Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 March 1898 — CLEVER TOMMY STRINGER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CLEVER TOMMY STRINGER.

He Can Neither See, Hear, Nor Utter Words of Speech. Tommy SI ringer 13 the kind of boy who would sing merrily at his work if he could, but that is one of the few things that are out of the range of his accomplishment. In lieu of it, his comely face shines with Joy and satisfaction when he takes a piece of wood in one hand and a tool In the other and begins to fashion some simple article of use or ornament. Tom is deaf and dumb and blind, and his means of communicating with other people are confined almost wholly to the use of the manual alphabet. Nevertheless, he has been attending the Lloyd school in Boston for the past year, where be is taught with ordinary pupils, most of whom he excels in the neatness and accuracy of his work. He goes twice a week, being accompanied from the Kindergarten for the Blind, in Jamaica Plain, by his teacher, Miss Conley, who is his companion, confidante, interpreter and protector, as well as teacher. These days are as good as holidays to Tom. He never has to be reminded of them or coaxed or scolded into going. The trip in itself is an event fraught with as much interest as if he could see the sights along the way and hear the cries and the music of the street. “How many people are in the car?” he spells with his inquisitive little fingers ft>to the palm of the teacher’s hand. “What kind of a lady sits next to me, and what does she wear? What street are we on now? Are the buildings high or low? What is there in the shop windows?” He uses the same kind of tools In his

woodwork that the other boys do, except that his rule has to have raised figures on it, and In marking off he uses an awl Instead of a lead pencil. Tom is neat, orderly, careful and exact In his work, and raerly makes a blunder of any kind. His intuitions are so keen and his two senses of touch and smell, upon which he depends, are 'so highly developed that he can detect the slightest variations from the model.

TOMMY STRINGER AND MISS CONLEY.