The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1894-08-18
Hearing with Their Eyes.

| Miss Boultbee, charming little
| Englishwoman, is doing noble work
ut No. 81 Gloucester Place, Portman
square, London, in the education OF
those who are deaf and dumb, and
others who are only deaf, SO that
they can communicate with their
fellow beings practically us we'll as il
they were endowed with all tn cir
| faculties. She teaches the dumb how
to talk and the deaf to understand
language by watching the motions of
the lips of those who are speaki ng.
She prefers to take her pupils es-
pecially those who are wholly deaf
and dumb, when they are little chill
dren. She consented the other day
to explain her system to a writer,
and the result is shown in this article.
The writer noticed that her apart
ments were arranged with view to
proving agreeable To the eye, the
evident purpose being to satisfy the
sense of sight in which her little COM
pany were not defective. 1t was just
after she had given a lesson when she
began to talk about her method
Meanwhile her pupils stood apart and
conversed in n low tone, but their
voices sounded so natural that no out
slider would have suspected that they
did not hear one another perfectly.
Miss Boultbee noticed her visitors
surprise and said:
II insist upon their talking aloud,
though the simple motion of the lips
is all that is necessary to make them
understand. But if they did not use
their voices they would soon lose
them"
She then went on to say that in her
opinion this plan was much better
and certainly more graceful than the
old-fashioned finger alphabet. She
advanced the idea that for those who
have not entirely lost the sense Of
hearing it would be much pleasanter
to watch the lips of other persons
speaking to them than to be screamed
at through hideous ear trumpet. 1t
would also enable such persons to
join more readily in conversation
and to know much more that is going
on, because the tendency is not to
say very much to any one who uses an
ear trumpet. In explaining her sys-
tenn further, Miss Boultbee said:
The German, or pure oral system
of teaching the deaf, wa3 invented
by Heinicke. 1t VI as kept secret for
many years, but it has now been re-
duced to thoroughly scientific princi-
pies and is open to the world. first
began to study it because of my ankle
ty for my sister, who was totally deaf.
and the further l pursued my investi-
cation the more | became fascinate d
with my subject. / studied at Ealing
for n year and decided to take up
teaching as profession. That was
ten years ago, and when | say that l
have been successful it is not through
vanity. If you want to appreciate the
full value of this system for the
instruction of the deaf you must
picture to yourself child. such n
child as was one of these young
pupils of mine a few years ago, eight
years old, perhaps who has never in
her life heard n sound. Language
has no meanin 6 for her. She thinks
III PICTURES impressions are ner only
thoughts. That child comes to me,
and l make her understand that she
is to initiate me in the breathing ex-
ercises, which are the beginning of
the system. She gets her first idea
of what sound is when I make her
feel the vibrations of the vocal chords,
which do by placing one OF her
hands against my throat and the
other against her own while she pro-
nounces after me the vowel sounds"
N. Y. Advertiser.