New-York tribune., 1910-01-19
TIE At LIP READING.
Sharp RiUalry BetSceen Hard
of-Hearing Contestants.

The three or four persons with good hear
ing who went to the lip reading bee at No.
1eS Fifth avenue yesterday almost made
up their minds TO have something inturi-
Gus done to their ear drums. all the hard
of-hearing people seemed to enjoy the bee
so much. Ears. Judging from the way the
pupils read speech without sound. are
mere appendages, anyhow.-and dull the
other faculties. When the leader stood Up
and rounded his mouth twice. widened it
once and twitched his upper lip. the people
who could hear wondered what on earth
he meant, but the hard of hearing knew
instantly that he had said Good morn
ing"
OF all ages. conditions and occupations
in life are the pupils at the New York
School for the Hard of Hearing. The only
thing in which they appeared alike was in
thinking the substitution of eyes for ears
jolly good lark. When a fat man or
siyty-fve a stock broker upon whom DEAF
ness is creeping, made out that the leader
was veicelessly reciting Twinkle. Twin
kle. Little Star" he was as tickled as II
he had wiped out his rivals in Wall Street
and made II hundred thousand In Steel.
Women, young and old, were much In
the majority, and one OF the teachers SAID
that they were much brighter at lip read
ing than men.
''Thp men try hard. poor fellows. but
they're slow" she said.
A deaf woman in rear seat vouchsafed
a whispered explanation of this fact TO
curious male visitor with ears.
"A woman observes things" she said.
When a man and his wife come home
from a party she knows just how every
body was dressed. Did you see Miss
husband hasn't the slightest idea whether
it was green, yellow or purple. And lip
reading is matter Of close observation
The exercises yesterday We're series Of
contests. In the first the teacher gave
veiceless rectations from Mother Goose
snd the fingers of the pupils few. writing
down the rhymes. while they watched his
lips alertly. Miss Bertha Richards and
Mrs. J. c. Richardson tied for first place in
this.
The fourth contest was q hard test. The
teacher read something of which all that
the unskilled could make out was " :.
Newton fire scorch :.
move back, sir?' But when the pupils got
through writing ti4is exercise their papers
hore the story Of how Sir Isaac Newton
scorched his shlns because he was too abb
sent minded to move back from the fire
till his servant rescued him.
Miss Richards, blond haired girl with a
bright face, totally deaf, was perfect in
this. and carried of the championship of
1909 10 in lip reading.
She won't be reading the tea cher's hps
very long" whispered one of the other
pupils to a visitor. She's going to be
married next month-to a man who can
hear. and he aderes her."
The hit of the afternoon was a three act
play without words, done by Edward B.
Nitchie, the teacher and Miss Juliet Clark.
petite and dark eyed girl who teaches
the junior classes In the second act
which took place in the subway, both lost
their purses. but the hero didn't discover
his loss until the third act, when he called
at the heroines home TO take her out Mo
dinner, and discovered too late that he
hadn't any money
After the contests everybody ate candy
and had a social time-in whispers. 1t
didn't appear to be considered au faIt to
speak out loud. and when one of the not
ard-of-hearing visitors forgot and said
something i'll a high voice it made every
body jump as if it had been the crack of
doom.