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18 - Story of My Life by Helen Keller · Story of My Life

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen of the Story of My Life. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. The Story of My
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  Speaker 1: Life by Helen Keller, Chapter eighteen. In October eighteen ninety six,
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  Speaker 1: I entered the Cambridge School of Young Ladies to be
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  Speaker 1: prepared for Radcliffe. When I was a little girl, I
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  Speaker 1: visited Wellesley and surprised my friends by the announcement, some
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  Speaker 1: day I shall go to college, but I shall go
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  Speaker 1: to Harvard. When asked why I would not go to Wellesley,
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  Speaker 1: I replied that there were only girls there. The thought
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  Speaker 1: of going to college to cruite in my heart and
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  Speaker 1: became an earnest desire, which impelled me to enter into
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  Speaker 1: competition for a degree with seeing and hearing girls, in
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  Speaker 1: the face of the strong opposition of many true and
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  Speaker 1: wise friends. When I left New York, the idea had
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  Speaker 1: become a fixed purpose, and it was decided that I
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  Speaker 1: should go to Cambridge. This was the nearest approach I
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  Speaker 1: could get to Harvard, and to the fulfillment of my
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  Speaker 1: childish declaration. At the Cambridge School, the plan was to
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  Speaker 1: have Miss Sullivan attend the classes with me and interpret
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  Speaker 1: to me the instruction given. Of course, my instructions had
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  Speaker 1: had no experience in teaching any but normal pupils, and
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  Speaker 1: my only means of conversing with them was reading their lips.
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  Speaker 1: My studies for the first year were English history, English literature, German,
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  Speaker 1: Latin arithmetic, Latin composition, and occasional themes. Until then, I
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  Speaker 1: had never taken a course of study with the idea
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  Speaker 1: of preparing for college. But I have been well drilled
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  Speaker 1: in English by Miss Sullivan, and it soon became evident
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  Speaker 1: to my teachers that I needed no special instruction in
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  Speaker 1: this subject beyond the critical study of the books prescribed
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  Speaker 1: by the college. I had had moreover a good start
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  Speaker 1: in French and received six months in instruction in Latin,
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  Speaker 1: but German was the subject with which I was most familiar.
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  Speaker 1: In spite, however, of these advantages, there were serious drawbacks
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  Speaker 1: to my progress. Miss Sullivan could not spell out in
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  Speaker 1: my hand all that the books required, and it was
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  Speaker 1: very difficult to have text books embossed in time to
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  Speaker 1: be of use to me, although my friends in London
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  Speaker 1: and Philadelphia were willing to hasten the work for a while. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: I had to copy my Latin in Braille so that
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  Speaker 1: I could recite with the other girls. My instructors soon
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  Speaker 1: became sufficiently familiar with my imperfect speech to answer my
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  Speaker 1: questions readily and correct mistakes. I could not make notes
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  Speaker 1: in class or write exercises, but I wrote all my
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  Speaker 1: compositions and translations at home on my typewriter. Each day,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Sullivan went to the classes with me and spelled
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  Speaker 1: into my hand with infinite patience all that the teachers
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  Speaker 1: said in study hours. She had to look up new
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  Speaker 1: words for me, and read and re read notes and
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  Speaker 1: books I did not have in raised print. The tedium
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  Speaker 1: of that work is hard to conceive. Frau Gerte, my
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  Speaker 1: German teacher, and mister Gilman, the principle, were the only
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  Speaker 1: teachers in the school who learned the finger alphabet to
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  Speaker 1: give me instruction. No one realized more fully than dear
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  Speaker 1: Frau Gerte how slow and inadequate her spelling was. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: in the goodness of her heart, she laboriously spelt out
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  Speaker 1: her instructions to me in special lessons twice a week
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  Speaker 1: to give Miss Sullivan a little rest. But though everybody
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  Speaker 1: was kind and ready to help us, there was only
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  Speaker 1: one hand that could turn drudgery into pleasure. That here
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  Speaker 1: I finished arithmetic, reviewed my Latin grammar, and read three
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  Speaker 1: chapters of Caesar's Gallic War. In German, I read partly
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  Speaker 1: with my fingers and partly with miss Sullivan's sisters, Schiller's
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  Speaker 1: Liete fon der Glock and tacher Heine's Hartzreiser, Fretach's Austenstadt
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  Speaker 1: friedlichs des Grossen, Reel's Fluch der Schernheit, Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm,
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  Speaker 1: and Gerty's ausminem Leben. I took the greatest delight in
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  Speaker 1: these German books, especially Schiller's wonderful lyrics, the history of
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  Speaker 1: Frederick the Great's magnificent achievements, and the account of Gerty's life.
