The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-02-06
a SCHOOL FOR DEAF MUTEs.
How the Graduates Succeed in LIfe--
Teaching and Training
philadelphia Times. /

Teaching and Training -statistics.
philadelphia Times1
Very nearly all the deaf mutes in
The state of the proper age are at
school, either in this city or at the
Plttsburg institution The number of
boys is about three fths Of the whole.
This proportion has been found to
exist not only at the Philadelphia
school, but statistics show that
all through the country the
male dear mutcs Out-numbcr the
female in about the same ratio.
No attempt has been made to account
for the pIeponderance of silent people
OF the sterDer sex and the suggestion
that the reason is that women have
stronger propensity for talking than
men does not rest on scientific foundd-
ton.
The Pennsylvania institution is about
siXty-fye years old Its father was
Hebrew gentleman, who gathered a half
dozen deaf and dumb children about
him in a little brick house which used
TO stand on Market street. Afterwards
the school was removed 10 another place,
and sixty-three years ago the founda-
tion was laid for the present large
establishment.
The number Of deaf and dumb per-
sons in the city, exclusive Of those in
the institution, is about 500" said
Principal Grouter last year q com
mitteo took a great deal of trouble to
trace the lives of graduates for ten
years back and the figures obtained are
very gratifying. 1t was found that
lightweight out of every hundred are
self-supporting, working at various
trades in which hearing Is not an
u Al "a Il Va b, aaT
pie can be found at work in carpenter
shops, machine shops and in similar in
dustrial establishments. That Autograph
on the wall is the work Of a graduate.
] know of four lawyers who are deaf
mutes-tWO in Ohio and two IN Canada.
Tho late chief examiner of patents,
Parkinson, was a deaf mute and a mum
Der of the government clerks in Wash
jngton are afflicted in the same way.
These cases show that speech and hear
ing are not absolutely essential for com
paratiye success in various walks of
life. A large number OF those known
as deaf and dumb can speak, however,
thanks to the education received IL IN
stitutiOnS OF this character.
Teaching the deaf and dumb is very
difficult work, requiring great expert
ence and mdomitable patience. 1t is,
the blind 1t is comparatively easy to
reach the understanding of the blind,
because they can hear. But in the case
of a child born deaf it is an entirely
different matter. Where the deafness
is accidental or occurring through dis
ease, say at g, 10 or II years Of age, the
work is not 50 hard. The fact that the
child has once had the sense of nearing
Is a great foundation. in this institu-
ton we use both the sign or manual
system and the oral or lip-reading sys-
tenn. The former is the French idea
and the latter the German.
"Of the total number of deaf persons
about one-third can be made to speak,
but of those who are born deaf the pro
portion is very much lower-in fact |
would not like to reduce it to figures.
We have oral classes here; and indus
trial education is receiving more atten-
ton each year We have now carpen-
ter shops, tailoring shops, and print
ing Office. The girls are taught all the
forms of needlewOrk, cooking and the
various other feminine occupations.
The work of the special committee
appointed last year to collect informa-
ton as to the lives and occupations of
graduates of the institution for ten
years previous to 1884 is embraced in
a pamphlet of forty pages. Deafness,
the report states, is most likely to occur
in the poor and middle classes, fully 10
per cent. of the pupils from whom in
formation was received coming from
poor parentage. The inability of poor
parents to provide proper medical at
tendance for their children when suffer
ing from those diseases that result so
frequently in deafness, is largely &C
countable for the disproportion. The
mining regions of the state, it is noted,
afford many illustrations of this fact,
the miners of the Lehigh, Schuylkill
and Wyoming regions sending more
children in proportion to their total
population than any other class of
people.