Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-29

| fore the first organized effort was made to
| teach the deaf on American soil.
1t remained for the century that has
| brought about such wonderful changes in
the material world to take up this great
work and to carry it forward to its present
unlooked-for magnitude. Moreover, 1t was
appropriate that school for the deaf
should have been one OF the benefcent out
growths o. that "era Of good feeling" and OF
universal prosperity which came in with the
election of james Monroe as President.
A CLosELY-GUARDED SECRET.
Here and there deaf mute had been sent
TO Europe to be educated, but the instruc-
ton of this class even there had just passed
the experimental period, and few Ameri-
cans could afford to send their children
abroad. But one person in America held
the secret of imparting instruction to the
deaf. He was Scotchman named Braid
wood, who had come to Virginia as a pri-
vate tutor in a family having several deaf
mute children. Braidwood was under
bonds not to reveal the secret for it was a
monopoly which, to the old Edinburgh
family of Braidwoods, had been for many
years the goose of the golden egg. 1t went
sorely against the American pride to ac-
knowledge that any class of her citizens
must go abroad for the merest rudiments of
an education. To this feeling was due the
first effort to found school for the deaf in
America. Even when the enterprise was
set on foot it became necessary for someone
to go to Europe for instruction in the de-
tails of such peculiar work. A number OF
influential and philanthropic gentlemen Of
Hartford Conn.,, among whom DR.. Mason
Cogswell was most directly interested, on
account of having deaf daughter, took
action by raising funds to defray the ex-
penses OF proper person to go to the Eu-
ropean schools to obtain the needed informa-
tion.
THE FIRST GALLAUDET.
The one who was chosen for this mission
was Rev. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, "a
great-grandson of the great granddaughter
OF the Rev. Thomas Hooker" the founder
of Hartford and the pastor of is first
church. Early in 1915, Mr.. Gallaudet went
to London. He spent four months in En-
gland and Scotland in fruitless efforts, for
he lacked the "golden key to the golden
door," which the Braidwoods refused to
open to him. Fortunately in London he
met the Able Sicard, the successor to the
great De PEpee, the founder of the French
system of instruction, and the inventor of
many OF the signs now in use in the Amer
lean schools for the deaf. Sicard's invita-
tlon to Gallaudet to visit his famous school
in Paris was gladly accepted, and to this
circumstance is due the fact that the
French system rather than the English has
been universally adopted in America.
After an absence of Is months Gallaudet
returned to Hartford, accompanied by
Laurent Clerc, one OF the abb Sicard's
representative pupils, and began the work
with which his name will always be closely
allied. In 1916 the Legislature of Con-
necticut appropriated SIS 00O which in adj
dition to other funds raised by Mr.. Gal
laudet on his return from Europe. enabled
him to open his school April 10, 1917. Mr..
Gallaudet was put in charge as principal.
PHENOMENAL GROWTH SINCE.
The school steadily grew, and two years
later Congress made grant OF township
of land to it, the sale of which yielded a
fund of S300,O00. This gave the institution