The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-07

 1 know how the public feels ! toward us, the deaf people. In ! reality they know little of us. ! We are anxious to have them understand us better through your important paper. i: J. NJ ROBERTSON. ! Talladega, June 5, 1914.
 
 That Helen Keller Is a wonderful woman Is a fact accepted all over the world. She Is totally deaf and blind. She is very sensitive. Is 1t likely that none else is more affected by either inside or outside impressions or in- fluences than is Helen Keller? A per son with full faculties Is necessarily less sensitive for when he hears he sees less and also feels less; when he uses one faculty much, he neglects the others. Therefore. Helen keller's re- maining senses, smell and touch are more highly trained. But there Is another class of people who are as sensitive or more sensitive than she is. This class is deaf but not blind That one with four senses is less sensitive than the other like Helen Keller with three senses, seems logical. But I think not. My observation. together with my own experience, sustains the belief that Helen Keller is not un- equalled at all in regard to feelings. From the time when Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing. she has been and will be kept forever in dark ness and silence. Of course. she can see spiritually and utter thoughts by means of either finger-spelling or writing.
 | You know the blind man by seeing him feel his way hesitatingly with his hand. the cripple by his walk, bu. do not know the deaf perscn with his nor mal eyes and walk until you happen | to speak to him. He shows no sign of his distress. The sight of the blind man and the cripple, or more than | these, that of a deaf and blind person like Helen Keller, always arouses in stant compassion and desire to help them These people will never know that you are sorry and pity them un- | less they are told so; hence, they all ways r\ceive kind and encouraging words and are made happy.
 Now you see that blind and deaf 1 as Helen Keller is, she never feels sad nor discouraged, nobody dares criticise her personally; she has been receiving constant and generous at- l tention from people; she has in separable companion in Mrs. Macy, who unceasingly helps to educate her. Helen Keller has grown mentally unhin- dered; she reads or Is unconsciously made to read the best class of books. consequently her thoughts must needs be elevating.
 Cannot Know Feelings 1 Suppose you, highly cultured American, write a letter to Chinese giving your opinion or advice. He will admire you. But will he accept the idea that you and he are mutual? Noi Why? Because he knows that you never see his country and therefore cannot know his thoughts and feel l ings. Hence the same with Helen Kel- Her. She knows about us either 1 through her faithful companion Mrs. l Macy, or reading books she is glad | or sorry for us, but can she really feel sorry or glad? I believe she can not, and will never. because she never feels our feelings. You hear some one's pitiful cry or see his sad facial gestures and thus your sympathy is 1 instantly aroused You will feel sorry l for some person you read about and tears will roll freely down your l cheeks. Is your sorrow logically real? 1 So you see that you and Helen Keller l cannot and will never be reciprocal. She is very sensitive only at her finger 1 tips or through her nose. There is and | will be always a gulf between you | and her In feelings and thoughts, though she can read about, know about and imagine that she is sorry or glad for us. Her thoughts will occasionally sparkle ip her writings and we shall | applaud her.
 1 At a rough guess there Is one deaf and blind person to one million nor | nal ones in this world But you may be surprised that there are more than 1 100000 deaf persons in our own coun- try.
 l After few days association with an Intelligent deaf person you will forget that he is deaf and thus will no longer look on him with contemptous pity. He has. from lack of hearing, used his eyes observingly, studying human ma . ture and understanding the motives of human actions feelings. passions and enthusiasms Thereby he knows how to make you feel at home with lhim. You might not know until now like to see you think that it is a pity that he is deaf and can do nothing
 except a little manual labor or some
 thing that does not require intelligence. I Resentment of Assertion
 To show how he resents being re- lgarded as an inferior being, below is Ian article recently printed in the St
 Louis Republic in reply to pr. George lB Mangold. by Rev. J. H. Cloud. a lprominent man in the deaf world. an Episcopal clergyman and the principal of Gallaudet school for the deaf in St. l Louis:
 "Elimination of the unfit by segre- gation and a higher single standard of \ public morals was urged yesterday aft A ernoon by Dr. George B. Mangold, di- rector of the school of social econ Iomy, in one of series of free public lectures in Washington university.
 Permanent institutional or custodial l control by the state of detectives. par fticularly of the feeble minded. was ad- Ivocated as the better way to rid so- lciety of the mentally deficient. Sterili- xation. he maintained. was the less lpracticable method
 ""The estimated number of feeble
 minded in the United States is 300,000,
 he said.
 "'Of these, there are about 5000 ir Missouri and about 1900 in St. Louis" .l "In 1890, he said. there were 95.00( lin the United States; in 1904,% 15O, GOO. Il "'The increase he declared, fl greater than the gain in population.
 The feeble minded. he said. were classified scientifically to include deal imutes, idiots, imbeciles, morons ana sl the backward The idiot he said has "a mind like that of a two-year- olt icn1l0, the imbectle, seven year old