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  Speaker 1: I was sorry to finish d Hartzreiser, so full of
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  Speaker 1: happy witticisms and charming descriptions of vine clad hills, streams
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  Speaker 1: that sing and ripple in the sunshine, and wild regions
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  Speaker 1: sacred to tradition and legend, the gray sisters of a
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  Speaker 1: long vanished, imaginative age, descriptions such as can be given
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  Speaker 1: only by those to whom nature is a feeling, a love,
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  Speaker 1: and an appetite. Mister Gilman instructed me part of the
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  Speaker 1: year in English literature we read together as you like it.
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  Speaker 1: Burke's speech in Conciliation with America and Macaulay's Life of
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  Speaker 1: Samuel Johnson. Mister Gilman's broad views of history and literature,
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  Speaker 1: and his clever explanations made my work easier and pleasanter
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  Speaker 1: than it could have been had I only read notes mechanically,
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  Speaker 1: with the necessarily brief explanations given in the classes. Burke's
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  Speaker 1: speech was more instructive than any other book on a
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  Speaker 1: political subject that I had ever read. My mind stirred
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  Speaker 1: with the stirring times, and the characters round which the
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  Speaker 1: life of two contending nations centered seemed to move right
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  Speaker 1: before me. I wondered more and more while Burke's masterly
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  Speaker 1: speech rolled on in mighty surges of eloquence. How it
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  Speaker 1: was that King George and his ministers could have turned
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  Speaker 1: a deaf ear to his warning prophecy of our victory
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  Speaker 1: and their humiliation. Then I entered into the melancholy details
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  Speaker 1: of the relation in which the great statesman stood to
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  Speaker 1: his party and to the representatives of the people. I thought,
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  Speaker 1: how strange it was that such precious seeds of truth
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  Speaker 1: and wisdom should have fallen among the teares of ignorance
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  Speaker 1: and corruption. In a different way, Macauley's life of Samuel
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  Speaker 1: Johnson was interesting. My heart went out to the lonely
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  Speaker 1: man who ate the bread of affliction in Grubbs Street,
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  Speaker 1: and yet, in the midst of toiled and cruel suffering
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  Speaker 1: of body and soul, always had a kind word and
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  Speaker 1: lent a helping hand to the poor and despised. I
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  Speaker 1: rejoiced over all his successes. I shut my eyes to
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  Speaker 1: his faults and wondered not that he had them, but
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  Speaker 1: that they had not crushed or dwarfed his soul. But
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  Speaker 1: in spite of Macaulay's brilliancy and his admirable faculty of
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  Speaker 1: making the commonplace seem fresh and picturesque, his positiveness wearied
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  Speaker 1: me at times, and his frequent sacrifices of truth to
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  Speaker 1: effect kept me in a questioning attitude, very unlike the
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  Speaker 1: attitude of reverence in which I had listened to the
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  Speaker 1: Demosthenes of Great Britain. At the Cambridge School, for the
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  Speaker 1: first time in my life, I enjoyed the companionship of
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  Speaker 1: seeing and hearing girls of my own age. I lived
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  Speaker 1: with several others in one of the pleasant houses connected
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  Speaker 1: with the school, the house where mister Howells used to live,
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  Speaker 1: and we all had the advantage of home life. I
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  Speaker 1: joined them in many of their games, even blind Man's
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  Speaker 1: buff and frolics in the snow. I took long walks
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  Speaker 1: with them. We discussed our studies and read aloud the
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  Speaker 1: things that interested us. Some of the girls learned to
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  Speaker 1: speak to me so that Miss Sullivan did not have
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  Speaker 1: to repeat their conversation. At Christmas. My mother and little
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  Speaker 1: sister spent the holidays with me, and mister Gilman kindly
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  Speaker 1: offered to let Mildred study in his school. So Mildred
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  Speaker 1: stayed with me in Cambridge, and for six happy months
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  Speaker 1: we were hardly ever apart. It makes me most happy
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  Speaker 1: to remember the hours we spent helping each other in
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  Speaker 1: study and sharing our recreation together. I took my preliminary
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  Speaker 1: examination for Radcliffe from the twenty ninth of June to
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  Speaker 1: the third of July in eighteen ninety seven. The subjects
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  Speaker 1: I offered were elementary and advanced German, French, Latin, English
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  Speaker 1: and Greek and Roman history, making nine hours in all.
