Omaha daily bee., 1884-02-19
THE DAILY BEE~CoUNCIL BLUFFS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY, 10 1884.

table, hides Il behind the window blind,
abe hunts for it and finds it. All this is
then written out. The pupils write just
what they see, and it is strange how sb-
serving they are OF every little move.
ment. In these exercises the mistakes
are generally transpositions of words, for
instance ''blind window" instead of
"window blind"
The visitor cannot but be impressed
with the accuracy of spelling and the ex.
cellence of %penmanship Asking for an
explanation, the satisfactory information
was gained that the reason of his was
that they seldom or never see a misspell-
ed word, except when converting with
some speaking person. The teach
ers spell the words correctly and
in printed heads they see words spelled
correctly, and depending as they do on
the appearance of the words entirely,
and none on the sound, they become
very familiar with the position of every
letter, and hence become accurate spell
ers. Among all the class-rooms visited
and in the multiplicity of exercises, but
one mis-spelled word was detected, and
in that there was simply an re" where
there should have been an "a"
Prot. McDermott. who teaches articu-
%lation, showed the visitors some won
derful results from that instruction. The
idea of q deaf and dumb pupil being
taught to speak without the hearing be-
ing restored seems passing strange, and
yet such is the work being done. This is
almost wholly mechanical, tho pupil be-
ing taught the exact position of the vocal
organs, the tongue, teeth, lips, ETC., nec-
essary for the %pronouncing Of certain
words, and thus, while learning how to
speak while they cannot hear a sound
they are making, they also learn to read
by the motion of the lips the words
spoken by another. Some of
these pupils held conversations which
were 80 like that of hearing persons that
one of the lady visitors in her surprise
exclaimed, '.Now, do you pretend to say
that that boy does not hear what you
say, professor 2" The professor not only
pretended to say 80, but did say so, and
when he simply moved his lips, without
making the least sound, the boy told
what he was saying and answered the
questions put to him, clearly. The most
successful cases of instruction by this
method are pupils who have not lost
their hearing until after they commenced
to talk. Then the loss of hearing caus-
ing them to lose the power of speech, it
is often restored mechanically in this
manner.
How many of these children were born
deaf? This is a natural query for the
visitor to raise, and the answer being
made that probably not more than one
fifth were born thus, while the great
majority became 80 in early childhood by
disease, this fact was pretty well cor
roborated by asking each pupil in one
room. There proved to be very few who
were born deaf and dumb.
AT the institutions the forenoons are
devoted to the class rooms, and the after
Moons to the industrial branches of edu-
cation, the girls being employed in house
work, and the boys in the printing office,
broom factory and other trades and
pations.
The visitors regretted that they could
not remain to witness the afternoons
work, and were obliged to content them
selves with Witnessing the pupils gather
for dinner. Imagine q spacious room, q
hall, in fact, with many tables, at which
are seated about 300 pupils, none speak
ing yet all conversing, for fingers are
busy, chat being carried ON silently, yet
freely, some conversing who are separat-
cd by the width of the room, and yet no
confusion or hub.bub. The mail was
brought in before the meal was served,
and the eagerness with which the letters
from home, packages and papers were re-
ceived, showed that it wal an elegant ap-
petizer for the meal before them.
How do they address each other by
name2 To spell out each letter of a
name would be too tedious. 1t was
learned that each of the three hun
dred or more persons of the institu-
ton had a distinctive sign by which
to be known. For instance, two girls
forming the letter w" was the sign for
Miss Van DORM. A short time age q
ludicrous mistake was made, Rev. Mr..
Rogers, when principal, told one of the
teachers he wanted to see Miss Cobbs at
the Office. Now, the sign for Miss Cobbs
was the same as that for %''corn," it being
a sort OF a motion as of Smelling kernels
off, the forefnger of one hand being sup
posed to be the ear of corn. The person
directed to notify Miss Cobbs returned
from the barn with some corn, and Rev.
MIR. Rogers for a moment could not I'M
derstand, while the messenger was equal
ly perplexed as to what Mr.. Rogers
wanted corn for. They soon saw the
bluuder, and a laugh resulted.