THE READING FINGERSJean RoblinChapter VII: CONFLICTSTHE WORLD OF THE BLIND is not free from imperfections, and jealousy sometimes rears its ugly head. As in all society, men confront each other, fight and suffer attacks from the malicious, the wicked, and impostors. Since 1836 Dufau, the assistant-director, had been scheming outside the Institution to have Pignier dismissed. Together with Madame Landresse, a teacher, and the accountant, he drew up a report which he sent to the Ministry. What was the charge against Pignier? Their accusation was strange, to say the least: "Pignier corrupts minds by his history teaching." The real reason for this move against the director was that his authority, his firmness in the conduct of the establishment and his sense of values were obstacles to Dufau's dreams for the Institution. Braille knew about this scheming but he remained outside the conflict. He had too much admiration, respect and gratitude for Pignier. It was he who had encouraged him in his work, cared for him at the time of his hemorrhage and advised him after the death of his father. Furthermore, it was to Pignier that the pupils and the teachers owed the authorization to use the alphabet in raised dots in their courses, for the official method was still the old method of Valentin Haüy. In ministerial circles only the latter was known and there was no desire for anything different. The invention of Louis Braille, however, brought the blind possibilities unknown up to that time. One might think that it would be greeted immediately by a chorus of praise, that the academies would undertake to reward this unpretentious, modest young man, that the press, seizing upon the invention, would describe its amazing merits in lengthy columns, that the Government would bestow upon its inventor the Legion of Honor as a mark of admiration, as was requested in 1839 by his pupils. Quite the contrary! Since 1829 Pignier's repeated requests for its recognition had come up against a routine administration. The French do not like to overthrow established customs, and Braille suffered from lack of action on the part of the public authorities. His youthful enthusiasm was unsuccessful in combating the disconcerting inertia of the government bureaus. He could not understand why the Institution was still required to teach its young pupils to read with letters in relief, a loss of time for everyone. Braille himself wrote to the Ministry of the Interior. No answer! He had to wait several years until 1840, when, in following up a new request by Pignier, the Ministry finally replied in a few words which still did not make the method official, "This work strikes me as remarkable, and I think that M. Braille ought to be encouraged."; Certainly he deserved to be encouraged. Pignier and his friends were always ready to give him proof of their affection. Louis's work did not slow down. In 1838 he published his Little Synopsis of Arithmetic for Beginners. It is in this book that he set down his ideas on the arrangement of textbooks for use by the blind: "Our methods of printing require a great deal of space on the paper. It is necessary, therefore, to compress thought into the fewest possible words."; Coltat says, "This characteristic had become a habit with him and even gave a little dryness to his style when he dealt with matters other than science; it is said that Braille liked his writing 'to contain fewer words than meaning,' in imitation of Latin satire. The same conciseness is found in the history summary he made for his pupils."; This conciseness that one found even in his conversation became necessary for him later, moreover, as a result of his weak chest. In 1839 he succeded in solving completely the problem of written communication between the blind and the seeing. He published the explanation of his system: New Method for Representing by Dots the Form of the Letters Themselves, Maps, Geometric Figures, Musical Symbols, etc. . . . for Use by the Blind. This method consisted in drawing the letters of the alphabet with a stylus and a series of little dots. To standardize the dimensions of the signs he devised a table giving the number of dots required by the form of a letter. As the stylus embosses the paper and gives a relief, the blind as well as the seeing can easily read the text. This new invention which Braille called Raphigraphy was, like its predecessor, enthusiastically adopted by the pupils. Guadet in his report on the system of writing in raised dots which appeared in 1844 writes: "For this purpose he also made a device analogous to that by means of which he wrote his conventional characters. Later another blind person, M. Foucault, an inmate in the Royal Hospital des Quinze-Vingts, invented an apparatus far preferable to the first." It was a clever device which won its inventor a platinum medal offered by the Society for the Promotion of National Industry. Braille used this apparatus for his Raphigraphy. In 1840, however, Dufau's intrigues bore fruit. The Cabinet lent a sympathetic ear to the report of the assistant director, and Pignier was dismissed from the Institution. When he left, Louis Braille lost his staunchest defender. From then on he would have to fight alone for the adoption of his ideas. The inventive captain, Charles Barbier, still obstinately wanted his night writing to become the fundamental basis of instruction for the blind. Since he was positive his method was perfect, he harassed Pignier by incessant visits. Already in 1827 at the time Louis Braille transcribed the Grammar of Grammars he had been, Guilbeau tells us, "very chagrined at the deformation of his method." In 1833 he seems, however, to have recognized the superiority of the Braille alphabet, for on March 31 he wrote to the young man, "I cannot praise too highly the kind feelings which prompt you to be useful to those who share your misfortune. ... It is fine at your age to set out as you have, and much can be expected of the enlightened sentiments which guide you." Later, in a preface for a new edition of his method, Barbier says, "It is M. Louis Braille, a young student at the Royal Institution of Paris, who first had the happy idea of using for the writing of