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  Speaker 1: I passed in everything and received honors in German and English.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps an explanation of the method that was in use
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  Speaker 1: when I took my examinations will not be amiss here.
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  Speaker 1: The student was required to pass in sixteen hours, twelve
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  Speaker 1: hours being called elementary, and four advanced. He had to
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  Speaker 1: pass five hours at the time to have them counted.
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  Speaker 1: The examination papers were given out at nine o'clock at
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  Speaker 1: Harvard and brought to Radcliffe by a special messenger. Each
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  Speaker 1: candidate was known not by his name but by a number.
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  Speaker 1: I was number two hundred and thirty three, but as
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  Speaker 1: I had to use a typewriter, my identity could not
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  Speaker 1: be concealed. It was thought advisable for me to have
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  Speaker 1: my examinations in the room by myself, because the noise
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  Speaker 1: of the typewriter might disturb the other girls. Mister Gilman
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  Speaker 1: read all the papers to me by means of the
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  Speaker 1: manual alphabet. A man was placed on guard at the
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  Speaker 1: door to prevent interruption. The first day I had German.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Gilman sat beside me and read the paper through first,
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  Speaker 1: then sentenced by sentence, while I repeated the words aloud
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  Speaker 1: to make sure that I understood him perfectly. The papers
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  Speaker 1: were difficult, and I felt very anxious as I wrote
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  Speaker 1: out my answers. On the typewriter. Mister Gilman spelled to
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  Speaker 1: me what I had written, and I made such changes
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  Speaker 1: as I thought necessary, and he inserted them. I wish
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  Speaker 1: to say here that I have not had this advantage
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  Speaker 1: since in any of my examinations at Radcliffe. No one
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  Speaker 1: reads the papers to me after they are written, and
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  Speaker 1: I have no opportunity to correct errors unless I finish
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  Speaker 1: before the time is up. In that case, I correct
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  Speaker 1: only such mistakes as I can recall in a few
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  Speaker 1: minutes allowed, and make notes of these corrections at the
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  Speaker 1: end of my paper. If I passed with higher credit
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  Speaker 1: in the preliminaries than in the finals, there are two reasons.
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  Speaker 1: In the finals no one read my work over to me,
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  Speaker 1: and in the preliminaries I offered subjects with some of
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  Speaker 1: which I was in a measure familiar before my work
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  Speaker 1: in the Cambridge School for at the beginning of the year,
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  Speaker 1: I had passed examinations in English history, French and German,
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  Speaker 1: which mister Gilman gave me from previous Harvard papers. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Gilman sent my written work to the examiners with a
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  Speaker 1: certificate that I, candidate number two hundred thirty three, had
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  Speaker 1: written the papers. All the other preliminary examinations were conducted
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  Speaker 1: in the same manner. None of them was so difficult
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  Speaker 1: as the first. I remembered that the day Latin paper
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  Speaker 1: was brought to us, Professor Schilling came in and informed
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  Speaker 1: me I had passed satisfactorily in German. This encouraged me greatly,
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  Speaker 1: and I sped on to the end of the ordeal
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  Speaker 1: with a light heart and a steady hand. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen