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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen 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 seventeen. In the summer of
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  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety four, I attended the meeting at Chautauqua of
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  Speaker 1: the American Association to promote the teaching of speech to
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  Speaker 1: the deaf. There it was arranged that I should go
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  Speaker 1: to the Right Homerson School for the Deaf in New
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  Speaker 1: York City. I went there in October eighteen ninety four,
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  Speaker 1: accompanied by Miss Sullivan. This school was chosen especially for
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  Speaker 1: the purpose of obtaining the highest advantages in vocal culture
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  Speaker 1: and training in lip reading. In addition to my work
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  Speaker 1: in these subjects, I studied during the two years I
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  Speaker 1: was in the school arithmetic, physical, geography, French and German.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Remi, my German teacher, could use the manual alphabet,
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  Speaker 1: and after I had acquired as small vocabulary, we talked
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  Speaker 1: together in German whenever we had a chance, and in
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  Speaker 1: a few months I could understand almost everything she said.
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  Speaker 1: Before the end of the first year, I read Wilhelm
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  Speaker 1: Tell with the greatest delight. Indeed, I think I made
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  Speaker 1: more progress in German than in any of my other studies.
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  Speaker 1: I found French much more difficult. I studied it with
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  Speaker 1: Madame Olivier, a French lady who did not know the
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  Speaker 1: manual alphabet, and who was obliged to give her instruction orally.
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  Speaker 1: I could not read her lips easily, so my progress
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  Speaker 1: was much slower than in German. I managed, however, to
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  Speaker 1: read Le Medissain malgray Louis. Again. It was very amusing,
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  Speaker 1: but I did not like it nearly so well. As
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  Speaker 1: Vilhelm tell my progress in lip reading and speech was
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  Speaker 1: not what my teachers and I had hoped and expected
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  Speaker 1: it would be. It was my ambition to speak like
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  Speaker 1: other people, and my teachers believed that this could be accomplished.
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  Speaker 1: But although we worked hard and faithfully, yet we did
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  Speaker 1: not quite reach our goal. I suppose we aimed too high,
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  Speaker 1: and disappointment was therefore inevitable. I still regarded arithmetic as
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  Speaker 1: a system of pitfalls. I hung about the dangerous frontier
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  Speaker 1: of guests, avoiding, with infinite trouble to myself and others,
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  Speaker 1: the broad valley of reason. When I was not guessing,
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  Speaker 1: I was jumping at conclusions, and this fault, in addition
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  Speaker 1: to my dullness, aggravated my difficulties more than was right
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  Speaker 1: or necessary. But although these disappointments caused me great depression
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  Speaker 1: at times, I pursued my other studies with unflagging interest,
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  Speaker 1: especially physical geography. It was a joy to learn the
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  Speaker 1: secrets of nature, how in the picturesque language of the
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  Speaker 1: Old Testament, the winds are made to blow from the
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  Speaker 1: four corners of the heavens, how the vapors ascend from
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  Speaker 1: the ends of the earth, how rivers are cut out
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  Speaker 1: among the rocks and mountains overturned by the roots, And
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  Speaker 1: in what ways man may overcome many forces mightier than himself.
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  Speaker 1: The two years in New York were happy ones, and
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  Speaker 1: I look back to them with genuine pleasure. I remember
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  Speaker 1: especially the walks we all took together every day in
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  Speaker 1: Central Park, the only part of the city that was
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  Speaker 1: congenial to me. I never lost a jot of my
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  Speaker 1: delight in this great park. I loved to have it
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  Speaker 1: described every time I entered it, for it was beautiful
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  Speaker 1: in all its aspects, and these aspects were so many
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  Speaker 1: that it was beautiful in a different way each day
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  Speaker 1: of the nine months I spent in New York. In
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  Speaker 1: the spring, we made excursions to various places of interest.
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  Speaker 1: We sailed on the Hudson River and wandered about on
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  Speaker 1: its green banks, of which Bryant loved to sing. I
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  Speaker 1: liked the simple, wild grandeur of the Palisades. Among the
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  Speaker 1: places I visited were West Point, Tarrytown, the home of
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  Speaker 1: Washington Irving, where I walked through Sleepy Hollow. The teachers
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  Speaker 1: at the right Hommerson School were always planning how they
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  Speaker 1: might give the pupils every advantage that those who here enjoy,
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  Speaker 1: how they might make much of few tendencies and passive
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  Speaker 1: memories in the cases of the little ones, and lead
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  Speaker 1: them out of the cramping circumstances in which their lives
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  Speaker 1: were set. Before I left New York, these bright days
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  Speaker 1: were darkened by the greatest sorrow that I have ever borne,
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  Speaker 1: except the death of my father. Mister John P. Spaulding
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  Speaker 1: of Boston died in February eighteen ninety six. Only those
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  Speaker 1: who knew and loved him best can understand what his
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  Speaker 1: friendship meant to me. He who made every one happy
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  Speaker 1: in a beautiful and obtrusive way, was most kind and
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  Speaker 1: tender to Miss Sullivan than me. So long as we
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  Speaker 1: felt his loving presence, and knew that he took a
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  Speaker 1: watchful interest in our work. Fraught with so many difficulties,
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  Speaker 1: we could not be discouraged. His going away left a
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  Speaker 1: vacancy in our lives that has never been filled. End
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  Speaker 1: of Chapter seventeen.