[NFB-Seniors] Another good blind-guy story from the BlindHistoryLady - FW: when you fail as a piano teacher

Tue Jun 16 16:48:49 UTC 2020

Thank you so much for sharing!

I am such a history buff, and this is such a great resource!

Judy

“Embrace each day with His mercies and blessings.”

-----Original Message-----
From: NFB-Seniors [mailto:nfb-seniors-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Robert Leslie Newman via NFB-Seniors
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2020 6:37 AM
To: NFB Senior Division list; 'Nebraska Senior Blind Info and Discussion List'
Cc: Robert Leslie Newman
Subject: [NFB-Seniors] Another good blind-guy story from the BlindHistoryLady - FW: when you fail as a piano teacher

From: The Blind History Lady [mailto:theblindhistorylady at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, June 1, 2020 5:50 AM
To: robertleslienewman at gmail.com
Subject: when you fail as a piano teacher

When you fail as a piano teacher 

. 

Hello Blind History Lady Fans;

Recently I ran across a feature story of a blind man from Tennessee who became most successful as a contractor. The story is too long to print here, so I will highlight just one of the themes from the story I found most inspiring.  “When at first you don’t succeed…”

Edward Scruggs was born June 5, 1854 in Franklin County Tennessee on the farm of his grandfather. His early years were filled with changes and hardship. The Civil War broke out. His father became a Confederate soldier. After the war the family had to rebuild their lives from little left them after the war.  Then at the age of 14, he was blinded by a gun shot on the family farm. 

For the next three months, Ed was in terrible pain. When the pain subsided, he was thankful the pain was gone and that he was only blind. 

Ed told a reporter many years later why he felt that blindness was not as bad as what could have been. 

“These things which you call hardships are relative. The man who is blind, deaf, and dumb envies his neighbor who is only dumb and blind; he, in turn, envies the man who is only blind. The chronic invalid, who sees, may envy the blind man., who is well; to him, blindness might be but a small price to pay for health. Or, take men who have health and all their senses. He who earns ten thousand dollars a year might consider it a hardship to drop back to five thousand dollars; yet his clerk, whose pay is eighteen hundred dollars a year, would consider five thousand dollars income a luxury. And who knows but that the clerk with his eighteen hundred dollars is the happier?”

The readjustment to life as a blind person wasn't quick or simple. Ed said that It took three things to help pull him through to acceptance of his blindness.  The first was nerve, the second was his pocketknife, the third was his Mother.

Nerve: He was still a teen and full of imagination. His father had come through the Civil War with loss of lands, income and yet never complained. His family doctor who provided much advice as well as medical care also fought in the Civil War but never complained about battles and lives lost. 

Ed often heard neighbors who came to visit him while recovering from the gun shot. They would say things such as, “Well, if he were my son,” declared one visitor, “he would never have to do a stroke of work. He has suffered enough without being forced to pay his own way in the world. I would do for him if I had to work my fingers to the bone.”

“Yes,” agreed another, “the world owes him a living. It would be a down-right shame to expect him to work for one. And, anyway, what could he possibly do?”

After they had gone the doctor placed his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Ed, they mean well,” he said; “but don’t listen to them. they are all set to make a loafer of you if they can. Don’t you let them do it! I’ll skin you alive if you do! If you want anything in this world you work for it! Don’t take it from anybody on a platter. There are things far worse than being blind. One of them is being good-for-nothing.”

Pocketknife: Ed tells why it was the most important adjustment to blindness tool he had. “My whittling became a habit, a sort of second nature that asserted itself in idle moments. I didn’t realize it then, but with that pocketknife I was starting a career and also learning this secret of happiness — doing. When things went wrong, I whittled — and I defy anybody to whittle and stay blue.”

Ed continued, “Later, this whittling led to something practical. My parents had talked matters over and concluded it might be possible for me to learn and to teach music. I was already studying the regular variety of school subjects, with the aid of an old schoolmaster who gave me an hour a day. Every day I walked two and a half miles to see him and go over my lessons, though This was before the day of special devices for reaching the blind. My only equipment was a metal slate, the surface of which was honeycombed with little square chambers for holding type, on which were characters representing figures. By feeling the characters on the type I could do sums, and later long problems in arithmetic. For other subjects I had to depend on my memory, which, thus taxed, became very keen. “

“Music was a different matter. To study it properly I needed a piano, and pianos were expensive. We couldn’t afford to buy one. Suddenly, it occurred to me that I might be able to earn one. Already I could whittle out articles which people admired; then why not, I reasoned, whittle articles which were useful and

which they would buy?”

“Mother and I talked over the idea, and we decided on picture frames. A certain ornate type of wooden frame was then quite popular. A friend who conducted a store in town agreed to put on sale any frames that I might make. So, I got busy, selected and bought the wood, glue, varnish, and the like, that was needed, added a plane and some clamps to my tool kit, and in a short time was able to take a picture frame a day. They sold for from fifty cents to several dollars each. From this source, in a year’s time, I earned more than two hundred dollars.”

“I also made some other ornaments, all with my pocketknife. These included rings of gutta-percha and jet, set with gold and ivory, trinkets made out of shells, and toys of unusual sorts. They sold quite readily. Thus, in a year and a half I was able to buy my own piano.”

There were so many other tools that were not available to him now that he was blind. The ruler, a must for measuring was essential. Ed improvised. He took straws from their broom, cut to desired length and used them as rulers. 

Mother: “She realized that my thoughts would have to be kept off my blindness. Therefore, she undertook to be my eyes. If I was at a loss what to do, Mother suggested something. If I was curious about something, she described it to me. She criticized my work, kept me informed of new things. Hour after hour she read to me, from my schoolbooks, from standard works, from periodicals. She was never impatient, never tired, never anything but cheerful. And she never doubted, and never let me doubt, that I would do what I could.”

“I said I had to change my whole life. Mother changed her life to become a part of mine. For example, the piano was not the only problem to be solved before I could study music. I was unable to see the notes of a printed page. That meant somebody had to read them to me so I could memorize them.

“Mother didn’t know music. But while I made picture frames to earn money with which to buy a piano, she, too, prepared, by studying music herself. When I was ready to begin lessons she was ready to serve as my eyes. She had learned music so she could tell me the notes.”

Teaching Piano proved to be hard on his health. The Doctor told the family that Ed needed to be in the outdoors more, not inside. Ed’s health seemed to always have been frail. So, back to whittling on the porch and building his health back up. Soon he was making miniatures of houses or floor plans with his knife.

With a small loan from his father, Ed built two homes. His family thought one he could live in and rent the second out to earn a living for the rest of his life. After the success of building the first house and then the second, Ed went into the construction business in earnest. He hired a child to serve as his walking guide and also tell Ed the things he saw while at the construction sites. 

It was not the sight of others that he relied on most. It was himself. A few times a contractor tried to cheat the blind man out of a few dollars. One drastically thinned the paint. When Ed inspected the walls, he found no smooth surface, rather the rough wood still at his fingertips. The man never worked for him again. Ed took a marble and placed it on the floor or sill to determine if the homes were level.

Newspapers in 1887 announced that Ed had made more than $60,000 in a four-month period that year. By 1923, he was reputed to be worth more than $200,000. Ed died in 1948. His Great-Grandchildren are still operating that same construction firm today. 

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