Chapter XII: Her Diary

"The older we grow, the more we understand our own lives and
histories, the more we shall see that the spirit of wisdom is the
spirit of love, that the true way to gain influence over our
fellow-men is to have charity towards them."--KINGSLEY.

In addition to the Common Place Book, which contains the result of many years of thought and investigation, Bessie kept during 1858 a diary. This shows not only her thoughts but her deeds. Her whole life was now engrossed by her work for the blind. French, Italian, German, the harp, the guitar, were all laid aside. Friends were made no longer for herself but for the blind. She was eagerly occupied with experiments in trade, with instruction, with visits to the workshop and the homes of her people, with letters and appeals, and with efforts to make known not only what was being attempted, but the need there was that more should be done.

She studied the census of 1851, and upon it based her statements as to the number of the blind throughout Great Britain and their condition. She learned that a large proportion of the number lose their sight after having reached the age at which they are admissible to the existing institutions. She saw, therefore, that she must add to her scheme for employment that of the instruction of adults in trades by which they could earn a living. She did not believe in doles, pensions, and so-called "Homes." She believed in work, in a trade, a handicraft, the possibility of earning one's own living, as the means of restoring blind men and women to their place in human society. There is nothing that she records in the diary with more satisfaction than the progress made by adult pupils. The instruction and employment of women was also succeeding beyond her expectation, and the wages they earned approximated more nearly to the wages of sighted women than had been expected. But even her remarks on this proficiency of the women show her usual fair and broad view. She says:

There are seven men and six women pupils. The best workwoman can
earn seven shillings a week, working eight hours a day. Upon this
she contrives to support herself and a little sister. A sighted
brushmaker employing a hundred workwomen states that she must be a
very good workwoman who can earn six shillings a week at eight
hours a day. The women he employs often work twelve or fourteen
hours to increase their earnings. This is great drudgery. It seems
as if brush drawing was more a matter of touch than of sight. If we
can only discover them, it may be that several trades will answer
for the blind on this very account. I think at present that this
will apply even more to women than to men. The male pupils work
well and make great progress, but their earnings, I think, would
not bear the same proportion to those of sighted workmen as do
those of the women. Still, as their work includes more than one
branch, this may be a mistake, and at all events it must take them
longer to become thoroughly good workmen, as they have more to
acquire.

On 6th May 1858 she writes in the diary:

Joined for the first time in the daily prayer and reading at the
Repository [the Association was known by this name]. This was what
I had often wished to do. Saw Mr. Dale, asked for his schoolroom
for a lecture for the benefit of the Association; he gave leave.
Told him what F. B. was doing about the _Times_. Took four [blind
persons] for reading, and think they are getting on. Saw Mr. Bourke
for the first time; had a long talk with him; think he will be more
active than he has been in seeking out the blind and looking into
their condition. Saw Levy Esqre. [not the manager], who showed me
specimens of turning done by Mestre at Lausanne, who is blind,
deaf, and dumb. Got Mr. Levy to promise to attend the meeting, on
the 18th. Talked with Levy [manager] about the meeting. Corkcutting
to be introduced before Walker's life-belt is made. Talked about
furnishing carpenter as the next trade taught, also about embossed
printing; think much might be done towards improving it....

_8th May._--Looked over, corrected, and altered proof of report.
Dictated a note to Levy about it. Wrote to Mr. Cureton, asking if
he could lend his church for Dr. Thompson to preach in, in July, if
not earlier. Wrote to Mrs. Jones asking about Dr. Thorpe's chapel,
also to Mr. Eyre, asking him to preach at Marylebone Church. Sent
papers to both clergymen. Received from Mrs. Sithborp her guinea
subscription. Entered letters of yesterday and to-day. Dictated
some notes and thoughts for the Common Place Book. It is a great
pleasure to get some of these thoughts actually expressed. It gives
them, as it were, a shape and a body, besides, I can never do what
I wish without this, as I should never have the necessary
materials. Saw Mary Haines. Wrote to Miss Repton.... Read a letter
in two systems.

This allusion to "what she wishes" refers to her desire to write a book upon the condition of the blind. She had this object before her for many years, and prepared for it by accumulating statistics and information from every available source. She read the lives of blind men, books written by blind men, took copious notes, or had them taken for her, sometimes by her younger brother, sometimes by a sister. She "thought out" every statement made, every suggestion offered, with regard to the blind. Her book would have been singularly valuable. Her sound judgment, her power of looking at all sides of a question, would have saved her from the danger of forgetting that, although there are 30,000 blind in the United Kingdom, there are some millions who have the gift of sight. The book was never written, but her preparation for it made her a storehouse of information and of wise and tender thought, not only for the blind, but for all those who are afflicted and suffering.

