Helen Keller Visits ECTTS
These article describes Helen Keller's visit to East Carolina Teachers Training School in 1917. These and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for these articles are: White, Nelle. "A Sketch of Helen Keller," Training School Quarterly, Volume 3, pp.39-42.
"Helen Keller and Mrs. Macy," Training School Quarterly, Volume 3, pp. 93-94.
A Sketch of Helen Keller
On May 1, 1916, Helen Keller, perhaps the most celebrated woman of America, was at East Carolina Teachers Training School, and with her was her teacher, Mrs. Macy.
A large audience greeted them and during the whole time every one was breathlessly attentive, even the children.
Before Miss Keller made her talk Mrs. Macy gave a thrilling account of her work with Helen, telling of her early days and many incidents of her life, how she overcame dificulties, and how determined she was to go forward and to take a college course.
After Mrs. Macy's talk, Helen Keller was led to the rostrum amid applause from the audience. She is very young looking, has ash-blonde, wavy hair, fair complexion, and is of a good build--altogether a handsome, attractive young woman. She shows her wonderful health in every way.She is very light on her feet and often springs lightly on her toes.
She had been on the rostrum only a short time when she caught the odor of a lily and wanted to find it. Mrs. Macy led her to it.Helen smelled it and said: "Beautiful, beautiful." The spontaneity of the act captivated the audience at once.
Before she began her talk she repeated the twenty-third Psalm, because it was perfectly familiar to all, so as to accustom the audience to her voice.
Mrs. Macy said:"It has taken over twenty years for Helen to learn to speak as well as she does now, but there is much yet to be desired." Mrs. Macy talked to Helen a short while before she began, and Helen read her teacher's lips by putting her fingers on her lips and throat. The subject of her talk was "Happiness." She made those in the audience feel that having all their senses, they should do more to make those happy around them than they had done.
She said that people should be happy, and they could be so by making others happy. Below are some quotations from her talk:
"Happiness comes from within; love and happiness from achievement and gain."
"There is no darkness that the sun fails to find."
"He blocks progress who stands still."
"The secret of happiness is to do for others."
"We live for each other and by each other."
"It is more difficult to teach the ignorant to think than the blind to see."
After she finished the audience asked her questions, which were repeated to her by Mrs. Macy. Her answers showed her ready wit and sound judgement. Here are a few of them:
"When did you become a Christian?" When I was about nine."
"When did you learn about God?" "I had always known about him but had forgotten His name."
"What did you like best about college?" "Graduation. Then Philosophy, as it was so beautiful and helpful."
"What is your highest ambition?" "To help make men happy and good."
"Are you a Suffragist?" "Yes" (very emphatically).
"Why?" "Every up-to-date woman is."
"How do you stand on the subject of 'Preparedness'?" "Dead against it."
"Why?""Because it ultimately means war. But I would be for it if only Kaisers, Kings, and Congressmen were to do the fighting."
"You do believe in some kind of 'preparedness,' do you not?" "Yes; the preparedness that promotes intelligence and efficiency; that includes good roads, schools, clean cities, and better wages for working men."
"Do you think in words or sentences?" "I think in ideas."
"Have you any perception of color?" "I can perceive green when I talk to some people."
"What sense had you rather have restored, if you could have one?" " Hearing, for that cuts me off from the world more than blindness does."
"Do you swim and row?" "Yes, I do both."
Various other questions were asked and she showed her keen intelligence and wit in answering them. She told how she could feel the applause through her feet; she knew when the audience laughed by the "pleasant tremblings in the air," and she told how she heard music through her hands.
Every one took away in his heart the sweet message that Miss Keller gave them; each felt as if he had witnessed a miracle.
As Miss Keller and Mrs. Macy are making a tour of North Carolina, it seems that this is an opportune time to give a short sketch of her life.She was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, in 1880, and is the daughter of Arthur H. Keller and Kate Adams Keller. She is related on one side to Governor Spottswood, and on the other to Edward Evrett Hale.
She was a normal child until she was nineteen months old, when she was very ill, the nature of which illness has never been found out, and as a result she became deaf and blind and for the first few years dumb, also.
During the first nineteen months of her life she caught glimpses of broad, green fields, a luminous sky, trees and flowers, which were not wholly blotted out by the darkness that soon enveloped her. By signs she was able to make those around her understand what she wanted.When she wanted bread she made the motion of cutting and buttering it.Her mother and father understood her, and she could make a little negro girl named Martha Washington understand her.
After she had been using signs for some time the desire to express her wants and thoughts grew so rapidly that her parents decided to secure a teacher for her to see what could be done for her.
