The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-02-12
Able De L'EPEE
THE PRIEST WHO INVENTED A
LANGUAGE FOR DEAF-MUTES.

Some time ago the knights of de
LEpee, the national organization of
Catholic deaf-mutes, held their annual
convention i'll Buffalo, n. Y. 1t may
strike the average person as u most
singular performance that men who
can neither hear nor speak should
conduct convention. The man whose
name this organization bears, is one
of the greatest benefactorS Of the
human race in that he devised
method by means of which unfor-
tunate beings bereft of the faculty of
speech and of the sense of hearing
could interchange thoughts and inn
prove their intellects almost as readily
as normal human beings. In the fol
lowing article is told the story of
Able de LEpee, the Catholic priest,
who founded the one-hand sign Ian
guage system for deaf-mutes.
In the year 1850 a good French
priest, Able Charles Michael de
lEpee, was making parish calls one
afternoon in Paris. He stopped at
the house of a recent addition to his
spiritual family and found that the
only people at home were two
daughters, whom the good man had
never seen before. AS he entered the
house, the two girls happened to
have their backs turned to him, en-
gagged in some house work, and when
the priest spoke to them, they ap-
parently paid no attention to him.
| The Able, considerably vexed at this
cold reception, promptly left the
house, determined to question the
parents of the girls concerning the
singular conduct of the latter. AS he
was leaving the yard he met the
mother of the family and told her
of the department of her children.
To his great surprise he learned that
they were deaf and dumb, and that
| their inattention was not due to dis
respect, but to the fact that they
could not hear
The sympathies of the good man
were at once aroused. What had been
done for their religious instruction
Was it possible that two souls, living
in the heart of Catholic France,
were doomed to live and die without
ever hearing the Gospel or receiving
Christian instruction?
Inspired by zeal for the salvation
of these unfortunate girls, the Able
set to work to devise some means of
communicating with them. At first
his efforts were directed toward
teaching them the life of Christ by
means of pictures. But pictures were
scarce i'll those days, and the few
available were beyond the means of
the humble priest, Able de TEpee
two girls were doomed to live and
die as heathens within the Catholic
world.
But at last he noticed that they
communicated with each other by
means of gestures. If two human
beings, bereft of the sense of hear
ing and the faculty of speech, and,
according to the belief of the times,
devoid of reasoning powers, could
make themselves understood to each
other i'll pantomime, could not a stu
dent of the great Paris University in
vent q more perfect means of COM
munication on the same plan? To
be sure he could. So the Able started
to work, and after months of labor
devised that system which has edu-
Gated ninety per cent Of the deaf
mutes since his time-"the one hand
alphabet.
The news of de rEpee's system
soon spread over Europe. He was
offered vast sums of money to teach
| it to the deaf-mute children Of
wealthy and noble families. But the
priest was not tempted by their Of
fers. He had devised the method to
teach the poor, and for them solely
he would work. So accordingly he
opened a school for the poor in Paris
III 1860
Shortly after de IEpee opened his
school in Paris, he found among the
pupils, picked up in the streets Of
the city, boy who possessed an air
of refinement absent in his fellows.