The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1896-08-16
SWEARING WITH a AANo WAVE.
The silent Profanity of Deaf sIutes and
How They Learn It.

How They Learn It.
Several frantic passes of the hand I
in front OF companion 5 face, and .
a man who never had spoken and .
never will speak a word had sworn .
at the other as plainly as if the ar I
ticulate words had been shouted.
1t is something of a puzzle TO /.
many how persons who cannot hear T.
sound acquire a profane vocabula- I
ry, but the solution is easy. The av-
erage deaf mute. educated by the
most approved methods, can tell
what person is saying by the
movement of the lips, provided they
be visible. Deaf mutes who can read
the movement of the lips or the sign
language study the Bible, and in
consequence they are as familiar
with the phrase consigning sinners
to everlasting perdition rs are those
gifted with speech and hearing.
Following this line of argument
+ one of the most successful teachers
/ of the deaf and dumb in this city
said yesterday: 1T is not at all diff
/ cult to see how the deaf and dumb
learn the uses of profanity. 1t Is
strange thing, perhaps, but they
rarely make their profane signs ex-
cept under circumstances which pro-
woke any ordinary person to the use
of profanity. On the other hand, deaf
mutes vary in tenn permanent as wide
Iy as other people, and where one
has a seemingly complete vocabula-
ry of profanity others seldom or
never give expression TO such sign
language.
Said another instructor: 1T is
something which we cannot explain
any more than can parents, as
rule, tell how their little children,
/. brought up among all the refining
influences of home, learn to swear
almost before they can talk plainly.
Like other things which we have
not taught, the pupils pick up pro-
family in the streets from seeing
men swear at one another, and when
one learns the use of profanity the
r others soon pick it up"
There is no greater authority in
; this country upon the subject of
deaf mutes than the Rev. Thomas
Gallaudet, who has been n preacher
: to and teacher of those without
= speech or hearing for half a century.
His father, Thomas NJ. Gallaudet, in
1917 founded at Hartford the first
school for deaf mutes in this coun-
n try, and in 1859 the Rev. Thomas
Gallaudet began his mission work
among them.
DR. Gallaudet said, when asked
n about deaf mutes and their ways;
l. Aside from their inability to speak
or hear, deaf mutes arc in nowise
different fr.n other persons. They
It have the same feelings and the same
n passions, and in their own way ex-
u press themselves Just as forcibly as
those who speak and hear. As a
: matter of fact, the sign language
used by these people is in many
, cases more expressive than any spo
ken words, and in cases of anger the
deaf mutes find no difficulty in ex
pressing themselves or making thos,
with whom they are angry under
stand exactly what is meant.
To express sorrow for any one
the deaf mute will assume a sorrow
ful countenance and l1b his hant
over his heart in circle, meaning
thereby that sorrow is grinding hi!
2, heart. In anger, what is more ex
Y. pressive than an angry countenanc,
and the clinched hands shaken abov,
the head?
q THE sign language for dea
F. mutes was invented about 80 year
ago by the Able de l'Epee, a teache
in French school He noticed tn
signs which children made to eacl
other and understood. He elaborat
ed these signs, and, as a result, wha
is known as the manual sign Ian
guage was evolved. The oral system
or that of understanding by mean
of watching the lips of the speaker
was later invention. There are tC
day between 75 and so schools i
this country for the instruction Q
the deaf and dumb There is also
college for them at Washington
Most of these schools teach what
known as the combination system
which is both the oral and manul
systems combined. New York RI
corder.