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" plays during the
' 0 the blind see? Is their sense of
JD Sight—NM a subtle power of vision
not physical material—as
vivid as our own? It is almost impossible
to believe. Yet the evidence points out as
clearly as sight. itself that the blind do see.
The Blind Players Club of Brooklyn in
action would ccnvince the most skeptical
that the sightless actors and actresses cast
in its plays are at no disadvantage because
of their sigbtlessncss.
The precision and the confl-lence with
which these players move through their
parts prove that if ‘y see every incident
of every play they rive. They do not see it
as we in the audience see. The figures
vividly photographed on their minds are
perhaps not the same pictures as are
flashed through the eyes of the seeing and
reproduced. But they are as real and as
true as the material Visioning, .and are as
eiiective.
nor
it is interesting and amazing that these
blind players can move through the in-
tricacies of a melodrama as freely and
with as infallible exactness as any actors
on the stage: that they can get the subtle
nuances, the scarcely perceptible yet mean-
ingful gestures and glances that are woven
through the proper execution of every play.
The timing is exact. Every response.
spoken or acted. is done as precisely as the
mast self-possessed actor on a Broadway
stage could do it. The cues are often not
spoken ones. as in any plays. but these
blind actors never miss. They can act
with a finesse that would satisfy even John
Drew himself, who said that a drama
might be made or ruined by a handshake.
Say; for example. one of the scenes in a
play being acted by the Blind Players re-
quired just that—a. handshake. Neither
of the actors sees the band of the other
coming toward him; neither can depend
upon his sight for the execution of the
movement at exactly the proper time and
at the same time. Yet they do not miss
fire. The handciasp comes surely and con-
fldently—so well that it is dimcult to lung
ine the actors blind even though you are
informed beforehand that they are.
Why doesn't the leading man beseech
the unyielding walls. not knowing that the
leading lady has crossed to the other side
of the room! How do they know that
they are looking at each other at the crit~
lcal moment. that they are picking up
their ten cups and not the ash trays?
How is it that they never seem to grope
for anything; that they walk upright and
self assured; that they can reach out for
the tea cup and directly find the handle?
It must be that they do see.
Eternal Night Has No
Terrors for Blind Actors
It is reasonable that we who have never
. nown relentless‘darkness should fall to
1‘. Q. . deg-stand. We are bound to be amazed.
We
'recall some incident when the dark-
ness was impenetrable, when we had
neither flashlight nor matches. and when.
we gropod hopelessly and for a. long time,
in the blacko
nus.
' It‘is very .easy for one to lose his bear-
ings on a dark night. It was a. tremendous
feat in childhood to let the blindfold stay
tight and to walk ten feet and pin a de-
tached tall somewhere near the outline of
Va muslin donkey hung upon a wall. Then
every person‘must at one time or another
have missed his‘iudgment of distance and
bumped into n chair in a dark " ‘om simply
because it was seven paces 3. .‘er than it
should have been.
.The Blind Players Club presented two
first week of April in the
Brooklyn Academy of Music. To any one
who :wished to see the miraculous were
altered proof that his‘ impression of the
handicaps of blindness is somewhat awry.
The blind do not go helplessly andim- ..
«(-7». 1 ..
These are
members of the
Blind Players'
Club of
Brooklyn, who
when they take
their parts on the stage
seem to see as well as
other actors. The
audience can hardly
believe they are
sightless.
certainly into things. They manage about
as well as the rest of us and see a good
deal more than some of us. Before and
during a rehearsal of the Blind Players
there was much that was enlightening.
“I had to come and rehearse instead of
finishing my ironing and making cro-
quettos for dinner,". protested the leading
lady. “I promised my four brothers that
we would have croquettes tonight."
This was Miss Margaret Smith, gay,
pretty, totally blind, who presents the
tragedy of the Chinese "small" wife in a
two not play. She plays opposite Miss
Helena Klein. the tall "leading man." who
strolled smiling and banter-lug to where
a group were standing together, and dis.
played a poise that seemed out of keeping~
with her total blindness. Her one vulner-
able point lay in mention of the deep
dimples that always war with her clear
tenor voice in the male impersonations.
