The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-01-30
lis has powers before unknown to him;

his has powers before unknown to him;
the limp bladder fills, becomes tight
and round; then is discharged against
his cheek, with little rush of the re-
leased air, which gives the child pleas
ure. Several of them, we noticed, let
the air escape from the bladder against
the corner Of the eye, with a touching
Identification of the one valid and all
powerful organ from which all impress.
sions Gomez This is in reality the es-
Enlistment of the link which is neces-
sary between teacher and taught the
channel of all further communica-
ton. The next step is to show how
that breath can produce sound. An
" a" is written upon the blackboard,
and with her mouth fully opened, the
teacher projects the vowel into the air
with a movement of her throat and &C
ton of her breath, which the sensitive
little fingers are made to feel. When
the child initiates this effort, the vibra-
ton of the larynx adds to his expe-
rience sense of new effect attained.
Thus, sight and sensation together
achieve the result which Nature has
denied, and convey to the child's mind
a conviction of something new which
he is able to do. After this he is taught
the labials, a still more easy lesson,
since the action by which he has al
ready pulled his ball will produce the
"p'' and "b," which vibrate upon his
hand from his teachers breath, with
subtle difference of sensation which he
might be unable to detect, but which
he can very well identify. Thus the
entire germ of the system is deposited
in the mind of the little mute. He sees
the letter form itself, meaningless
hieroglyphic, on the blackboard; then
sees it on the lips of his instructor, feels
thei in tthheeamo Esm %n5, Of the muscles Of
directed, and in the vibration of the
breath; copies it, and then recognizes
in his own sensitive throat the surprise
and pleasure of new sensation, exact
ly corresponding to the exertion he
has made. This foundation of the sys-
tenn is, the reader will easily perceive,
the explanation of all that follows. The
little mute has recovered one of his lost
senses-or is in the royal road of recov-
ery-the moment he has felt the vibra-
ton of that vowel in his throat, and
learned that the breath of his lips comes
with a different sensation when he
breathes out "pa'' and "pha.'' All
the rest is simple perseverance and
work. The other and still more vital
portion of the process, by which the
pupil reads on his teachers lips, al
most unerringly, the ordinary words of
human speech, has, we confess, still
more the air of miracle. The I'M
wearying patience, by which alone this
can be attained, cannot, it is needless
to say, be followed or fathomed in a
single lesson. We can confidently as
sert, however, that this marvellous re-
suit has been attained. The lady whose
lessons we had been following selected
three of her more advanced pupils. To
these she related a little story of the
simplest construction. When she had
said a sentence she required them to
repeat it, to show that they had caught
and understood every word, which they
did in their soft, little mutied voices,
with scarcely a stumble. When she
came to the end of the story, she said,
"Now, write it down on your states. -
The children did so, bringing each in
turn to us to be inspected the slate up
on which they had written down the
anecdote. Their ages varied from
twelve to fifteen. With more or less
verbal faithfulness, but perfect &C.
curacy as to the facts, each had
written down the story which he
or she had heard-nay, not heard, but
seen-from the lips of their teacher,
The little differences were character.
istic and individual; the spelling in ev.
cry case was perfect; no phonetic &c.
centricities are possible to the deaf
But that they should have caught, re.
peated, written down, every syllable.
what a wonder it was! We do moi
know when wa have soon anything that
bore such an appearance of miracle,
We are bound to add that we were not
ourselves Ineligible to the pupils. A
word or two of commendation over the
written states which we returned to
them was all they could make out from
the unaccustomed lips and hurried die.
ton of the visitor, whom they had
never seen before. But, on the other
hand, they did not lose word which
fell from the mouth of their intelligent
and patient instructor. 1t is needless
to say that clear and slow enunciation
is absolutely necessary, at least from a
stranger. In their own homes, and
among those whose faces are perfectly
well known to them, the deaf mutes,
we are told, make out everything, and
end by taking their share in ordinary
conversation. The superiority of this
system to the laborious and limited
alphabet of signs is too evident to re-
quire any further demonstration. The
one is an expedient of mechanical in
genuity, like a wooden leg; the other is
restoration of natural powers
restoration which seems miraculous,
and which, indeed, is so, for are not
love, devotion and patience wonder
working powers?-SpectGtor.
He Meant Well, But Got Flogging.
AN elderly, good man in the First
Ward, prominent citizen. had an ex-
perience Friday night which showed
the kindness of his heart, though he
did get a beating for it. The affair has
two sides serious and humorous. 1t
was about nine o'clock when Mr.. Citi-
zen was disturbed by a racket at his
front fence. He went out and found a
horse plunging against the fence, while
in the cutter was an uptown citizen too
drunk to direct the horse Alright. Our
First Warder kindly concluded to take
the rig and the man to the latter's
home, and so jumped into the cutter
and drove for uptown, taking Second