HELEN KELLER

Southland Times, Issue 18822, 15 May 1920, Page 8

HELEN KELLER

NOW ON THE VAUDEVILLE STAGE. When Helen Keller was eight the fac that she was learning to read and stud; through the sense of touch, was mud written about. Certainly no one had thi faintest idea of what a blind, deaf woman who had been taught to speak with a, much mechanical difficulty almost as woul< be experienced in producing speech fron a statue, would be doing in vaudeville. The curtain went up, the stage set a: a drawingroom. After the preliminary an nouncement a tall, rather handsome wo man appeared in the opening at the rea of the stage. She advanced a few steps then tottered a little as one who has somi difficulty in balancing. She brushed again.-; a piano and advanced to the footlights where another woman had been awaitiiu her. The huge audience realised with a trace of uneasiness that this woman was blind, till hough she has large, bright blue eyes, which have the deceptive appearance oi being unusually strong and clear. It was Helen Keller, a vigorous, healthy looking woman. Her companion, Mrs Anne Sullivan Macy, who has been her friend and teacher since Miss Keller’s childhood, explained the difficulty in teaching her to speck, and the patience, cleverness and will power and faith displayed by Miss Keller, which really seem almost superhuman. Unable to hear the voices of others, Mi-- Keller learned to talk by feeling of the throats end tips of others, and after years of elior'. mastered by this mechanical toil what others have as a divine gift, easy as breathing. Such intensity of interest has rarely been seen in the theatre as shown by those ;.u 'ic.'v i'. in the big vaudeville theatre. The difficulties conquered and the inten-e human ;-i;ivin.gs of this woman seem to strike the auhiem es in a great wave of sympathy. For a few moments they were pe.'pl;;:;' d by her strange, carefully articul.’.ud manner of .-[leaking, but this, too, i only adder! to the realisation of Miss KelI ler's triumph. Then the beholders saw that before them was a woman who seemed : upremely happy, anrl that tabled to tire wonder. Uae can apeak with her vety rapidly, with Hr? Macy conveying | the l -i.v • n • and answer:; by hand read- ! in;; with Mi- 7 hhller, or more slowly when j- Mi-s Keller placed one finger on hj r inter- ; \ : mot-th and another on h:s throat, • by which hod she receives with no diftij c.,1 y \\ ha lever conversation in an ordinary | "D:privcl oi some of my -en.res, other; jo d-’v: ieped extraordinarily,” she said, t “1 could it!! before I had been on the ! .- 1 a minore th:■ t there was a very large ; ; ./me. I feel the wave? of air made !by ’if hreathtng and the pulsation? of | in; ny um.-or, ; This srnsc, so keen, was , a. a: vtdvtint age to me. I felt , ti:; ou.gh my hj : t the Grange jarring caused ; aua'imr a i did; liftt know what this v.r..--. and brli-vod that a number of p-'-r- ---?..•■:,? had for .-om" reason rushed in car. the i ; - : ae imm :ha .-.trtvt or from the an fi-le;--c. Du! a? I did not feci the presence 1 of new person? on the stage, I decided it ip- i. i;■ uiiiuutrc lalhii", or something ’ id - that.” i ..IDs Keller's tall: is slow ami difficult, I Ijt j does ire-1 seem to tire iter to talk. Indent, lie gives the imp;c , don of great \ ti a.llty.