THE READING FINGERS

Jean Roblin

Chapter III: THE EARLY YEARS

THE FOURTH OF JANUARY, 1809 was a day of happiness for the Braille family. The parents, however, were no longer very young; but Simon René said proudly that the new baby to be born would be the companion of his old age.

It was winter. Suffering labor pains since evening Monique had been impatiently awaiting the birth. The local mid-wife, Marguerite Parivel, was attending her. The children had been sent to stay with the Simonnets, wine-growers and friends of the family who lived on Maupas Street above the village. In a corner of the room the anxious father waited.

At four o'clock in the morning a small, puny creature with flabby, wrinkled skin was born, and for some time it was thought he would not live. The next day, however, M. Molin, notary and deputy mayor of the town, wrote in the official register:

"In the year one thousand eight hundred and nine, on the fifth of January, at ten o'clock in the morning, before us, Deputy Mayor of the town of Coupvray, performing the functions of the civil authority of the state in the above-mentioned town, in the absence of the Mayor, appeared Simon René Braille, aged forty-four, harness-maker, living in Coupvray, who presented to us a child of the male sex, born yesterday at four o'clock in the morning, son of himself and his wife, Monique Baron, and to whom he said he wished to give the name of Louis. The above declarations and presentations having been made in the presence of René Coquelet, aged forty-five, grocer, and Mathieu Simonnet, aged forty-nine, wine-grower, both dwelling in the aforesaid Coupvray, the father and witnesses signed with us this certificate after it had been read to them."

Three days later the baby was baptized; such haste used to be customary in the villages where lack of care and hygiene favored infant mortality. The Braille family itself (according to town records) had been marked by very early deaths, and this Christian household would not wish to delay.

Abbé Pillon baptized the new baby. We have few details on the ceremony. The baptismal certificate tells us that a farmer of the parish of Chalifert was godfather; his name was Louis François André Michel. The godmother was Geneviève Boulingre of Jablines. Another signature was that of M. Petit, the town schoolteacher who, in addition to his school duties had to assist in the work of the church, ring the Angelus, wind the clock and each Sunday carry holy water into the houses.

The days and months passed and the baby was growing and began to walk. Between his father and his mother in the one room where the acrid odor of leather lingered he unsteadily tried his first steps. When the weather was good he would play outdoors on the grass of the court-yard, and through the open window his father would keep an eye on him while working away. It is easy to imagine the babbling of the little boy. His mind, already wide-awake showed the mark of the intelligence which time was to demonstrate. This child, like all children, opened big astonished eyes on the world, eyes which were to close so quickly.

1811 was an extremely poor year, with light crops, and Coupvray along with the other country villages underwent a hard winter. The harness-maker is dependent upon the peasant. Ordering of new articles was infrequent. Simon René Braille had to be satisfied with making essential repairs; overhauling of harnesses, straps and bridles, all those leather jobs which bring in little. But reserves allowed the little family to wait for fine weather and the first crops.

However, in June, there was so much misery in the town that the municipality decided to organize collections for the poor. The Marquis d'Orvilliers donated vegetables for several months, and at his own expense set up a woodburning oven where bread was baked daily for the needy. Alms were sought from the less unfortunate. Simon René Braille gave modest contributions in June, July and August. If life was not always easy, little Louis was there to brighten up the house, able through his awkward motions and faltering words to bring back the smiles to their faces.

The little boy was now three years old. He walked, ran, and played in the house. Gradually he was familiarizing himself with everyday happenings, and his father's workshop soon became a fascinating world. So many things excited his curiosity, so many things neatly arranged, or lying about on the bench. There were the sharply pointed awls, the knives as keen as razors.

The little girl attentively watching her mother sew pretty dresses wants very much to use her scissors; young Braille wanted only one thing, to handle his father's mysterious tools. He had been forbidden to go near the workbench, but temptation is so strong!

Availing himself one day of his parents' absence he took hold of a knife. Through the window the sun shone on the blade, making it gleam. The child picked up a piece of leather and tried to cut it with hands still too chubby to be skillful. The leather resisted, then yielded and the blade slowly cut in and took out a piece. Suddenly it slipped and plunged violently in the child's eye. The pain was so sharp that Louis began to cry and blood gushed down his face. Hearing his cries his parents ran up, panic-stricken. Louis' tears redoubled. Mme. Boury and Mme. Hurault came out on their doorsteps, grew worried and hurried over. Simon René Braille took the boy on his knees, asked for white linen and fresh water and bandaged the injured eye while blood mingled with tears on the little face. An old woman of the vicinity who it was said possessed healing secrets, brought lily-water. A compress was prepared and applied. As if by a miracle the blood stopped running.

