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The names of the pupils who have attended some of the two years

are:

MALES.

J. Gilbert McGinn, Multnomah county.

F. V. Cooper, Multnomah county.
Charles Kyrtis, Multnomah county.
Lewis R. Guibor, Multnomah county.

FEMALES.

Lou Lewis, Benton county.
Amy Walling, Polk county.
Josie Watkins, Linn county.
Blanche Savage, Marion county.
Mary Baker, Marion county.
H. S. Carothers, Linn county.
Sadie Bristow, Polk county.
Mollie Read, Polk county.

Nettie Branson, Multnomah county.

Four males and nine females; in all thirteen.

The branches taught are the common English, including physiology, natural and theoretical philosophy, history, calisthenics, and type-writing, together with a thorough course in vocal and instrumental music.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

One hundred and seventeen dollars' and fifty cents was presented to the School by the Hon. Henry Failing, of Portland.

The Kneas Magazine for one year, by Mrs. Gov. Moody.

Four copies of the Sunday School Weekly, by the Sunday School Publishing Society for Blind.

The Goodson Gazette, by the publishers.

On the 10th of June, 1886, C. E. Moor submitted to the Board of Education the following special report, and tendered his resignation as Superintendent, Mrs. Moor having previously retired from the position of Matron.

The resignation was accepted on the 12th of June.

C. E. MOOR.

REPORT.

To the Honorable the State Board of Education:

In accordance with your request I submit the following report: The Oregon School for the Blind closed its annual session on the 7th of May, 1886, with ten pupils.

There are three other persons in the State, all girls, and children of Floyd Vaughn, of Lane Co., who, I believe, are eligible to the school.

When I first took charge of the school, in 1883, I wrote to every County Judge in the State urgently requesting them to report to me the name, age, sex and postoffice address of all blind persons in their respective counties. The reports came to hand in due time. There were only thirty-three blind persons in Oregon, according to these reports, and most of them over forty years of age.

I found, on examination of the census reports of 1880, that eighty-seven blind persons were returned for Oregon, and that the average in the United States is one person to every eleven hundred of the population. Therefore, I concluded that the County Judges had not discovered all of the blind in the State.

Two years ago, the Clerks of every School District in Multnomah County were interviewed, by letter, on the subject of blind persons suitable for pupils, and no addition to the number already known were found. In January, 1885, a copy of the biennial report of the School was sent to every newspaper in the State, and many of them noticed the School. During the month of April last letters of inquiry in regard to the blind were sent to every County School Superintendent in the State. Nearly all of them replied, and three semi-blind children have been found.

A continual effort has been made since the opening of the School, in 1883, to the present time, to discover all of the blind persons in Oregon. Superintendent McElroy, who has traveled extensively in Oregon, has made inquiry for blind persons and has advertised the School at every opportunity.

The result is, we find very few blind people in Oregon. The

personal record of each of the ten pupils who were in the School at its close, on the 7th of last May, is as follows:

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The names of the three children in Lane county are:

Avarilla Vaughn, 15 years old.

May Vaughn, 11 years old.

Dora Vaughn, 7 years old.

These children are not totally blind, but they cannot be educated in the schools for the seeing. The school ought to be continued and the next Legislature asked to pass a law regulating its management. All of which is respectively submitted.

Salem, June 10, 1886.

2

C. E. MOOR,
Supt. O. B. S.

SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT.

During the short time I have had charge of the Oregon School for the Blind, I have been much impressed with the importance and value of the work which the State has undertaken in behalf of the blind. Turning my attention to three points, briefly, I give you some impressions:

First As to what has been accomplished.

Second-The present status of the School; and

Third-Its wants, and prospects for the future.

I find that, aside from those now pupils, fifteen persons have, in whole or in part, learned to read and write, and attained such knowledge of other studies as to add greatly to their usefulness and happiness in life.

I take up the Sunday School Weekly, a paper printed in the point system for the blind, and as I look it over, preparatory to reading it, with the pupils on Sunday morning, it is a pleasure to know that some of the former pupils have the same paper in their homes and are able to read it; that because of the privileges once enjoyed here they can read literature provided for the blind (of which there is much now printed), can correspond with their friends, and, in short, have had a new world opened to them through the elements of an education which they gained here.

One young man, Gilbert McGinn, prepared himself here to enter the High School in Portland-his father having given up business to read to him. By listening to the reading and re-reading of his lessons, he prepares for recitations. Besides making good progress in these, he is studying law in the Law School and will yet be heard from.

It should be remembered that much of what has been done has been accomplished in the face of many difficulties, and with very limited facilities.

For years the School had no house of its own, and was without library or suitable books and appliances for educating the blind.

But since the last biennial report a good property has been secured, valuable books and apparatus obtained, the school re

furnished, and all this with such manifest wisdom, care, and economy on the part of your Honorable Board and the former Superintendent, as to place the school upon a superior footing, free from debt. The building is well adapted to school purposes, the location is an excellent one for convenience and also for health, except in the want of sewerage, which we hope will be supplied in the near future. We hope the Legislature will not fail to make provision for it.

2. The present condition of the School is very satisfactory in the progress of the pupils and the harmony of its working. Nine pupils are in attendance, all students in the honest sense of the word. They have made a good start, and are anxious to go on. They are eager to learn. They ask a 100 per cent. more questions about their lessons than ordinary pupils in other schools, and the teachers are supposed by them to know everything, though they occasionally find out their mistake, but they always forget it before

the next recitation.

Their patience is remarkable, in view of the fact that for want of the priceless boon of sight it ordinarily requires twice the length of time to master a given course of study as compared with the seeing.

It may be considered that one who has been in the School for the Blind two years has received the equivalent of one year's schooling for one who can see; that eight years is equivalent to four, and

so on.

The State provides the privileges of an education free to those who have sight for a period of sixteen years, or so much thereof as one chooses to avail himself of.

What a State is asked to do for the education of the blind ought not to be looked upon in the light of charity, but rather as a matter of justice.

The common school system of Oregon receives the benefit of so many thousands of acres of land, and takes high rank with her sister States in the facilities afforded for a generous education. Yet of these the blind cannot avail themselves.

The State University stands upon a foundation of 90,000 acres, with an appropriation of $8,000 last year, which, with other large appropriations, including $30,000 appropriated for building purposes, makes a noble sum for a noble work.

The Agricultural College has a basis of 70,000 acres, with also generous appropriations; but from the privileges of these institutions the blind are practically cut off. The only practicable and equable distribution which can be made of educational facilities, which shall do justice to the blind, is through an institution like this, which, to the credit of Oregon, be it said, she so generously provides and maintains.

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