition they have learned more than their schoolmates learn in six or seven years. They have been promoted from class to class until they are foremost. They have done so well in so short a time that their education has cost the State less than others who are in the institution.

In view of the foregoing considerations, would it not be just that the Trustees should be authorized to put two or even three annually upon the list of pupils who might be permitted to attend school elsewhere?

MUSICAL DEPARTMENT.

The general disbelief in the ability of the blind to do anything useful dates back beyond the period of authentic history, and if,

in the course of passing centuries, a blind person here and there became distinguished in a special manner, it was regarded as little less than miraculous; but recently they have made an important step forward toward becoming useful members of society. That this desirable object has been accomplished is due to the comparatively recent efforts of philanthropists working in their behalf, and to their own industry and perseverance, until at present it is gradually becoming a recognized fact in the larger cities of this country and Europe that the blind, when thoroughly taught, can, and do, excel in every musical employment. This recognition has been gained in spite of preconceived contrary opinions. Fifty years ago the blind music teacher was a spectacle scarcely less remarkable than the Siamese twins; to-day there are twenty-nine schools for the blind in the United States, in every one of which it is considered of the greatest importance that blind children should have the opportunity of gaining a thorough musical education; and those schools. which are able to give their pupils the best musical education are the schools which have forced the public opinion somewhat out of its ancient channel of belief.

If it should be said that Mr. J. V. Armstrong, a blind man, was the best teacher of music in Nashville, and that the same man had but one equal in tuning pianos, it would probably be no more than the truth, yet those music teachers who see would be slow to confess it, and those who employ them would be slower in believing it, however those who have employed him three or four years know his work by the result, and give him another and another child to teach, and his equal as a piano-tuner acknowledges his equality, but there are people who innocently believed that he was going to tear their piano to pieces because he was blind. This unbelief, this tacit opposition can be overcome only in one way, that is by sending out thorough teachers, excellent organists and piano-tuners, and seeking employment for them at the beginning, giving them, as it were, a place upon which to stand, to show what they can do. In so far as we fail to do this, we fail in one important particular of accomplishing the object for which the school is carried on, viz: the enabling the blind to support themselves. If we send out those who have not received thorough musical instruction, who, although not competent, teach or tune pianos, because they must do that or do nothing-it is even worse than a