The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-07-24
nARTEAI DEAFNESS.
ITS Advantages and Sorrows told by
One who has Had Some Experiences.
rIont,on spcc,ator.l

imilar attacks before, and Lad = fair conf
quite periect--that this one also
would pass away, he amused himself by
rying to estimate dispasssoaately the ex-
emit and kind OF his losses and gains, At
arst, while the deafness ,wss slight Just
enough, to use the most iamiliar test, to de-
bar him from herring the 0scking Of watch |
pressed closely TO the eaEs ne was not GER
tain that the deprivation was all pure loss.
There was a good deal OF compensation ia;
The relief from ccrtdia nervous troubles 4
which affect more OF less. severely all resi- 1
dents in great cities. The roar OF Londcn.-- i
which Is never absent from the LondonerHs |
ear, theugh sometimes forgotten, and which, i
uaebseived, affects all London voices and
all London music--was suddenly and Es-
stiiled, as in the earliest
dawn. He says - stilled" advisedly, and
not |" suspended" for tho roar must SILL
have been audible in some faint degree, or
the patient wetlid have felt what he did not
feel--that dreadful increase in tese effect of
solitude produced by the cessation Of an
accustomed and allpervading noise--that
severe shock of eXpec.antcy or dread which
comes to p1en who, sleeping conSansly I'm
der the noise Of factory engines or the en-
gines Of q steamboat, find it come suddenly
to an end. taa ..5a.
a street In London, from a noisy scene of
activity, became in day scene in
theatre, where silent pedestrians and noise
less horses, and mrumbling carriages
moved necessarily past, towards silent and
therefore much nearer yistas .od distance.
All English townsmen, though they may
never have been deaf, have experienced in
part the same effect after n heavy fail OF
snow. The strand OF full and rather messy
waterins-place was transformed into a
a place exactly like it. bsn seen in
camera-obscura, the crowds coming and
going in silence, and apparently with
out ipurpose, as they do when seen
once SO universal in watering places, But
now apparently out of fashion Or popular
ity. Aswhen looking at the picture on the
table, too, one became aware, rs one
watched, that noiseiess movement always
appears to be movement without Yohtien-,
effortless movement, which can never stop
and to dream Of what one would think on
the placidity or permancnce OF the universe
could one hear the rushing Of the orbs as
they Dnss through space This change was
not unpleasant, more especially ia there
was, even in London, no danger at
tending it. It is popularity supposed
that the deaf are in peculiar danger IN
o crowded city, but this is, the writer is
convinced, except ut nighttime, an error,
the difficulty caused by the want Of hearing
being counterbalanced by the absence OF
the bewilderment produced by rushing
noise. A deaf-and-dumb artist, many years
ago, saved some Of Messrs. Pickfords horses
in fire, at moment when the animals re-
fused to move and the frcmen were tempo
rariIy driven back. He accounted for his
success to the writer, who had been aston
ished by his apparently reckless daring, by
writing, "All those men heard the flames,
but only saw Them"
Then several OF the minor annoyanees OF
life suddenly disappear to the partially deaf
man. The doors do not bang, but only shut
nudibly; the fre-irons do not clang, but
only fall auez intention children's crying is
not savage, but only rcmonstrativc; and all
voices are found to be in varying degrees
soft and sweet, the last pleasurable impress
sion being perhaps exaggerated by the new
grace always developed in the deaf-the
painful willingness to hear, and so satisfy
themselves that the power OF hearing has
not died away.
But the patient was not to be left with
the impression that the deaf exaggerated
their grievance out of querulousness, or Il
desire to obtain the sympathy seldom re-
fused to the sick, unless, indeed, they are
sea-sck, but so rarely accorded in full and
fitting measure to the deaf. lie never be-
came stone-deaf, or anything like it, but for
week he became Gas deaf us post "-aS
deaf rs an old man usually is-that is to say,
too deaf to hear ordinary voices, or any
voices not addressing themselves to him;
so deaf as to require eXertion in his inter-
locutors, to miss accidental remarks, to he
insensibic to remarks not prefaced by some
summons calling his attention, and to be
compelled constantly to ask the relteratlon
OF a sentence. ",.1 4 - ,-..
The relief at first felt in the lowering OF
all sounds soon passes into pain Mt the all
sence of all sounds, and you would bear
any distraction from CHATTER II only you
might hear the voices at your own dinner
table, or talk to the children without weary
ing their Impotence, or hear the trivialitieS
which soften conversation, vet seem quite
silly il formally repeated. We suspect that
people partially deaf, "hard of hearing"
as it is called, have many painful moments,
when it seems to them, in spite OF their bet
ter selves, as If all the world had conspired
to whisper, and that its object must be to
isolate them from the talk. And we know,
even from short experience, that none Of
the minor trials are greater than the con-
verse Of that-the sense gathered through
the eyes that are all about you are, out Of
affection, or respect, or courtesy, pitching
conversation above its natural level, and so
enduring through the years q pain which
you, being deaf, would gladly endure, but
which to them takes away all the grace and
much OF the charm OF conversation.
The sense Of great loss once established
increases, Of course, with the increase OF the
defect, until ut last, when writing must be
used, they feel as if nothing could compen-
safe them for their affection, recognize that
one OF the windows Of the soul is shut, and
grow sometimes more weary than the blind.
There is a theory abroad that the latter are
more patient than the deaf, but we believe
1t to be incorrect, and to be the result Of the |
greater visibility Of their dependence upon
Others. The deaf are almost equally wor- |
ried, though, Of course, in u less degree /;
they DO not acquire the calm which in so
many instances is the blessing of the blind,
and they are liable in morbid states Of mind |
to a temporary but terrible apprehension,
an eXaggeration Of dread about their eye. i
sight, a fear that both windows of the soul
may be shut, which, in its intensity, is pro-
badly the most awful Of dreamy fears, far !
worse than the apprehension which doctors
know under the title of timor morris, which
is not the "fear OF DEATH" but special
and horrible form of hypochondria, usu-
ally-we have seen two marked cases-pass-
ing away when death is really near.
Yesterday morning careless mason drop !
ped half brick from the second story Of o
building out on Jefferson street, on which !