The little book of that time entitled Popular Medicine, by Dr. Leopold Turck, former member of the Constituent Assembly, informs us of the treatment given to eye injuries at this period.

"Light should be prevented from entering the room, and the eye should be covered with compresses soaked in cold water. Bleeding of the arm, applications of leeches around the injured eye, diet and a dose of calomel are the methods usually employed in this case and in all those in which the eye has received a rather serious injury."

And Dr. Turck closes by strongly advising consultation of a doctor. There is no doubt that the parents asked one of the Coupvray doctors to the injured child's bedside. But, inadequate in itself, the therapy ordered was powerless against a deep wound. Conjunctivitis broke out. The eye became red, and the inflamed eyelids grew discolored, as if from a blow. At this stage careful hygienic precautions could have saved the child's sight. However, there was no positive medical aid to eliminate the center of infection. Soon it became purulent ophthalmia.

The climax approached. Through contact with the hands, the other eye became infected, and each day a blur spread, darker and dimmer. The child began stumbling, no longer able to make out anything but the location of the window. Then came the night which was to have no end.

From that time onward, he stared with an empty gaze. On his face was a pitiful expression with eyes striated with purple.

Louis Braille was blind.

His family tried everything. They went to the hospital in Meaux to consult an oculist. It was wasted effort for the generalized infection had destroyed the corneas. There was no hope.

The little boy did not understand. The world full of attractive things, the life around him, the birds whose songs he heard—who had robbed him of them? Who had shut him up in a dark closet? In his young mind this darkness was connected with his father's gleaming knife. As for the rest, he could not grasp it.

Who knows the thoughts of little Louis Braille? Hardly had he become acquainted with the beauty of visible things than he was condemned never again to see them. Certainly he was too young to understand that from then on many things would hold an impenetrable secret. He did not yet realize that when he heard running water in the country he would never know its clearness.

The town records reveal that on June 3, 1813, the following year, Louis Braille's older sister, Monique Catherine was married to Jean François Carron. The young couple went to live on Moulin Street and the little boy thus lost his big sister who every noontime used to lead him to the Fréminette to get water and tell him stories as they walked along.

At the beginning of January 1814 a piece of news which seemed incredible suddenly spread through Coupvray. Napoleon's Grand Army, the army of Austerlitz and Wagram, had retreated over the Rhine and was falling back in disorder to Paris.

Through the requisition orders and prefectorial decrees in the town archives we can follow this battle of France and the advance of the allied troops. Napoleon, who was trying to reorganize his army, drew ruthlessly on the last national resources and ground down the country-side with imperious demands. On January 2, 1814 Coupvray furnished 275 bushels of oats to the troops; January 23rd, 132 bushels; January 28th, 1200 bundles of hay. An order came to take eight cows to Coulommiers. On one day Acat, the baker, prepared 706 loaves of bread for the Grand Army. Mares were requisitioned as a result of the orders of the Emperor.

During this time, renewing the exploits of his Italian campaign, Napoleon harried the enemy armies with a handful of men and beat them at Champaubert and Montmirail. Coupvray continued to make sacrifices for the troops. In one month a dozen cows were requisitioned. Each inhabitant paid his contribution. Thus the lists of assessments show that the campaign of France cost Simon René Braille sixteen Napoleons (320 francs).

On March 25 Marshalls Mortier and Marmont, beaten at Fére-Champenoise, opened to the enemy the route to Paris and the troops of Bülow swept over the plains of Brie toward the capital. They arrived there March 31.

For a month Coupvray was to be free of all servitude. The last French requisition is dated March 19, and it was not until April 14th, the date when the grenadiers of the Russian general Pernosky made their entrance into the town, that a new series of requisitions began. Hay, oats, cows, horses, everything disappeared to satisfy the growing appetite of the occupier. Simon René Braille was forced to surrender his cow and take it to Claye where many troops were passing through. He was compelled to quarter Prussian soldiers. Like everyone else he submitted stoically to his share of troubles.

After the Russians had left Bavarian infantry arrived in Coupvray, then Russian cuirassiers once again. The allied commanding officer of Lagny levied contributions once more on the town. Eight thousand Prussians were expected to pass through Claye. By order of General Bülow, Coupvray was to furnish six two-horse wagons.

Please excuse us for having neglected our subject for a few moments, but we believe it was necessary to place our little blind five-year-old in this warlike atmosphere which left a mark on part of his childhood. We can imagine him worried by the grave conversations of his elders, puzzled by the unknown voices haunting his house, undoubtedly frightened by hearing the pavements ring every day for long hours to the passage of enemy regiments.

