Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-09
That Made MILWAUKEE dm0uS

by making one of his pupils his wife. He
sailed May %, 1915. studied in London and
Paris. and returned in August. 1915. bring
Ing with him Laurent Clerc, deaf mute.
falling into a fire that he lost the senses
Of smell and hearing He learned the finger
language from the Able Sicard and be-
came q teacher in his school. where DR..
come to America He arrived at Hartford
In 1917. and remained here continuously
until 1858. He married one of his pupils.
q Miss Boardman. and all Of their several
children can both hear and speak.
The Hartford School.
Last Sunday the pupils Of the Hartford
school marched to the old North cemetery.
now in the center Of the residence district
Of the city, and decorated with flowers the
grave Of Alice Cogswell. who has been
sleeping there for nearly half century.
And this morning. In the old Center
Church, the most venerable in all New
England. l saw a memorial window in
honor Of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. 1t Is
an exquisite example Of stained glass and
represents Christ healing the boy who could
not hear or see or speak. In the back
Prospect street. with q cherry tree and q
row of hollyhocks.
The Connecticut school was opened at
Hartford April Is, 1917. with seven pupils,
anu WllHlu d year Udu tHlTty-IuTee. Con
gress made 1t a national institute. gave 1t
a township Of wild land in northern Ala
bama. the proceeds of which now form the
principal part Of the endowment of $500 OOO
DR.. Gallaudet remained at its head until
his death in 1851. At the same time he
served as chaplain Of the insane asylum at
Hartford. He wrote several text books
upon the science of instructing deaf mutes
and several stories for children. He lived
to see twenty schools for the deaf and
dumb in successful operation in America
Two Of his sons. DR.. Thomas Gallaudet of
New York and Dr. Edward M. Gallaudet of
a monument has been erected to his men,
DRY by the deaf mutes Of the United States
The second school In this country was
opened in New York exactly one year from
Its work; third was established in Phila-
delphia two years later; a fourth in Ken.
lucky in 1922. and a fifth in Ohio In 1929.
instruction Of Deaf Mutes.
Although Hartford had the first school
In America for the education of the deaf
and dumb. there had been schools for
similar purpose as early as the fifteenth
century in Germany and afterward in
Spain, Italy. England. France and Hol-
land, and DR.. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.
father of DR.. Edward M. Gallaudet of
Washington. obtained his training and his
knowledge Of the art from the Able ST.
card, the head Of a school In Paris.
The first instance Of instruction Of deaf
mutes found In history was among the
Anglo-Saxons In the seventh century by
John, Bishop of Hagulstad. afterward
known as st. John Of Beverly. One youth
only was taught by the bishop. and the
intellectual development of the pupil must
have been slight. but 1t was considered q
miracle, and Is so described in the Ecclesi-
astical History of Bede.
About 1850 Pedro Ponce de Leon, Span
ish nobleman. opened a school for deaf
mutes in q Benedictine convent at Ona,
Spain. and his methods were SO complete
that his pupils were taught sciences and
foreign languages. During the next CEN
1t was not until 17Tc o. 176O that distinct
systems of instruction were introduced,
and 1t is a singulor fact that the founders
of the three Got nave surviyed-Charles
Michel de pEp.e in France. Samuel Hell
nicke in Saxony and Thomas Braidwood
in Scotland-should have developed their
ideas almost simultaneously. The French
method invented"by de rEpee and Improved
by his pupil and successor. Able Sicard
was adopted by DIR. Gallaudet after a
thorough Investigation Of the various sys-
TENS in use In Europe.
In 1920 a monk named Juan Pablo Bonet
wrote a treatise on the sign language and
made a manual alphabet almost precisely
the same as that in use today. There Is
q COPY Of his book In the library at Ken
dali Green in Washington. 1t Is also inter-
esting to know that st. Francis de Sales
one of the patron saints of education In the
Catholic Church, established a school for
the education Of deaf mutes in Savoy The
first English school was established by
Thomas Braidwood in 1760. although nine