Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1898-07-29
reachera at tho peaf school.

Miss Mary Whedon had in the
Minneapolis Journal OF Saturday an
article concerning the School for the
Deaf. In it she discusses and pays
tribute to the work of Mrs. D.. F.
Bangs, Miss Florence Wright aud Miss
Hammond.
Mrs. Bangs is q teacher of ten years.
experience in education OF the deaf,
having taught seven years In Iowa
state school and three years in Fari-
bault, MINI. In her line Of work she is
considered without o superior aud has
been granted one of the highest sala-
ries given women for this work.
Three years ago,w when Mr.. Bangs was
appointed to the superintendency Of
the school at Devils Lake-which
place he has most creditably filled
Mrs. Bangs accepted the position of
matron. Her experience in teaching
has been of great value to the school,
but the vital point Of her work Is
looking after the pupils"wardrobially,"
physically aud morally-in short to
mother the little mes who r prac-
tically motherless for the nine school
months Of each year Of the ten years
course. Deaf children, having no mode
of communication with the world
about them, come very little into son.
tact with common, everyday life.
Hence the Importance Of q pnre and
upright ideal before them and Of q
wholesome influence about them.
To have the responsibility Of three or
even one child is considered by some
mothers a heavy burden, but this
woman has acted the part of a mother
to fifty pupils this year, twenty nine
of whom we're girls. II to care for
ones own single child is thought to be
a burden, what can be the care and
prayers Of one woman who mothers
fifty children of other parents, realiz-
ing that their future veal or woe is
balancing in her hands during their
childhood?
Mrs. Bangs is perhaps one Of the most
practical executors in the state today
of the coming popular household
economic interests. With some sixty
people to look after from q domestic
standpoint and with twenty-nine girls
to teach the habits of system and in
/ dustry means very little time for flow
cry theory. The girls arc not only
taught Homework, but mending, plain
and fancy sewing and dressmakink.
Miss Wright, the teacher of articu-
lation, was born in Iowa, AMI after
wards lived in Minneapolis, where she
received her education. In 1894 she
went to Chicago, where she took a
special course ut the Lounsbury insti-
tute to prepare herself for the work
she is now doing, aud has been in
Devils Lake ever since:
To watch Miss Wright deal with the
little ones who have to see instead of
hear conversation, who have first to be
taught that they have u voice and
then how to use it, shows much prep
| aration and patience on her part.
10 place the hand of a pupil on her
chest or throat while she speaks a
word and then upon their own chest
or throat; to make an effort to speak
which will enable them to sense tho
same feeling, this is her work, until
they can recognize a familiarity be-
tween feeling and sound or sight and
finally be guided by the latter alone
and tell by the lips what another says.
First they are taught the sound of
each letter, then the combinations of
any two letters, then words Of two or
three letters, then words of moro than
one syllable, then short sentences,
then longer ones and so on step by
step until they have learned to talk.
Miss Hammond, another of the lady
teachers in this institution, may be
said to have the work "born and bred
in the bone" being daughter of Mr..
Hammond of Chicago, for years prin.
cipal Of the famous oral school in that
city.