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Show MAPS FOR THE BLIND. i Facts About Their Construc- tion. ! HOW THE PUPILS USE THEM. j Cities Indicated Jby Turk Heads. j " Bounding." A map for tho blind is a curiosity. ! Blind penile art fond of history, and as hisiorv cannot Ik- properly learned, or iudivd learned at all without Homo knowledge of geography, and to learn the latter without a map is impossible, something of the kind was necessary, and so sjit-cial maps wen- invented and manufactured for the use of the eyeless. They are all of the kind known as lhn "dissected maps," and are of wood ar really carve! blocks. All land stands iu relief, the mountains an in ridges, the rivers an- long depressions, the stato lines are elevate!. Kadi htate is a separate sepa-rate block, ami the pupil is taught to tit the blocks together and thus prepare for himself a map of the whole country. The name, of each statu is marked, sometimes on the back, sometimes on , the front, of the block, and tho observer j will notice all over tho surface of the I blocks small aggregations of what to him are meaningless doUs. These art the names of rivers, towns and cities. Cities nit) designated by pin or tack heads, and the sio and shape of these show tho ni-proxiinato ni-proxiinato number of popnlat ion. Iu one map cities of less than 10,00t inhabitants inhab-itants wore indicated by pin hcaois Hat on top, and those of lU,(luO to iO.OOO by hemispherical. Flat tack beads showed the localities of cities having 2U.0O0 to 50,000. rounded tack heads from 60,000 to 100,000. Tack heads tlat and square indicated cities lietween 100,000 and 00,-000. 00,-000. Tack heads round, but with a depression de-pression on the top, showed cities of greater size. "Bounding" tho states is an easy matter mat-ter to the pupil. Taking Missouri, for example, the child requested to do the work began by placing tho hand tlat on tho block to get a general idea of its ikv sition; then tho forefinger of tho right hand found the northwest corner, ran rapidly along tho elevated Iowa lino, followed fol-lowed the Mississippi down to Kansas, went too far and passed to Helena .where a pause was made, tho namo mid and the mistake discovered; returned, found the lino, traced it to the west along tlie southern limitsof Pemiscot and Dunklin counties, missed it again at tho St. Francis Fran-cis river, recovered it.went north, found tho line at Butler county, ran it to the corner of McDonald county, thence along the western boundary to the Htart-, Htart-, ing point and then gave tho whole result re-sult orally without a moment's hesitation hesita-tion . 13y means of these dissected maps a fair idea is also gained by tho pupils of the respective size of various countries and states. When nskod to compare Ohio with Texas the boy laid tho Ohio block on the Texas map, measured it off, turned it this way, that way, caretully keeping the count with his fingers on the space already covered, and finally announced an-nounced that Texas, according to his idea, was about live times as largo as Ohio, a calculation closo enough to tho truth to excite wonder nt tho accuracy rather than criticism of Its lack of exact- ness. Dissected maps of every continent , are provided, and a largo globe, made on I tho principles which underlie the con-I con-I struction ol tho maps, enables the pupils I to gain a fair general idea of tho shape and geographical features of our planet. Geography, in most schools, is used as an aid to the study of history, and is studied not as a collection of meaningless meaning-less names but as a subject which tlirows indispensable light on tho deeda and words of maukiud. St. Louis Globe-Democrat. |