Other players were. arriving. talking,
hurrying up and down stairs and to other
parts of the building for properties. doing
everything quite contrary to ourconcep-
tion of those who have not our kind of
night. A girl, blind from birth. was at the
piano, her fingers caressing the keys into
one tune and then another with no hesita-
tion. Another girl was bringing objects
from some shelf or drawer and placing
South American Cowbog A‘ Hunter oode
HE North American cowboy of our
Western plains has an easy time—-
if we stop to compare his life with
that of his South American brother of the
bridle. His work is usually on level and
practically treeless prairies, but the cattle
of Brazil and Argentina are permitted to
roam far out into the dense forests, so
herding them is often a difficult task. This
forces the South American cowboy to ride
at great speed between the trunks of trees
and low hanging branches. the highly
trained horses often becoming so confused
that they barely miss dashing into these
obstructions. '
A large tree standing directly in the“.
, path of a speeding horse can be grazed by
the animal, but what of its cowboy rider?
He must do acme rather quick’thinking
and cling to the opposite of the horse.
something like the Indians used to do
when galloping around a settler-3' camp
which they had attacked. Our cowboys
have few of these dangers. ..
The South American cowboy must be
just as much a woodsmnn.us ours are
piainsmen. There are few towns in the
cattle'sect'ions of limit! and Argentina. so
when the cowboys occasionally visit a cit
they immediately spend all their-money
1°." gm, clothes, much of which use
y unsuited Well: mwb 00“
them unerringly where she
wanted them. What strange
kind of sight did they possess
these Blind Players? -
They found it very satisfying.
They were enjoying themselves
—even had the stage manager.
Miss Evelyn M. Griswold. calling
s
b
for less talk and laughter. “i am rather
glad that I can't-see with my eyes." one of
them said. “I might not like the world as
well if I had ever seen it!"
The rehearsal commenced and again and
again it called into play the uncanny sense
of direction and location that the blind
possess. The players walked the length
of the stage, walked through doorways.
they sought and found without groping or
uncertainty various objects. They per-
formed the customary rites of the tea
table. They brought in the subtle motions
with which the sighted make their con-
versation the more convincing.
The second play was a woodland idyll
trary to our cowboys, they prefer a hat
with a brim that rolls up at the sides and
is very still. These new outfits last only a
short time in the woods and brambles. but
the cowboys are very proud of them.
It must be their Indian blood that gives
them their longing for gaudy dress. But
these South American cowboys do not for-
get their talthful horses when they come
to town. ~ '
In his everyday life the cowboy“ has the
Indian trait of being uiet, but when e.»
cited he begins to ye and shriek like]
regular Apache of our former "wild and
woolly West." Instead of carrying “six
shooters" the South American cowboy has
' only a. knife or short spear to defend blur.
' self from wild beasts. ,
While North American ranches are
\often bothered with wolves, coyotes and
‘wild gs. the jaguar. or South'Aincrfcan ‘
leopard, is a much more terrible beast,
which preys upon cattle in that country.
Wolves. coyotes and wild dogs m'moro
or less cowardly, bnt_tho savage jaguar
doesn’t hesitate to attack at any time.
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How fileroiitghis Se F _ g , _
e _ Aniazing Grace and Deflness of,Sightless
, Amateur Players in Chd'rity _ .
Operetta Startle Audiences-e-Skill of ‘-
Experienced Artists Quickly Acquired
i
1
called "Dreams," and the leading role fell
to the lot of Miss Alice Vanden Bykcn.
Two interlude dances are brought in with
a song prelude by Miss Alice Johnson. a.
blind Norwegian girl. Her line soprano
vcice takes the attention away from every-
thing else. But it is interesting none the
less to see the sureness with which she
enters upon the stage, crosses it
with a. lighted candle held before
her and drops easily into a chair.
She places the candle on a table by
her side, reaches casually to the
rose that lies near it, and when her song
is done walks straight to the further exit.
things seemed to astonish neither them-
* selves nor Miss Griswold. who was train-
‘3 ing them.
They have acute senses that we
know nothing about. Moreover. the Blind
Players have put in eight years of careful
study and very patient work. There is not
only instinct but a really superhuman
memory involved in their success. _
\
"In any performance by blind players,"
said Miss Griswold, “they come on ‘the
stage just before the curtain goes up to
make sure that every object is in its right
place. If' there has been a. change of so
much as an inch in the arrangement it is
instantly detected by. them and corrected.
or it would throw them of! badly."
