Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-03-17

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studio of the artist, Mr.. Andrews, who
painted the picture of Martha Washington
which hangs in the East Room of
the White House. 1t has large
yard, made up of ground which is worth at
least s. square foot, and this, at certain
hours of the day, is filled with children. A
kindergarten occupies the lower story, and
the upper, which is tastefully furnished, is de-
voted to the school of deaf mutes. In this
school the deaf and dumb children are taught
to speak by watching the lips of their teacher
and learning to shape their lips in the same
way in uttering sounds which correspond to
the various words. Mr.. Bells father is, 1
think, the author of the system used, and
there is no doubt that it is a success. The
children learn to talk and they are able to
communicate their thoughts, but their voices
are generally harsh and loud.
Mr.. Bell thinks that deaf children should
never be educated with deaf children And
some of his deaf pupils are now going to the
kindergarten and associating with children
who speak. He does not believe in deaf and
dumb asylums, and says that the association
of the deaf mutes together in these is rapidly
forming a race of deaf mutes in the United
States. Deaf mutes marry deaf mutes, and
such marriages produce deaf mute children
He tells me there are now 33,S7S deaf
mutes in the United States, or one for
about every 1900 of population. He states
that the vocal organs of deaf people
are usually perfect, and that their inability to
speak comes from their not being able to hear
and thus initiate sounds. He has shown that
deaf mutes can be taught to speak He says
that the inteects of the deaf are fully as
bright as those of hearing people, and that
there are many examples of deaf mutes who
by learning to speak have become valuable
citizens. His wife, as have said, was at one
time deaf and dumb. There is a patent law
yer in Cincinnati who was once deaf mute,
and there are deaf mute editors doctors and
even poets.
Professor Bell keeps up his electrical ex-
periments, though he is very close mouthed
about what he is doing. His laboratory has
been, until last month, in a little diapidated
brick building LEX among the trees, on Con-
necticut avenue, within stones throw of the
palace of the British legation. This laboratory
has been known as the Volta laboratory, and
it was founded with the Volta prize money
of $4,000, which the French academy award
ed Bell for the telephone. In it he has spent
thousands of dollars and hours of labor in ex-
periments, but no one has bothered him
The aspect of the building is forbidding It
stands high up from the street and its green
blinds are generally closed. Still, great man.
sions have been springing up all around
this, and now Professor Bell has decided
to move his workshop to Georgetown.
His extreme caution will probably be in
creased by the late suits, which have cost the
Bell company fortunes. In Mr. Bells library
there are three volumes of 500 pages each,
which contain the printed testimony of the
plaintiff in the Drawbaugh cases, and each
of these volumes is as big as dictionary.
Bells testimony as defendant takes up four
volumes of the same proportions and the alb
stract of the evidence in the case makes an
other volume of the same family bible SIZE
The Pan Electric suits may cost fully as
much, and however they terminate, they will
materially add to the fees of number of
noted lawyers
Speaking of Bells caution, he could hardly
sleep, am told, when he was making his first
experiment with the telephone, for fear some
one would steal his invention before he could
patent it. He kept his models in his own
room in Boston, and had a box-like case in
which he locked them up whenever he went
out of his room. At first the stock was sold
very low, and there are a number of men
about Washington who made fortunes by in
vesting in it. What Bell is worth now no one
knows. heard the figure put at $4,000, 900,
and l suppose his father-in-law, Gardiner
Hubbard, is worth at least as much more.
Professor Bell has the long, high head of the
inventor and the mathematician. A reader
OF faces seeing his portrait, would pronounce
HIM the practical man, and not the poet or
the dreamer
FRANK GEORGE