The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1882-06-11
A Mississippi Students Question.

remarkable question Is propounded to us
by student in Mississippi College:
win you please give me the stamp and handkerchief
nirtaonsi Imean their language. BY doing you will
greatly oblge vast number Of young who read Tnr
Sun with increasing interest in the reading Of
Mississippi College"
We are not aware that the stamp and hand
kerchief fiirtations have any perfected lam
guage. There is a language Of flowers, which
is very beautifully expressive OF sentiment,
and which has been understood for ages by
the maidens Of all lands and the deaf and
dumb communicate with each other and with
those who are not afflicted as they are by
means OF signs, which are made ~ convey
not only simple affirmations and negations,
but also elevated and poetical thoughts.
The Rev. DR.. GALLAUDET, for instance, at
his church In Eighteenth street, breaches q
long sermon to the mutes by means of signs
or translates by signs the spoken sermon Of
another, and his silent congregation show by
their faces that they thoroughly understand
him. 1t is q beautiful and touching sight.
Even those who have never studied sign Ian
guage at all, even young children, are not in
doubt as to what the actors in q pantomime
mean. The beasts OF tho fields and the birds Of
the air undoubtedly have a language of their
own, Of sounds and signs both. And lovers
will often carry on conversation altogether
satisfactory to them with looks only. In the
case of people Of all kinds gesture, an ex-
preston Of the face, will frequently tell more
than words. Some sort of sign language is
used more or less by everybody, and under
stood by everybody. We may give more
weight to en- interlocutor's looks and manner
than to his spoken words to the expression
of his eye and his mouth, If he allows us to
see it. than to what he says, in judging of the
sincerity Of his utterances. We are all to
some extent students OF faces.
Thieves, too, have their sign language, and
30 have tramps, wild Indians, freebooters,
and pirates. There are impudent and insult
Ing fellows also who attempt to communi-
cate with women they do not know by means
of signs. They will thus seek to attract their
attention in public places or in public We
hicles. They should be put In the hands of
the police as public nuisances. For aught
we know, those shameless scoundrels would
be able to instruct the Mississippi student in
the sign language in which he is so anxious
to be proficient.
Meantime he might make experiments in
the stamp and handkerchief Irritation on his
own account. Perhaps in the course Of time
he would suffer personal violence at the
hands Of the male relatives Of the girls with
whom he sought to 80 communicate, but he
would be learning the language all the same.
Still, cannot the students Of Mississippi
College, in these days of athletic sports, find
some more manly diversion If they firt
with the oar, the bat, and the football, the
dumb bells and the Indian clubs, the spur
and the whip, we assure them that they will
be far more likely to win favor in the eyes OF
the Mississippi girls than il they become the
most perfect OF experts in the waving of
handkcrchicfs and stamping OF. feet to at
tract feminine attention.