raised dots a ruler with three lines on it. The characters take up less space, and are easier to read. For these two reasons he rendered a great service for which we are indebted to him." Nevertheless, Barbier continued to place his faith in night writing. He never obtained sanction for it, however. That implacable judge, time, consigned his inventions to oblivion. Braille's work, on the other hand, has steadily gained prestige. But in justice these two names must be associated. Charles Barbier died on April 29, 1841 at the age of seventy-four. In 1837 Braille had paid him a solemn tribute when he wrote, "And if we are rather happy to have done something which may be useful to our companions in misfortune, we would like always to reiterate that we are grateful to M. Barbier who first invented a method of writing by means of dots for use by the blind." On June 9, 1841, one month after the death of Barbier, Marie Céline Marniesse, Louis's second sister, died in Coupvray. She was only forty-three and left two young children, Marie-Thérèse, thirteen, and Céline Louise, six. Louis was struck with dismay by this news, still another of the misfortunes and sufferings which the years 1840 and 1841 seemed to have in store for him. He had been asked to go to Austria to teach a blind prince of the royal family, but the poor state of his health made such a long trip out of the question. He wrote, however, the following letter to Johann Wilhelm Klein, the founder of the first school for the blind in Vienna:
Unfortunately, J. W. Klein, who had made inquiries among the institutions of the blind all over the world concerning an effective system, did not accept the "little method" of Louis Braille. This writing upset too much the established principles of the day. Braille bore this disillusionment stoically. But other more difficult trials awaited him. The directorship of Dufau was to be a school of hard knocks although it would strengthen even more his courage, his will and his faith. People were not drawn to Dufau. The students found his solemn manner disagreeable. To justify Pignier's dismissal he began to revolutionize everything in the school. His innovations were uneven, with good and bad reforms side by side. He had imagination, and his new ideas were put into practice immediately, regardless of whether they were of use to the blind. For Dufau was one of those seeing teachers who, by virtue of their visual superiority considered themselves indispensable. Long hostile to the Braille alphabet, Dufau believed like many of his colleagues that this writing would make the world of the blind close in on itself. A peculiar argument! Above all, the seeing teachers were afraid of losing their superior position in the school, since instruction by the method of raised dots could be entirely done by blind teachers. At the beginning of his directorship, Dufau was not in direct conflict with Braille. His tactics were more subtle. He was satisfied to ignore the new system. In one of his works, in which he examined the numerous methods at the disposal of the blind, he does not even mention Braille's method. This is an unpardonable omission which nothing seems to justify except his desire to eliminate Louis Braille as a dangerous rival. He had, Pignier tells us, invented a hand-guide which was supposed to facilitate the work of the blind. The use of this device depended on utilizing the Valentin Haüy system, ignoring, naturally, the Braille system! Ambition alone seemed to guide this man. At the same time he was very intelligent, which explains still less the fraudulent attitude which was to delay by several years the official triumph of the method. The hostility of the director, however, could not prevent this system from gaining each day more importance with the blind. Its success was established, and the pupils recognized its incontestable advantages. If Dufau was the great adversary of this writing, the young blind students were its advocates. "There was quite a fight," says Pignier, "for the pages of the first Précis of History by Louis Braille. During the courses they took notes and made up little notebooks." Thus, gradually there took place at the lower levels the necessary evolution which was to lead the authorities several years later to accept the fait accompli. The continual struggles and uncertainties, however, unsettled Louis's frail health again. In 1843 several hemorrhages forced him to take to his bed. Dr. Allibert who had been following the progress of his illness since 1837, soon noticed the warning signs of a turn for the worse. He advised him to give up his courses, and Dufau accordingly relieved him of the small classes in his charge. Braille kept to his room for several weeks, cared for by the nursing sisters of the Institution. His friends came to see him and inquire after his health. For each he had a word of gratitude and deep thanks. Gauthier kept him up-to-date on even the most minor activities of the school. Thus Braille was less alone in his illness. A great gentleness and an affectionate serenity which made him loved by all who came near him emanated from his conversation. He never complained, hardly spoke of his sufferings but was, on the contrary, interested in the troubles of others and always ready to comfort and help them. When fine weather came, a noticeable improvement took place in his health and Dr. Allibert permitted him several walks in the open air, away from the corridors and drafts of the Institution. It was at this period that he often went with Gauthier and Coltat to visit Pignier, the former director, who was always very happy to see his grown-up pupils. They talked together about their beloved school and their work. At the close of the afternoon the three friends would return quietly through the broad avenues lined with trees subtly smelling of the first leaves of spring. Upon his return from one of these strolls, when he was undoubtedly fatigued by too long a walk, he was seized with another hemorrhage. Dr. Allibert could see only one remedy to avoid a fatal ending, the country. Braille left accordingly at the beginning of April 1843 for Coupvray. He was not to return to the Institution until six months later. |