Evening star., 1898-07-12

tries of Europe. | have taken careful note
of the results of every method which has
been made use of in every place that could
be reached by travel.
within a year l have had unusual op-
portunities for meeting, in personal con-
verse, large numbers of educated deaf per-
sons, not now i'm school. in Italy. Switzer-
land, Austria. Germany. France England,
Scotland and Ireland From these persons,
whose testimony from their own eX-
perience. | was able to learn much of value
to the results and relative advantages of
the different methods of education. and my
intercourse with them was by means of a
language more truly worldwide than Vol
apuk will ever be, the natural, Geographic
language of gestures: no doubt the oldest
known to man. but whose antiquity is by
no means a synonym of decrepitude in
actness or decay. For in the use of this
unique means Of expression mind comes
into more direct contact with mind than
when the barriers OF arbitrary and artificial
language are interposed.
Mental BIankness.
ANY endeavor to appreciate and under
stand the possibilities of the deaf must be-
gin with an effort to comprehend. which is
not an easy task the state of mental blank
ness, in which child born deaf and re-
naming without education must necessari-
ly continue.
THE starting point, when the ira ming Of
such child is begun, is infinitely lower in
the scale of mental development than that
of a normal person. To such a child all the
objects and living creatures around him are
without names. For his own crude
thoughts he has no means of vel bal ex
preston. All the phenomena and ministry
of sound have no existence to him.
THE high degree of intelligence. and even
of social culture, which is possible to the
unlettered who have all their faculties
growing out of that easy personal inter-
course which hearing and speech afford,
car never be attained by a deaf mute left
to his own resources.
Some of you may remember Charles
Dickens description, in his American
Notes, of the blind deaf-mute, Laura Bridg-
man, in which he speaks of her, before
education, built up, as it were, in marble
cell, impervious to any ray of light or par
ticle of sound, with her poor. white hand
peeping through a chink in the wall,
beckoning to some good man for help, that
an immortal soul might be awakened
The Deaf-Mutes' Possibilities.
"Only a little less pitiable in degree, and
quite the same in kind, is the condition OF
the deaf-mute left without education. And
yet experience has proved that when once
the helping hand Of the teacher is extend
ed, the deaf-mute's possibilities for intel
lectual growth are not less than those of
normal persons.
In the four score schools Of the United
States upward of 10000 deaf children re-
ceive the full equivalent of the common
school education, including industrial
training; many are given high school
than that in the community at large, are
acquiring knowledge of the ancient and
modern languages the sciences the higher
mathematics, history, literature, economics
and philosophy, in the college which has
been for many years literally sustained
for their exclusive benefit at the federal
capital by the government of tie United
States.
In this college deaf-mutes have become
fitted to be editors and publishers. to be
elergymen, to enter the civil service Of the
government, to be teachers and heads of
schools, to be architects and artists to
fill elective offices in the public service TO
engage in scientific pursuits, TO succeed in
active business. to practice law. even be-
fore the Supreme Court of the United
tial appointment. None have as yet been
elected as members of Congress, or to the
Senate, but l have heard the opinion ex-
pressed that the transaction of public bust
ditions. IL proportion of tie federal leg
islators could be chosen from this class of
persons.
1T is possible to teach a child born deaf
to speak well, and to understand the
speech of others by observing the motion
instances in many countries. But the con-
clusion often drawn from such successes
that all deaf children may do likewise is
not sustained by experience.
Serious Error.
Success in teaching deaf-mutes TO speak
is matter OF graduation. and in estimating
the value of results. enthusiasm and bias
on the part of the teacher often lead to
serious error
"A large proportion of deaf children
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