Page 232 - The Story of My Lif

TO MRS. LAURENCE HUTTON

14 Coolidge Avenue, Cambridge,

December 27, 1900.

…So you read about our class luncheon in the papers? How in the world do the
papers find out everything, I wonder. I am sure no reporter was present. I had a
splendid time; the toasts and speeches were great fun. I only spoke a few words,
as I did not know I was expected to speak until a few minutes before I was called
upon. I think I wrote you that I had been elected Vice-President of the Freshman
Class of Radcliffe.

Did I tell you in my last letter that I had a new dress, a real party dress with low
neck and short sleeves and quite a train? It is pale blue, trimmed with chiffon of
the same color. I have worn it only once, but then I felt that Solomon in all his
glory was not to be compared with me! Anyway, he certainly never had a dress
like mine!…

A gentleman in Philadelphia has just written to my teacher about a deaf and
blind child in Paris, whose parents are Poles. The mother is a physician and a
brilliant woman, he says. This little boy could speak two or three languages
before he lost his hearing through sickness, and he is now only about five years
old. Poor little fellow, I wish I could do something for him; but he is so young,
my teacher thinks it would be too bad to separate him from his mother. I have
had a letter from Mrs. Thaw with regard to the possibility of doing something for

these children. Dr. Bell thinks the present census will show that there are more
than a thousand in the United States alone [The number of deaf-blind young
enough to be benefited by education is not so large as this; but the education of
this class of defectives has been neglected.]; and Mrs. Thaw thinks if all my
friends were to unite their efforts, “it would be an easy matter to establish at the
beginning of this new century a new line upon which mercy might travel,” and
the rescue of these unfortunate children could be accomplished….