DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Adelia M. Hoyt memoir and photographs

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Page 76

76, UNFOLDING YEARS

and in the years that followed my confidence was fully justified. 
The secretary assigned to Mrs. Rider found another position and I was called to the Library of Congress to carry on about the middle of September 1919. Shortly after on October 1, Miss Duffy and I were duly placed on the payroll of the American National Red Cross. Mrs. Rider was at the time receiving One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) per month from the Library and she insisted that the Red Cross pay me the same amount although I would have accepted less. In those days that was considered a good salary and few blind people in the whole country were receiving more. 
In the summer of 1920 I spent my two weeks vacation with my good friends, Hattie and Ira Hoff, in Warren, Pa. They now had an automobile and we took long, delightful rides visiting Niagara Falls and going over into Canada. I returned just in time to attend the funeral of Harriet Stone, my first and good friend in Washington, who had died suddenly following an operation. I came back to my work much refreshed but saddened by Harriet's death. 
It is not my intention in this narrative to relate the history of Braille Transcribing as conducted by the American Red Cross, in cooperation with the Library of Congress. That story deserves a volume all to itself !! It should be written to commemorate the brave and tireless workers, who made such a splendid contribution to our braille literature at a time when it was so greatly needed ! In these pages I shall only touch upon those conditions and events which affected me personally. Hitherto my work and activities had been carried on mostly within my own home. I had used the typewriter for years,, but only for personal correspondence and preparing work for publication. I was fifty years old -- rather late to enter upon a new career -- but such it was to be ! Mrs. Rider depended on me not only for the technical knowledge but also for the composition and typing of all letters, lessons and reports. She gave me invaluable aid; she was kind and patient, but exacting and critical;

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76, UNFOLDING YEARS and in the years that followed my confidence was fully justified. The secretary assigned to Mrs. Rider found another position and I was called to the Library of Congress to carry on about the middle of September 1919. Shortly after on October 1, Miss Duffy and I were duly placed on the payroll of the American National Red Cross. Mrs. Rider was at the time receiving One Hundred Dollars ($100.00) per month from the Library and she insisted that the Red Cross pay me the same amount although I would have accepted less. In those days that was considered a good salary and few blind people in the whole country were receiving more. In the summer of 1920 I spent my two weeks vacation with my good friends, Hattie and Ira Hoff, in Warren, Pa. They now had an automobile and we took long, delightful rides visiting Niagara Falls and going over into Canada. I returned just in time to attend the funeral of Harriet Stone, my first and good friend in Washington, who had died suddenly following an operation. I came back to my work much refreshed but saddened by Harriet's death. It is not my intention in this narrative to relate the history of Braille Transcribing as conducted by the American Red Cross, in cooperation with the Library of Congress. That story deserves a volume all to itself !! It should be written to commemorate the brave and tireless workers, who made such a splendid contribution to our braille literature at a time when it was so greatly needed ! In these pages I shall only touch upon those conditions and events which affected me personally. Hitherto my work and activities had been carried on mostly within my own home. I had used the typewriter for years,, but only for personal correspondence and preparing work for publication. I was fifty years old -- rather late to enter upon a new career -- but such it was to be ! Mrs. Rider depended on me not only for the technical knowledge but also for the composition and typing of all letters, lessons and reports. She gave me invaluable aid; she was kind and patient, but exacting and critical;