PRAISE FOR LOUIS BRAILLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 33, 8 February 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

PRAISE FOR LOUIS BRAILLE.

Blind people in every land are this year rising a hymn of praise to Louis Braille, the blind Frenchman who, a century ago, invented an alphabet that can be read by touch.

Books in this kind of type are printed in gre;:t numbers by the National Institute for the Blind, and by their help blind boys and girls can now go in imagination to see Robinson Crusoe on his island or wander with Alice in Wonderland.

As a child Louis Braille had normal -sight, and he was as full of mischief as any child. One day he entered hie father's workshop, took up a sharp tool, and chopped at a piece of wood. Then the tool slipped, his eye was pierced, and Louis became blind.

It must have been a sad day for the parents when they realised that their boy would never see again. But, if they had been able to look ahead, they might have found some comfort in the thought t!.at this terrible accident, which plunged their child into lifelong darkness, would be the means of giving light to generations of blind people.

Louis was sent to the School for the Blind in Paris, and there he appears to have worked cheerfully and well. He became a brilliant scholar and a splendid musician. .But all his spare time was devoted to the task of finding a system by which the blind could read and write. Year .after year he went on with his search, and at last, in 1829, his toil was rewarded.

First of all he set down six dots in the manner of the six dots on a domino. By removing one or more of these he found that he could make 63 combinations, enough to give him all the letters of an alphabet, besides necessary stops, signs and contractions. He applied the same system to music, with equally successful results, and it is by means of such dots that blind musicians are able to reacf music.

" POOR PUSSY."

This is a game which will make you laugh. The players stand in a circle, and one is chosen as "Puss." He or she kneels in front of anyone of the others, and cries: "Mee-e-o-ow!" The player in front of him has to reply, "Poor pussy" without smiling. If she smiles, she has to pay a forfeit and so the game goes on.

THE PROBLEM OF THE EGGS

Catch your chum with this. There are twelve boys, and on the table is a basket with twelve eggs. Each boy takes one e gg> and there remains one egg in the basket. How is this?

Answer: The last boy took the basket as well as the egg it contained. Thus, there was one egg left in the basket.