The Abbé Pillon, the old priest who had baptized the child, died at Coupvray on February 12, 1815. The diocese appointed a new curé, the Abbé Jacques Palluy. It was while visiting his parishioners that the latter several days later became acquainted with the Braille family and soon formed a friendship with them. Educated and intelligent, the Abbé Palluy understood the common people. He immediately appreciated the sound qualities of these hard workers and took an interest in the little blind boy. He learned about the accident, and in questioning the child became aware of his fine young intelligence awakening in the darkness.

Thanks to the Abbé Palluy Louis Braille came, little by little, to a knowledge of things. His curious, investigating nature continued to develop. He renewed his acquaintance with the world, became familiar again with what he had known.

In the office of the old presbytery near the church or seated in summer beneath the trees in the garden, the Abbé Palluy used to teach the child. Very early he gave him a Christian outlook which was never to leave him. Throughout his life we will find indications of his Christianity, of the most beautiful part of Christianity, that which expresses itself in these three words: love, kindness, humility.

The consequences of the enemy occupation were not long in making themselves felt in the town where Prussians and Russians had brought misery. Undernourishment soon bred illness, and at the beginning of 1816 smallpox made its appearance. Energetic measures were prescribed to check the epidemic, but the vaccinations ordered by the sous-préfet were not well received and the terrible scourge found numerous victims among those who remained adamant.

Those who had been plundered, all those who had suffered damages under the occupation claimed compensation. In the month of March Louis XVIII and the royal family offered eleven million francs to the invaded departments to satisfy the claims. On May 8, 1816 Simon René Braille received as compensation fifty-seven francs and fifty-seven centimes for having quartered Prussians. Rather a small compensation!

In the harness-maker's home life gradually resumed its normal routine. The children were growing; Louis Simon who, on September 25, 1815 had married Virginie Cotte, daughter of a wine-grower in Lesches, helped her father in the fields, plowing, hay-making and dressing vines.

In Coupvray grape-harvesting day took on the character of a solemn ceremony. The Town Council set the date, and public proclamation of grape-harvesting was made. "Considering that most of the grapes are ripe and that because of the advanced season there is the risk of frost, let us resolve unanimously . . ." Then, a month later, would come the gleaning, a charitable custom which allowed the poor to gather the grapes left behind.

With their two and a half acres of vines, the Braille family was not idle. Jean François Carron and Monique Catherine came to share in the work. What did our little blind boy do on this exciting day? Undoubtedly, he used to help as well as he could with the small easy tasks, for his parents, always anxious to occupy his mind, never left him idle.

Misery continued rife in the village; the elderly, the infirm, women and children were its innocent victims. The relief committee meeting on December 1, 1816 enumerated seventy-two persons requiring immediate aid; a list of the "persons able to work and who most needed employment" was drawn up that day. When he was solicited, M. d'Orvilliers agreed to provide work for fifty-one people on his vast estate. At the same time a fund drive was opened among the artisans and leading members of the community. Everyone's potentialities were evaluated. "Simon René Braille, harness-maker landowner, should give three francs," states the "list of inhabitants able to contribute for three months." But Simon was to give only one franc the first month, nothing the second, and four francs the last month. It is true that the committee had probably overestimated the abilities of the subscribers in order to arouse their charity.

In 1816 the Town Council of Coupvray proceeded by way of open competition to the replacing of the deceased school-teacher. The candidacy of Antoine Becheret was decided upon. In the words of the recorder: "After having examined three applicants for this position, the Town Council announced that M. Antoine Becheret, aged twenty-one and a half, seemed to it the most educated of the three. He gave evidence of upright living, good morals and Catholicity. He is to instruct the children in the Catholic religion, reading, writing and arithmetic, and give instruction to ten poor children of the parish."

As soon as Antoine Becheret was installed, the Abbé Palluy asked him to teach little Louis Braille. There followed for the boy two studious years in which he listened obediently to the teacher. A schoolboy in the neighborhood came to get him at home. Hand in hand they would ascend Touarte Street to the school above the village. There the blind child recited the lessons he had heard the previous day, amazing the teacher by his astonishing ability. Antoine Becheret was in an excellent position to observe his young pupil. He found him thoughtful and of superior intelligence. The child dumbfounded him with his responses by turns pertinent and amusing, for despite the darkness in which he lived Louis Braille was smiling and gay. It was a trait of his character about which we shall have occasion to speak again.

The Abbé Palluy pondered over the child's future. What was to become of him when he grew up? Would he remain in the village, incapable of creating a career for himself, taken care of by his old parents?

An event which we ought to point out and which assumed at Coupvray the nature of a revolt against the authorities probably hastened Louis Braille's departure. That year, by order of the Préfecture, a new system of teaching called "mutual instruction" was being tried out in several schools of the department. At the outset the formula seemed highly interesting, since the pupils themselves taught each other, thus creating in the school an excellent spirit of emulation and of research which stimulated study. This method, however, could not stand up under the test of a careful examination, and Antoine Becheret soon discovered its serious defects. The pedagogical role of the teacher was much lessened and the absence of the young monitors, occupied as they were in summer by work in the fields, made continuity in the teaching uncertain.

