Show Blinded French Heroes of the ic War Are T Taught aught to See Sec W With uh T Their heir Fingertips By f an American Lady of the Lighthouse O I Back From a Mission of Love to the Sightless Soldiers of France Winifred Holt Founder of the New York Asso Association dation for the Blind Brings Tear Compelling Tales of Courage and Romance Comes to Raise Money for the French Lighthouses y ELEANOR ROBINSON By Br The Tue Special New Stice NEW YORK Dec 9 We We have aided men blinded in battle We have put eyes oh on the tIre finger tips of m men n Blindness has three phases phases- first numbness then despair then the dawn of a new light the light of hope through work Miss 1 Winifred Holt founder of the New York Association for the Blind who returned from France this week talked to me ne In her office at No Ill East ninth Fifty street of how she brought this light that never was was on sea or land but that burns always Inthe in inthe inthe the pitying heart to the officers and soldiers of France blinded In lit the war wat Miss 1 Holt who i ls famous throughout the tie United States as the leading spirit in the movement to help the blind to help themselves went to France in inJune inJune June 1915 as the representative of a committee of which Joseph H H. H Choate is president Bishop Greer is honor honorary ry chairman Mrs Peter Hewitt is secretary secretary secre secre- tary and William Willlam Forbes Morgan Jr is treasurer Miss Holt founded Phare de France which is situated at No 44 Rue Daru in a house rented from the Vatican and owned by the pope and the Phare d de Bordeaux Phare means lighthouse In Inthe Inthe Inthe the latter place she discovered the Abbe one of m many ny noble priests whose valor has given new force to religion in France The abbe had been keeping a group of sightless men busy at basket and brush making but owing to the war had reached the end of his resources and to keep his blind soldiers bu busy y he was compelled to sell th the joy and hobby of a lifetime his wonderful collection of butterflies I Establishes Two Lighthouses in France With funds from New York YOlk Miss Holt was was- able to establish the lighthouse lighthouse light light- house in Bordeaux Bordeau with the abbe in charge and to proceed with the larger undertaking of the Phare de France now under the protection of M. M Poincare Poincare Poincare Poin- Poin care president of France and of the j I American ambassador Mr Sharp j I 1 have come back to America to to I raise more money for our wor work Miss 1 Holt informed me In her soft voice I This lady of the lighthouse se is a rarely charming woman with the ripe outlines outlines out out- lines of lovely maturity and the big I brown eyes which are the beacons of ofa ofa a tender spirit Teaching the Sightless How to toMake I Make a Living Please sa say for me that we have no rio I connection with any other association for helping helping- the blinded in battle and that the only way to aid us is to send contributions small or large to Mr W. W Forbes Forbe s' s Morgan l Jr at No 17 East Thirty eighth eighth th street i I j t It Is impossible to speak adequately I i of the heroism of the French nation I I j I added Miss Mis's Holt in her office which I was filled with flowers sent her b by the New York blind she has helped The I i French are a n. nation of heroes The i world in all its history has never seen seen anything like the simplicity the courage courage cour- cour age aAe the splendid optimism of this noble noble no- no ble people Among the young men we WEI I received in the lighthouse in Ia Paris was wasa a soldier who had bad picked up an exploding ex- ex shell saving the lives of thirtyfour thirty thirty- four comrades and losing his own sight S What else could I do he asked meI meI me I t was the only unmarried man In th the I trench Then we had a blinded Swede ra t r 1 I pave gave a ve- ve vem m my eyes to lo France Fiance I am sorry I I had no more moie to give ive h 11 said this thir stranger fi fl ht n for an alien land II He lIe i was ivas an independent furrier before th the i iwar war war and with our assistance he was war able to resume his trade and sightless C Cas as he Is today makes a good living Another man a blinded officer learned to knit sweaters His wife wire came up from from the country and sat eat beside beside beside be be- side him in the class and she too learned his trade Together they support support support sup sup- port themselves Victims of War Cannot Be Blinded to Love We Ye have had six weddings since the tle lighthouse was started Miss Niss Holt add added d with a happy smile Two of the brides were Red Cross nurses wio had grown to love the tire helpless blind men In itt their charge One New Years Year's eve we found two soldiers who had given their eyes to their country One I called the fi fighting abbe on one of the many splendid priests who fight for France His eyes were shot eliot out his face and h head ad were terribly terribly ter tar wounded his jaw was shattered I he was speechless and in despair that despair that terrible despair of or the man who has realized that he will never see again By New Years Year's day I had the abbe playing checkers checke s with me In a few tew I days he had asked to be taught the Braille Brame system so he could follow tollow the mass On the night we found him we had discovered a young soldier shot through both eyes We took him to the lighthouse and grad gradually he learned to read and write and type type- write A young French girl who was his nurse fell In love with him and they I decided to be married The blind abbe I picked up on the same New Years Year's eve I pronounced the wedding ceremony I I That marriage was the most beautiful that I h have hav v ever witnessed I think It was celebrated in the church of Saint Pierre at There were fifty guests most of ot them blinded in battle The organist was blind and the tenor who sang the beautiful solos olos had given his eyes ees for France The bride and bridegroom went up the aisle together the blinded man in full uniform wearing wearing wear- wear I ing the tIre l' l red led d ribbon of the Legion of Honor the L Militaire and the I Croix de do Guerre The bride wore the French nurses nurse's uniform with a flaming red cross over her heart and a white veil I I have never seen more radiant faces than these two the man to his Iris country the woman vowed to service and to love How do you enable the blind to survive the first moment of realization realIzation realization tion How do you tell them I asked the tender r lady of the lighthouse We never tell them Miss Holt answered answered an answered an- an gently They They they find tind it out What we try to do is to open for them the t ten n e eyes es in their fingers before be before be- be fore tore they r realize alize that they are sightless sight Sight I less As they lie in bed with bandaged hoes yes eyes We say How stupid it must beto beto be beto to lie here helpless It may mM be weeks before your bandages are removed Why riot not l learn arn to do something to pass the time Sometime the first thing that rests interests them is s a game gamEl of heck check ers The Miracle of Restoring Sight to the Sightless I II In the south of France I found one man of whom there was little left save I courage His legs had been amputated and his liis right ight rIHn hn arm Ills His huge eyes were blind and he was c carried like a child chUd He smiled often at the little woman who had faithful to him and andI I still proposed to marry mairy him but the theof light of intelligence and the knowledge e of a a. horizon had not riot come to him until I slipped the unfailing domino beneath his fingers and for tor the first time he heI realized that tha t he could find light through I work It was a a. wonderful thing to se sethe see seethe seethe the of this man through the simple toy Why h it is the six he lie exclaimed I can read We Ve tacked I an alphabet on to a a. board so that he could read with his left hand The rhe miracle continued and before we left him he lie was eager to come to Paris Pans I and learn how to be blind He actually laughed aloud with tho the idea of his being being being be be- ing able to 10 be a wage earner again I and to marry the little girl who was his fiancee and go ba back a k to work in iri their home town I stipulated that he I should have stumps stump's and a hook and andI I glass e eyes es I r could tell you of t hundreds of such sueh heroes But where we we have helped hundreds there are thousands still in need of assistance And I thought as t I came up the bay and saw the beau- beau statue which France gave us s that Liberty enlightening the world must give eyes to the blinded in battle America will help them I have not not come back to call can upon my fellow countrymen coun court in iii vain J v i I Hl 33 I |