The blind actor, she says, has a record
stamped on his memory that sounds con
siderably like the keys to hidden treasure
that we read about. Three paces right.
live paces half right. or north by northeast
or whatever he wants to call it. Then his
hand must go up forty degrws and to the
The cowboy of
Argentina “dressed"
for a trip to town.
. He is fond of gaudy
clothes, and his
bum is always
richly saddled
and bridled.
Xi:
The ability of the blind to do these'
left thirty degrees to find what he is seek-
ing.
his eyes must drop when he addresses the
leading lady at a certainjnncture. These
are the things that course through.the sub-
consciousness of the blind actor. But be-
yond all that there is something else, the
thing that keeps him from taking his
paces in a circle or a. zigzag and from
mixing his counting up with his lines as
a sighted actor most certainly would if
he were suddenly blindfolded. the thing
that augments his mathematical calcula-
tions and turns an almost into on exactly
in his movements—Lthe unknown sense of
the blind. the sight yithout eyes.
The Blind Players Club
is one of the activities of
the Brooklyn Bureau of
Charities, which estab-
lished a’. committee on the
blind in 1913. At that
time a complete census of
the blind in Brooklyn was
taken and'almost twelve
hundred cases enumerated.
The next move was to launch
every possible activity to
bring them into touch with
the world and to make them
self-supporting. The work of
the dramatic club is perhaps
the most remarkable of all to
the outsider. In the year
1921 it put on ten entertain-
ments for various churches and clubs, in
addition to .the annual performances at
the Academy of Music for the benefit of
the blind women of the city. On that oc-.
casion the house was sold out. the receipts
being $2,331.
‘ \
His head must turn to the right and
,odsman
.fend ‘both' himself and his com
1 shooter." it is doubtful whether 0‘"
them would care to 1339 3 c
71am:- With only t.f°’ked smk “t“
. south American cowboys are “°
"t bromine“. dot in the “I‘m
Dancing is another so
the blind, more easily understooq,
than acting. It was found that it
be carried past the poipt of a W
and taken up seriously. so that with“
by blind children and inte “W
dancing by older blind girls Were 12”!“
. as a part of the dramatic prom?”
Before the rehearsal of the play”,
day they were practicing for 1,.
dance and the Moth dance. that?
presented at the Academy of mu;
month, and it was po .
ssible to so“:
methods by which they are trainm'I
In the first plac‘e, it was endear
every girl in the is: a bad a good“.
rhythm. Beyond all else that is “in?
depend upon. In this instaDCe with
three sighted, or rrct-tically Sighted '
were put into the dance. althoUgh ml!!!
not absolutely net-essay}; In any”:
cated figure where the turning and :5
ing of the dance confuses mt. Semenf,
rection the merest touch fro. w
guides serves to keep the 5;
position. As for the detail
comm
1351mm ‘
And dancmh
At Left—
TheSe chil-
dren too are
blind, but
when they
appear in the
Sunshine
Society play.
also in
Brooklyn,
they too seem
to see as well
as actors and
actresses
of the
regular
theater.
the pointing oi toes and bending of bodfe!
seemed to come naturally even to those
who had been blind since birth and could
have had no visual conception oi eithr
symmetry or grace
to handle. While one of 12191213an
be shot, at the same time other: in:
tacking the cattle at different P33
the ranch. .-
The cowboys of Brazil and Allen“
also find much sport in hutolf;
jaguar. but their method oz 3‘“ .,
would seem very risky to those 013i '
expert in the art of handling 8 “r“
spear. Most of them go out into n!
est armed only with a large forked
and a long knife. They travel in:
one of them carrying the forked ‘
the other having the long 1mm
cleverly track the jaguar to its tiell
The jaguar, or Sucurana,as it is tad
in the native Indian dialect. W11“ .1 _
is aroused, and when it springs “1° .-
boy with the forked stick suddenly .,
on one knee and pins the snarling ‘.
to the ground. They are so ewe“
they rarely miss. If this should
the m with the” knife is forced to
E
Although any of our old time :10:
could drive a pin in the wall wi
d
uwnn‘ welcome strange“
mam... that is genuine “‘1in
in: they never forget a "”5 is 3;,
Minding: blood gives them ‘1’ .
.7 . our We]! had the same
Norwalk Chronicler