Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-05-19
CAPITAL KEYNOTES
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

counting room. The plan Is to abol-
ish the summer vacation and to have
four quarters or three months each.
The theory would be that a student
might elect to attend any three quar-
ters he desired and SO have a three
month vacation, or he could attend
twelve months and so get through the
course earlier-or die in the attempt.
Most physicians have been caution
ing parents to avoid crowdine their
growing children too much The
continuous schooling from infancy To
graduation, they say, would put a
stultifying strain upon them willie
they are growing. Prouigies do Get
into colleges at abnormally young
ages, but they would not do SO q
they were normal-and the average
child is normal
wrecked nervous systems cost too
much If they are the price of lost
vacations, say the physicians
How much does deafness incapar,-
tate the victim from safely driving an
automobile through the traffic crow d :.
ed streets of a city? How is the
hazard of such driver to be COM
pared with the danger arising from
the. speedy and apparently reckless
driving of delivery wagons and Other
vehicles by young and unintelligeHt
boys?
The prime consideration in issufre
a license is the safety of traffic ard
pedestrians using the streets yet
Safety News of the National Safetr
Council. says:
at certainly seems logical that gooi
eyesight. hacked by an alert brain IL
more essential in the driving Of 4
motor vehicle safely than is the serrs
OF hearing"
It is recognized that the loss of IL
use of one sense tends to quicken tha
other senses. A blind mans hearing
is often so acute as to be uncanny. 4
visit TO any institution where the
deaf are educated astonishes the Wis
| itor with the display of alertness ~
the students in reading motions Of the
| lips or hands. The natural awaken
! ing of perception and observation
seems to come to those who find that
| they must depend upon substitute
! powers-sight for hearing or hearing
for sight.
| Is not most automobile driving
(, guided by sight. rather than by whis-
! ties or horns? In the roar of traffic
| how distinctly can any driver hear
sound and signals? If it be true that
| the control is in the eye. rather than
the ear. cannot the eyes be so steS
! for alertness. with quickness of BRAIN
as to more than offset defective hear
| ing?
| We have not comprehended yet the
mysteries of mind reading. At the
National Press Club a short time ago
two mind readers-husband and wife
demonstrated most amazingly. that
neither sight nor hearing were need
| ed for instant and rapid-f1re commu-
nication. The lady was blindfolded
and stood with her back to the hus,
band and audience, yet when the hus-
band was handed a coin by any one
| in the audience his partner, fifty
| feet away, instantly described it and
| told its date. Or, she would instantly
| tell the number of watch, at an dis
| lance, and with no known means @:
| communication.
| In Europe scientists are wonder
ing over recent demonstrat ton
| which shows how the blind-"stone
blind"-can distinguish colors and
large letters painted, though they
have no sight. These scientists talk
of unseen eyes in the very fbers cf
our flesh. What is the means by
which the deaf do appear to sense
even invisible sounds. and the blind
to see" without eyes"
| Copyright. 1923 by P. V Collinsp