17th May.... Saw Sir W. Reid, heard from him that a brush, with the
Repository stamp, is left in the Museum at Malta; was very glad of
this. Received from him L5. Heard he had seen Lord Cranbourne, and
that Lord C. thought I was wrong in using and teaching T. M. L.
system. I talked to Sir W. Reid of the different systems, also
asked him for the names of books upon the blind mentioned to him
by Lord C. Wrote to Lady Mayne to ask if she could get St.
Michael's, Pimlico, lent.

Afternoon.--Went to Miss ----. Very little done there for the
Association. Saw Dr. Jelf there; heard he would come to the meeting
next day.

The list of letters written and embossed and duly recorded in the Journal will be omitted. They are the inevitable drudgery of such a work as she was now engaged in. Explanations, petitions, acknowledgments, inquiries, information, requests for the loan of pulpits from which the claims of the Association may be urged, of schoolrooms in which meetings can be held, all these things were part of her daily work. The sisters tell that Bessie could at this time emboss a letter upon her Foucault frame and dictate two others at the same time; always without mistake or omission.

On the 18th May 1858 the Annual Association Meeting was held, and the First Annual Report presented.

We learn from the balance-sheet that the receipts during this, the first year of accurate and formal management, had been L1784:3:11.

Of this, subscriptions and donations
amounted to L648 1 2
Balance in hand 25th April 1857 215 9 3
Sale of goods, etc. 920 13 6
-----------
L1784 3 11

There was a balance in hand at the end of the year of L118:15:1. The number of blind men and women who had been employed during the year at the Institution, or in their own homes, was forty-three.

The sum required for payment of rent, officials, teachers, and supplementary wages to the blind, amounted to L744:10:4. The annual subscription paid by Bessie was at this time L75, and in addition there is a donation of L10 for broom-making, and L2 for advertising. But the sum that appears in the subscription list is only the smallest part of that which she devoted to the service of the blind. Her private charity amongst them was at all times far-reaching and unstinted. She had many pensioners in London, and pleasant stories of them abound. There was a poor blind woman called Mary H., elderly and very lonely, whose wonderful trust and patience called forth Bessie's admiration. She ultimately procured the placing of Mary's name on the list of recipients of the Queen's Gate Money, she taught her to read, and allowed her monthly a certain quantity of tea and sugar.

One day when she came for her reading lesson Mary said:

"Oh, miss, I had such a strange dream last night!"

"Well, Mary, what was it?"

"Why, miss, I dreamt you were dead."

"Did you, Mary? and what did you think about it?"

"The first thing I thought, miss, was, what shall I do for my tea and sugar!"

The honesty and simplicity of this answer delighted Bessie, and she frequently spoke of Mary's dream.

The saying of another pupil also pleased her. She taught a blind boy at Chichester to read, and when he came for his lessons the boy used to ask innumerable questions. One day she remarked upon this, and he frankly exclaimed:

"Oh yes, marm, so I do, I always likes to know up to the top brick of the chimney."

Brush-making, first introduced by Bessie and taught by Farrow, had proved a successful and remunerative occupation for the blind. Encouraged by this success, the making of bass brooms was now added to the work carried on in the Euston Road. The coarse fibre used for this purpose has to be dipped in boiling pitch, and then inserted and fixed into holes in the wooden back of the broom. By an ingenious contrivance of the teacher, the hand of the blind man follows a little bridge across the boiling pitch, reaches a guide, at which he stops and dips his bristles into the shallow pan. He then withdraws his hand along the same bridge, kneads the pitch, and fixes the fibre in its hole. Several men sit round a table, and are thus enabled to work without risk of a burn at a trade which requires no skill.

The blind carpenter Farrow, who had made the fittings for the Holborn cellar, had been from that time permanently employed in the Institution.

In 1858 he was the teacher of thirteen blind men and women who were learning a trade. Levy had visited Norwich and Bath during the year 1858. In the latter city a Blind Home was formed for the employment of women instructed in the Bath Blind School. This was done in consequence of a Report of Bessie's institution which had been sent to the Committee at Bath. The School for the Indigent Blind, St. George's Fields, Southwark, had also opened departments for instructing and employing the adult blind, but we have no sheaf of old letters to give the history of this further development.

The Committee of the Association might well look back with pleasure, and forward with hope. They well knew on whom the success of the work mainly depended; and in spite of Bessie's objection to the introduction of her name, the following paragraph closes the Annual Report issued in May 1858:

Your Committee feel that their report would be very imperfect if
they did not allude to the great services which have been rendered
to this society, during the last year, by Miss Gilbert, the
foundress of the Association. Whenever pecuniary embarrassment has
threatened the efficiency of the Institution, her active zeal has
soon replenished the funds; and when the Association has been
unable to relieve the most distressing cases that have been pressed
on their notice, the sufferers have found her ever ready to afford
them timely help; and that, too, in a way which has shown such
sympathising interest in their privations, as well as so much
consideration for their feelings, that the value of the aid thus
afforded can be fully appreciated only by those who have received
it.