Consequently, Antoine Becheret refused to adopt this system and notified the Mayor of Coupvray accordingly. The latter wrote on March 12, 1817 to the Prefet, "I have forbidden Antoine Becheret to continue and have ordered him to proceed to the School of Mutual Instruction of Melun..." To these threats, the teacher had to yield in order not to lose his position, and he went to Melun.

Upon his return in the month of February, 1818 he started mutual instruction at Coupvray and, if we believe the reports of it preserved in the "Public Instruction" file, the results gave promise of being satisfactory. But the population, influenced by the Abbé Palluy, showed no enthusiasm for the new method and as early as August 1818 several pupils left the Coupvray school for that of Lesches where they could learn under the former system.

It was undoubtedly to join with this movement that Louis Braille's parents asked Abbé Palluy to find a solution which would reconcile their anti-mutual feelings and their son's blindness. In November, 1818 the blind youngster was always at the head of the class. Nevertheless, the Abbé Palluy began searching, made investigations, questioned his connections. Charitable and persevering, he soon discovered a new path which was to open up Louis Braille's whole future.

Antoine Becheret had in the course of his studies in Paris heard of an institution which admitted young blind people. Interested, the Abbé Palluy approached M. d'Orvilliers, the lord of the manor who had lived in the magnificent residence of the Rohans for many years. He was a man of sixty, very tall, with brown hair and eyebrows. His oval, round-chinned face was framed by a brown beard to conceal the scars which small-pox had left on his cheeks.

The good deeds of this generous man were countless. Often the Abbé brought to his attention cases of extreme poverty needing aid, and since M. d'Orvilliers was kind-hearted he never rejected these requests.

Besides, little Louis Braille was not unknown to him. He had noticed the little blind boy who came to Mass every Sunday, accompanied by his big sister. It was, therefore, with real attention that the Marquis listened to the Abbé.

M. d'Orvilliers recalled meeting around 1786 a certain Valentin Haüy at the court of Versailles. He even remembered clearly that one Christmas evening, before the King and Queen, this M. Haüy had astonished the noble audience by presenting blind children educated according to his principles. They had performed, done arithmetic, and above all read with an astonishing ease, thanks to his ingenious system. M. d'Orvilliers had encouraged Valentin Haüy and helped to support the projects of this benefactor of the blind. Like the King, the Queen and other courtiers, he had given a sizeable sum of money to found an institution. At this point in the conversation, the Abbé Palluy suggested that perhaps the Marquis could write to the director of this institution, asking him to admit their young protégé. M. d'Orvilliers agreed.

The Abbé Palluy then went to find the parents. In a corner of the room young Louis was making multicolored fringes that his father would then fasten to the harnesses. The Abbé spoke:

"Would you like your son to be educated? To be taught a trade?"

Of course his parents were eager for that. But they had no idea how to carry out these wonderful plans. Then the Abbé explained.

Country folk seldom become enthusiastic. They reflect, ponder the matter and wish to know all about it before committing themselves. That is why one of Louis Braille's biographers tells us that his parents agreed "after being assured, more than once, that it would be advantageous for their son." When they were sure, however, that Louis would be very happy in this institution, that he would make friends there, that the teachers would instruct him in literature, the sciences and the arts, that he would be taught some manual work, their joy knew no bounds. They made a thousand and one plans for the future of their son.

Several days later the parents received a letter from Dr. Guillié, director of the Royal Institution for Blind Youth. At its meeting on January 15th the school board had ruled favorably on the application of young Louis Braille for admission, had granted the child a scholarship and set the date for his entrance for February 15, 1819.

On the morning of February 15th the stage-coach from Meaux was carrying the little blind boy and his father toward Paris. The Ile de France went past, framed by the coach-door, the country was white under the frost. In Lagny a stop was made at the Hotel de l'Ours, in Chelles at the Ecu de France. Several travelers got on. Then came Nogent. The child questioned his father. His intuitive intelligence recreated the landscapes which Simon faithfully described to him, lighting briefly the darkness of which he was a prisoner.

After four hours of travel the stage-coach stopped at the Gate of the Trone. Simon René Braille and Louis got out. The Royal Institution for Blind Youth was then on Victor Street. They made their way on foot across the Paris of Louis XVIII, a Paris still full of memories of the Empire, a Paris where the people of the elegant world passed idle grumblers on the boulevards. It was a troubled time when the reviving royalty was trying to restore its power and prestige of yesteryear.