Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-01-24
WITH SILENT MEN.
ADVENTURE OF TWO REPORTERS AT
A DEAF MUTES' PICNIC.

A DEAF MUTES' PICNIC.
They Went There Expecting to Have
n Quiet Time, and They Got More
of 1t Than Was Really Necessary,
ms Developed Later.
Zone of the queerest assignments that
was ever dished out to me when | was re-
porting in Chicago said one of the cor
respondents from the city by the uDsalted
sea, was the covering of a picnic of deaf
and dumb people. There was and is yet
a big organization got together for social
pleasures of these afflicted people in Chi
oago, and 1t was this organization that
gave the picnic out at Elliott's grove, a
wooded patch about Is miles outside Of
Chicago, on the occasion l speak of.
When I got aboard the Illinois Central
train that took the party of 700 or 500
men, women and children-members of
the deaf and dumb organization, out to the
grove, I found that there was but one
other reporter on the train, a pal with
whom I had often worked before. We got
together Immediately of course, and we
roasted the dreariness of the assignment
to a flnish-for, leaving out the train
hands, we seemed to be the only two on
the train who could talk.
Nice, cheerful job, this, growled the
man from the other paper, looking around
disconsolately. And the beauty of it Is
we can't get back until about 8 o'clock
tonight, for that's the hour the train stops
to bring the crowd back, and it's the only
train that stops at Elliott's grove at that.
That gives us II solid hours of this hilar-
ity. Bully good time we're going to have,
l don't Think
The queerest thing to see was the
dancing. There was a big dancing pavilion
in the grove, and nearly all of the young
people danced. The master of ceremonies
stood ON a platform and waved his arms
in waltz or two step or whatever time the
dance called for, and the dancers kept re-
markably gooN time. They watched the
man doing the arm waving carefully out
of the tails of their eyes as they loated
around. The master of ceremonies was u
rafting good pantomimist, and he'd call
off the various figures of square dances
by going through at the beginning of each
figure the various movements thereof
just enough of them to refresh the men,
cries OF the dancers.
Along toward noon, when we two re-
porters began to get lonesome for a lunch
room-there were no eatables for sale on
the grounds, all of the mutes bringing
their lunches in baskets-one of the COM
mitteemen introduced us to a couple of
mighty nice looking girls. Neither of us
knew the first move of the deaf and dumb
alphabet, but the girls didn't look disap-
pointed somehow or another when we in
formed them by signs of our ignorance.
Instead they laughed and looked at each
other merrily. Each of the girls had a big
basketful of swell things to cat, and they
invited us by cordial signs to share the
contents of the baskets with them. I'm
ashamed to reflect upon how much of those
girls nice food / ate. We got along splen-
didly with the girls by means of signs,
ignorant as we were of the mute alphabet.
I couldn't help but think all the time
what a pity it was that two such smart
looking young women should be deprived
Of the power of hearing, much less Of
speech. They seemed to take it all very
cheerfully, however, and they appeared to
have a good deal of fun between them
selves, for often during the afternoon I
caught them exchanging glances and smil-
ing, as if they were sort of holding out
something on us. This seemed a bit puz-
cling to me until the train pulled into the
depot in Chicago on the return trip in the
evening. My friend and myself were just
about to bid the two young women adieu
by means Of our own little sign manual,
when they both burst into merry laughter.
My pal and l stood in the aisle like a pair
of petrif1ed men.
"'You need not look so intensely sur
prised, one of the girls then said, smiling,
In as musical a voice as you ever heard.
We saw that you took lis for mutes when
you were presented to us-naturally
enough, too-and SO we both decided spon-
taneously and simultaneously to be mutes
for an afternoon. We are simply friends
Of some Of the ladies among the mute ex-
cursionists, and SO we came along with
them. Now we've got to rejoin them.
Goodby.' And they both laughingly took
their departure for another car to find
their women friends.
=" II wonder did we say anything on the
side?' my pal asked me, but I was too
knocked out to answer him" -Washing-
ton Star.