Through Dr. Howe, of Perkins Institute, Boston, who had done so much for Laura Bridgman, the first blind, deaf and dumb child who had been taught, Miss Anne Sullivan, now Mrs. Macy, was secured for Helen. Mrs. Macy arrived at Tuscumbia in March, 1887, and she became very much interested in Helen at once.She taught Helen her first lesson by means of a doll Laura Bridgman had dressed for her. When she gave her the doll she spelled the word d-o-l-l into her hand, and, altough she did not understand, she imitated her and soon could spell it. She learned cake and other words in the same way, but she only thought it was a game she was playing.Full understanding did not dawn upon her until one day when she was taken to the pump and water was pumped into her hand.While the water was being pumped on one hand the teacher spelled w-a-t-e-r into the other hand.She stood still, but in a few minutes a light, the light of intelligence showed on her face, for she realized that everything has a name.She wanted to know the name of everything around her. She learned thirty new words in a few hours.From the time on she learned rapidly. She soon learned to read Braille type and could read stories for herself.
Still she was not satisfied for she wished to learn to speak like other people, so she was taken to Boston, and Mrs. Sara Fuller, who had worked in this line before, taught her the elements of speech. She was delighted when she could make sounds and was happy when she uttered her first sentence, which was: "I am not dumb now."
In 1904 she graduated at Radcliffe College, which had seemed impossible to many, but by perseverance and work she overcame all the difficulties she met. On almost all of her classes her teacher spelled into her hand what the instructors said.
"The Story of My Life" was written by her as themes while she was in college.She writes for some magazines sometimes, but is devoting her life in trying to make it so that the blind will have less difficulty in getting the books and other things that they need.She also does all she can to make people happy.
Helen Keller never likes to be idle, but wants to be doing something all the time.She wants to be like other people, and most of all talk to them on topics of the day.
From her letters in "The Story of My Life" much is learned in regard to her personality.She is very sympathetic and tenderhearted, happy, contented with her lot, likes to do for others and wants to help in great movements for improvments.
Perhaps some will be interested to read her first letter, which was written in three months after her teacher came, to her Cousin Anna (Mrs. Geo. T. Turner):
TUSCUMBIA, ALA., June 17, 1887.
helen write anna george will give helen apple simpson will shoot bird jack will give helen stick of candy doctor will give mildred medicine mother will make new dress.
(no signature)
She improved in her writing very rapidly.She does almost all of her work now on a typewriter. From this first baby letter to the leading articles in the best magazines is a far cry.But the wonderful thing in her life, the miracle, is developing speech from absolute dumbness so the point where she can address audiences in large halls so that she can be heard and understood. More wonderful still, she does not merely call words so that one can catch the miracle of speech from the dumb, but she delivers a message replete with sound philosophy, wholesome optimism, that within itself is an inspiration. Helen Keller is a miracle and a genius.
Helen Keller and Mrs. Macy
The Greenville Reflector had this to say: "A very large audience filled the Training School auditorium Monday night, May 1, to hear Miss Helen Keller, Greenville and the neighboring towns being well represented. All were anxious to see and hear the most remarkable woman in the world about whom they had read much. Blind, deaf and dumb from early childhood, these physical handicaps have been overcome, and few people are more highly educated or more entertaining than Miss Keller. Not only is she intelligent, she is brilliant, cheerful, witty, the very soul of happiness, and gets more enjoyement out of life than the majority of normal people. Miss Keller has learned to express herself in speech to a degree that it is remarkable, and can make herself be heard distinctly over a large auditorium.
"The entertainment of Monday evening began with an address by Mrs. Macy, who for twenty-five years has been Miss Keller's teacher, and to whom her wonderful development is largely due. Mrs. Macy started at the beginning of this blind and deaf girl's education and gave an outline of how she had a name and on step by step until she learned to articulate and to speak though she could not hear her own voice. Mrs. Macy's sketch of Miss Keller's life was truly interesting and prepared the audience for the wonderful revelation that followed when Miss Keller herself was led upon the stage. Smiling, bowing and with a countenance aglow with happiness, this young woman whose fame is world-wide stood before her audience.
"That the audience might first get accustomed to Miss Keller's enunciation and understand her more readily, there was some conversation between her teacher and herself. Miss Keller recited the 23rd Psalm and then delivered her message of happiness. She showed that she was not denied the joys and beauties of life because of her physical defects, but that true happiness is in the heart, and comes through making the most of one's surroundings and doing all possible for the happiness of others.
"After the address the audience was permitted to ask questions which Miss Keller would answer. With one hand resting upon the lips and throat of Mrs. Macy, who acted as interpreter, repeating the questions which Miss Keller answered promptly. In some of the answers the large degree of wit she possessed was displayed.
"Many times the audience applauded, which Miss Keller recognized and appreciated. Soon after coming on the stage she detected the presence of a lily by its odor. She found and caressed the flower and spoke of its beauty and fragrance.
"Greenville people certainly appreciated the Training School's getting Miss Keller to come here and give them the opportunity to hear her."
