Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-06-27
LETTER FROM THE SHORE.
Jonathan whippie's Deaf Mute schoo,-TL.
Au'horess OF Three Successful GirIs.u


yard, o., a little hamlet which is
known lar and near by the name of
QUAKER Town" For more than a
century, perhaps two centuries. a
small community of God-fearers have
hved IN that part of Ledyard (form-
eriy Groton), shut out from the
world aud dependent only upon
themselves for their social and reig-
ious cultivation. Honesty aud in.
dustry have distinguished them in
all the country round, and TO be
Quaker was better than letters Of
credit. This community of not
more than a dozen families is becom-
ing center Of no small interest. TO
arrive there the traveller must pass
inland some four or five milos from
the nearest railroad depot, through
very dark woods and over very
rough roads, but when he arrives he
VIII have come to Acadia. There liz
no need Of locks on the cribs there.
nor OF bolts on the doors, and you
might hang your pocket book on the
Dough OF an apple tree and find it
again just as you left it. Ruskin's
dream is possible, but it will take a
Gordon of forest and rocky pastures.
At this season of tho year tho ride
will be delightful in a good spring
wagon, and will help digestion. The
forest trees are decorated with tas-
sells of bloom and the shrubs are white
with flowers, the air is baImy and
the skies are clear and deep blue.
Riding anywhither ia tho country
Is delightful, and the more SO if you
have an object in Wow. Our object
was to visit the school for deaf mutes
taught by Zerah c. and Jonathan
Wmpple of Mystic, CT. Jonathan
Whipple is an old man Of well nigh
tourscore years, but bis heart is warm
and his force unabated he, however,
has little to do with the teaching.
Zerah g. WhippIe, his grandson, has
charge of that. lie is a young man
OF about 20 years and has learned
the art Of teaching deaf mutes to read
the lips and to articulatc, from his
grandfather, 1t is family school,
and when we arrived at 81 p NJ, we
found the children enjoying u recess
in the yard. Some little boys were
playing with long cart on which
they rode down gentle slope. They
were very happy, no doubt, but to
US it was melancholy to see the little
fellows playing so silently. Think
of the Inconvenience Of boys in col
lege having to do their talking in
Latin or Greek, and you can imagine
how silent these little fellows were
az their play. The new language
they arc acquiring is not yet swift
enough TO answer the purposes of
natural emotion. The teacher soon
called his school together, and we
were invited to the school room,
which attracted our attention as we
entered ; 1t is hung full of objects, all
calculated to address the eye. No
implement of sound is in the room.
and the school might he called the
"silent academy" There are two
black boards on opposite sides Of the
room one divided into four columns
by lines Of chalk and in each column
arc written words. In one, for in
stance, is written, "Fan, Boy, Far,
Near, Man, House" In another,
water, Butter, Woman, Mother"
etc. To get the ideas of what these
signs mean is among the earliest
lessons. On the other blackboard
was short history Of this country,
which read something as follows.
GA great many years ago red men
lived in this country Then man
named Christopher Columbus sailed
across the ocean and found it. He
sailed with three ships a great many
days before he came to the land and
saw the red men. The people in
Europe, where Columbus lived call
ed the country America" Then 9TH
er people came over from Europe,
and built houses in America, and
planted gardens and orchards. 1t
was the year 1892 when Columbus
found America. Ia one corner hung
a card with variety Of colors upon
it, in little squares, yellow, red, blue,
green, brown, etc. On o sheet of
paper hung against the wall was a
pencil drawing epresenting three
suns on q semi-circle under the sun
nearest the east was the picture of a
table with dishes on it, and under
that was printed breakfast" Under
the sun in the highest part Of the arc
was another table, and under that
was printed DINNER" and so for the
the sun at the west side of the pic
ture was a table with Supper"
printed underneath. By such labor
ious means are ideas, or rather names
Of ideas, which other children ac-
quire as it were intuitively, convey
ed to these children. There were
map drawings by the scholars, and
toIerablc pictures Of faces which they
had seen.
As soon as the scholars were all
seated, Mr.. Whipple took little red
aproned boy astride his knee and be-
gan giving him lesson in the alpha
bet and in words of three letters, such
as those in the first column of the
blackboard. There is no spelling
book and pen-knife about it, but
there is a deal Of articulation. The
little red apron grasps Mr.. Whipple
by the throat with his left hand and
lays hold of his own Adams apple
with his right. Down through the
alphabet they go, the master first
sounding "a, /" "b," etc and then lit
tie red-apron When he comes TO
"f" Mr.. Whipple puts the back of
one hand before his own lips and the
back Of the other in front of little
red-apron's and "f' comes out in good
fashion. So with "g" and al"
Thon for "i,"-b back goes little red
aprons hand for his masters throat
and for his own, but be misses the
sound then the master SOUNDS "i''
clear and full, but red-apron scatters.
Again he sounds it "ah-ee," long and
full. and this time the vocal ORGANS