Evening star., 1895-03-16

accident, man" and 'tmat' looking alike
Secondly, the habit of making the selec-
ton must be SD well established as to be
accomplished instantaneous!y, automatical-
ly, and without conscious effort.
Thirdly, the mind should be trained to
perceive the meaning Of what is said as a
whole from perhaps aifew words, or even
parts of words recognized here and there,
as this boy-cote; brium-ote'' this boy
is cold; bring him his coaD, and not al
lowed to waste time lingering over the
words. trying to1decipher them one by one.
The art of speeeh-reading. then, consists
In the ability fnstantaneously to select the
word used by the speaker out of half
dozen that resemble 1t, and rapidly to
build up a correct conception of what he
has said from occasional words distinctly
recognized here and there in his speech;
in other words reading by context.
My practice is to allow tall<er to go on
with what he is saying, even if not one
word is understood, in the hope that before
which will, it were. throw a flood of
light upon the whole speech, rendering
previous words intelligible. In this way
it is often possible for me to understand
the long story or speech of person whose
short remarks are hard to follow.
Ordinary questions and conversational
remarks. being composed of a few words.
and these few words of the shortest, few
est syllables might be almost incompre-
hensible but for the natural expressions
of the face which generally accompany
them.
The Speakers Manner.
For instance. one day some one said to
me, "Webetnorfrtnor. For a moment l
was completely nonplused; it seemed i'm
possible to make sense out of such utter
nonsense; but presently, seeing my friend
glance at the further Of two doors be-
tween which we We're standing, 1t flashed
ON me that the words were, I'VE better so
to the front door"
nor oil oil f111
er's natural involuntary glance whether
question is asked or a casual remark
made. I bend all my energies to master
the question, and If 1 cannot understand
another; the remark, If fear tussle TO
understand. pass by.
Fancy the feelings of a shy, innocent
stranger at seeing n speech-reader strug-
gle laboriously to comprehend some care
less remark about the weather.! How he
wishes he hadn't said anything; how quick
ly he edges off from the embarrassing per-
son, and how carefully he avoids further
conversation with her! How much better
for the speech-reader to encourage him to
talk on and on, until at last words are
recognized to which the speech-reader can
reply. and conversation becomes estab-
lShed!
If 1 needed proof that speech-reading is
essentially an intellectual exercise, demand
ing good vernacular knowledge of lam
guage, I should find it in NV experience
with German. For six months lived in a
German boarding school, with only one
friend with whom to talk English. Before
the end of that time l could read German
speech by eye nearly as readily as Eng
lish, and it was but rarely that any one
had to write off German sentence for
me. This was many years ago, Since
then my opportunities for talking and
listening to German have been very few.
l lind now, when l meet German friend
and try to carry on conversation in Ger
man, cannot do it readily at first / can
German ,hraS to
press my own ideas, but cannot decipher
the movements of the speakers lips Why?
Because the German vocabulary at my
command is too small to, allow me to select
from 1t words that may be those that my
friend is using. + find myself consciously
and painfully running over my small stock
OF possible words, much as a miser counts
ms store of coin, and the chances are in
hnitely against my fnd1pg the right one.
This would be diSheartening if 1 had not
found by experisnce that by reading Ger
man books Tor q. awhile, Sleeping my brains
In German. as II were, so that l think in
German and seq. in, German. it becomes
comparatively easy to catch the German
words on my friends lips.
Depends ON the speech-Reader.
1t would be Hard to: say what makes
intelligibility to a speech-reader. great
deal of lip action may be difficult to un-
derstand, yet teo little,, is equally detri-
mental. Again, the lip action may be
good, and yet some peculiarity of tongue
or teeth, or of pronunciation NAV render
the speech difficult to read Mustaches,
If not too heavy, make little difference
one way or another. except at night un-
der hanging light. when. Of course they
shadow the mouth ! think take it all in
all, that If there are no abnormal pecu-
liarities of the organs of articulation or
of pronunciation, it depends principally on
the speech-reader whether speech is in
telligible or not Practice makes perfect,
and although L have met many persons
Whom could not easily understand, l am
not copvinced that l could not have readt-
~ understood most of them in time, given
the opportunity. and the DESIRE to become
accustomed to their pecuiarities of speak
Ing. Besides am not as good a speech
reader as some l have met, and people
Whom ma difficult to understand they
might find easy.
An active, alert mind, constantly on the
qui vive to receive Impressions keen as a
razor in reaching the salient points of
thing and let nothing escape. are quail
| fications for attaining high degree of
proficiency in the art, and these do not
possess. The best system of education,
without special talent, will not create a
Michael Angelo, but it may make a very
fair practical artist. who can do sufficient
~ good work to support himself and his
family in comfort. So, without any special
inherent fitness for speech-reading, and
with the distinct disadvantage of being
short-sghted, / have attained skill enough
to serve all practical purposes.
My father and mother, my husband and
children, relatives and friends, and my
servants, all talk to me, and I, at least,
have never felt that there was any bar to
the fullest and freest communication be-
tween the immediate members Of my FAM
lily and myself The occasions when one
OF them has to use paper and pencil are
of the rarest; perhaps once a month, to
spell some unfamiliar word or name. With
less intimate friends and business people,
communication, naturally. is much more
restricted, and often I get one of my
daughters to act as Interpreter. might,
to be sure. use PENCIL and paper, but the
strange part of my experience Is that no
ore will take the trouble to write to me
if 1t can possibly be avoided. If an in
terpreter is not at hand, the speaker will
prefer to repeat again and again, until my
patience Is exhausted, and I insist on the
pencil and paper, which. reluctantly used.
are dropped the instant I show signs of
understanding without them. This expert
ence is universal Ladies and gentlemen,
tradespeople and servants. all regard writ
ing as something to be avoided as much as
possible.
They Forgot About the Cars.
From the Chicago Record.
A cable train was moving east in Mon