The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-07-26
WHICH IS WORSE. TO BE BLIND
 OR DEAF?
Detroit Free Press.l


 OR DEAF.
 Detroit Free Press.l
 The musical composer, Gounod, has recently expressed his opinion that the blind are more to be pitied than the deaf :; that their loss is greater and their fate thoven, who became deaf at the age of 90, hardly agreed with him for although his in6rmity did not put an end to his work, 1t is believed that but for it he would have accomplished even greater things than those which have brought him such renown. Suppose Shakespeare. at that age. to have been struck with paral- ysis so that he could neither write nor speak in spite of the evidences of ge- nius which he displayed in Richard Ill.," the Merchant of Venice" and Midsummer Nights Dream" the world probably would have never had" Romeo and Juliet" ,"" Hamlet" Macbeth" and Othello."
 Beethoven certainly felt his loss of hearing as keenly as any one ever felt the loss of sight. :" l can truly ysay," he de- clared in letter to friend, that pass wretched existence; for the last two years have almost summed society be- cause it is impossible to tell people 1 am deaf My ears are ever ringing and sing ing day and night. How can l pro claim the weakness of a sense which ought to possess in a higher degree than others, which did possess in the highest perfection-a perfection equaled by few of my profession? What humiliation when some one standing near hears distant flute and hear nothing, or lis- tens to the sound of a herdsman and l hear no sound? Such incidents have brought me to the verge of despair"
 Samuel C. Howe, for D,any years the head of the Massachusetts asylum for the deaf, dumb and blind, gave it as the re- suit of his observations that the deaf were deprived of more than the blind. The Rev. w. H. Milburn, the blind preach er," conversed with many affected like himself and many who were deaf. He was persuaded that his own was the lesser misfortune.
 But it is not generally so regarded. It would be more correct to say, perhaps, that the blind are pitied, but are not to be pitied more than the deaf It is im- possible to provoke much sympathy for the deaf On the contrary, deafness ex- cites ridicule rather than compassion. The deaf man or the deaf woman is found in comedy: his mistakes and mishaps are used to incite laughter. But blind ness is used in melodrama and romance, to stir the sympathies, tc touch the heart, to bring the tears. A skillful dramatist would never for a moment think of re- versing these conditions-make fun of a blind person and threw a veil of pathos about the deaf. The very means of com munication with the two kinds of in6rm- ities appeal to different feelings The shouting and the pantomime, the mis- takes and the misunderstanding of the deaf stir up ridicule while the treatment Of the blind softens the heart and melts the eyes. The success of the famous play The Two Orphans" is chiefly due to the blindness of the heroine, while one one of the most laughable portraitures in Bronson Towards Saratoga" is the deaf old gentleman who makes fun of his own inhrmity. Shakespeare has several blind personages in his plays, but none deaf.
 Between blindness and deaf-muteism there can scarcely be any doubt that blindness is the smaller evil. The testi- mony of all experts in the matter shows that blind persons more easily overcome the obstacles caused by their infirmity than do the deaf and dumb, and it is his torically true tha, more of the blind have risen to distinction than the deaf and dumb. The effect upon the temper and character is peculiar. The blind are generally docile and confding, the deaf suspicious and irritable. This probably arises from the fact that the blind are wholly dependent upon others; the deaf only partially SO; the blind have little upon which to exercise their curiosity the deaf see much which they do not un- derssand and put the worst construction upon it; think themselves the object of ridicule and scorn. The wholly helpless condition of the blind also accounts for the pity felt for them. They elicit the same tenderness which infants evoke, and their deprivations are for this reason probably exaggerated somewhat.