Connecticut western news., 1886-10-27
SILENT SCHOLARS.
Teaching Deaf Mutes to Talk
 in a New York School.
A Method which Requires Great Patience =, and Perseverance.

Up in Fiftieth street, not far from Fifth avenue, in one of those brown stone fronts that looks like the twin of every other brown stone front on the block, queer class of pu. ills smeets every day. Some of the pupils arc only five years old and some are twenty, but not one ever makes any noise, and in point to-euietness the class is model one Nobody ever hears schoolboy laughter or schoolgirl jollity ring out from that school-room, and the very house itself has not even the conventional door-bell. You can count every tick of the little clock with the class in full session while you stand waiting in the hallway.
 In this silent house deaf mutes are taught to speak. Two private classes, with seven pupils in each, meet there day after day, and from in the morn- ing till late in the afternoon struggle with those simple sounds that most of us learn unconsciously in our babyhood. Miss Sadie w. Keeler is the teacher. For eleven years she has worked among deaf mutes and given to voiceless tongues the music of our speech. In this country and in Europe she has | learned all that the lest schools can of | fer.
 But whatever methods different teach | %o <1,x, 1oo1 spends an interested hour or two in her classroom it seems that the only suc- cessful method must be ninc-tenths pa t:ence. One must have the quiet pa- tience of a marble statue and persistence as the flowing of river to perform this modern miracle of making the dumb talk. To make sound over and over again and then to begin at the beginning and repeat and reiterate and explain and recite the same thing thousand times | is somewhat suggestion of the work of teachers life.
 Two boys about seven, another of ten, pretty girl of sixteen and two smaller girls about eleven years old were sitting quietly around little table. There was blackboard and First reader in the room. Miss Keeler was teaching the smallest boy to say "Ah!' She put one of his hands on her chest so that he could feel the vibrating of the vocal 1 chords, and. held the other. close to her mouth, so that he could feel the expul- sion of her breath. Then she said "Ah!' and he tried to say it after her. Then her lips formed the word "papa," and the little fellow, by closely watching, essayed to initiate her, but the only re- suit was something that sounded like 'tmum-mum. The teacher held the lads hand to her lips so that he could feel her breath as she expelled it in mak- the ''p'' in ''papa." The 'm" sound did not bring any breath on his hand; so he tried again, and, holding his hand to his own mouth, changed "mum-mum" into a guttural sort of 'papa."
 The little pupil had hard work getting the letter ''e." The only way he could feel this sound was by placing his hands one on each side of the jaw of the teacher. The sound of '1m" and "w'' he got by placing the fingers of one hand on the teachers nose and the fingers of his other hand in precisely the same way on his own nose. Then he copied the movement of her lips and tongue cx actly, and another letter was won. The vowels are taught first, then letters are put together, and the lad at last learns to say "boy." Then he writes it on a slate, and is told that the three letters mean himself or any other boy.
 One pretty little maiden named Min. nie, sits just across the round table. She began learning early, and speaks very nicely. Of course, that voice which she herself has never heard lacks the modu- lation that we unconsci usly learn to look for. "I love you," from those pretty lips has the same measure of affection expressed and the same placid intonatior that ''I Late you" has. She is good example of the double system of teach . ing that goes on in this queer school |. room. She has learned lp-rcading
 Speak slowly to her and she can tel from the changes in your lips and tongue
 what you say. Make the mere motior |, with your mouth, as if whispering softly but do not make the least sound, ant she can tell what your words would be
 Of course in this combination of ob Q ject-tcaching and lip-reading there need f must be strange mistakes. Take th case of Dr. Gallaudet, who, speaking i, Q church to deaf mutcs, tried to exp ail
 what deacon was. He took his ha d and passed it round as though taking u V a collection in church-that was dea T con. Now, did they underestimate o
 course. Little George held up his han, r. and was given chance to air his knowl
 edge and tell what deacon really was
 "He is the monkey that goes round witt
 the organ-grinder to collect pennies. Il So when he wrote on the board the defini a tion of ''consequence"-"th which fol " lows," another bright lad said dog wa '; consequence, because he followed tn n man.
 D Just about century ago, the plodding Q painstaking Germans began to try t