Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-20
LAD, DEAF FOR 8 YEARS, WINS
D. c.. PRIZE IN ESSAY CONTEST
10y E. GolIaday, is, Is TAX
ing Preparatory Course
at GaIIaudet.
Moving Story of Reactions to
Affliction Written by
Virginia Boy.

A 16-year-old lad from q Northern
Virginia farm has stepped from his
world of silence to receive the acclaim
of the world that speaks for his achieve
ments In the realm Of the written word.
He Is 10y e. Golladay, member Of the
preparatory class at Gallaudet College.
Although deaf since the age Of years,
he has overcome his handicaps to such
an extent that he has emerged as the
District of Columbia winner in ma
tional essay contest conducted among
10000 American high school boys and
girls.
Young Golladay's photographed es-
say, "Semper Silentium," submitted in
the annual competition sponsored by
the American Education Press, was
awarded the District of Columbia prize
of the National High School Awards for
received at the college from H. M.
Layre, director Of the contest. The
awards, provided by Current Literature.
the Magazine World, the Atlantic
Monthly, the Bookman, Harper's Maya
zine, Saturdays Review of Literature,
Scribner's Magazine, Worlds Work,
World News, Current Science and Cur
rent Events, are to accord recognition
and publication to the best creative
work Of students in American high
schools"
+ Prize Called Real Honor.
ITO have won a prize by the decision
of so eminent q group Of judges" Col
laday was notified, "is q real honor"
The boys essay is simple but NOV
ing account of his own reactions to an
affiiction that might have bettered one
-
ing deaf after an attack of spinal men
nights, he moved with his parents to
West Virginia and attended the West
Virginia School for the, Deaf for six
years. before matriculating at Gallau-
Diet.
But let 10y tell the story in his own
words. His essay follows in full:
ct remember the day. as II 1t had been
only yesterday. I was lying In large
room; the walls were those of q farm
house in Northern Virginia. As my eyes
opened after long period OF darkness
and oblivion, they wandered first all
about me, taking in every detail OF the
room before they finally came to rest
upon a figure upon the chair beside my
bed. Slowly q light dawned upon my
tortured consciousness, and smiled
weakly as recognized my mother, who
had been sitting by my side ever since
could seem to remember, necessarily
passing fan to and fro over my fevered
brow. Then all seemed to fade away
and knew no more.
eft seemed ages later that I awoke,
refreshed and much more comfortable
than before. The tearing, rending pain
was gone, and felt that was an en-
tirely new person. My mother, always
faithful. was still at my side, and I was
relieved to see that the doctor, who had
always been nearby, had disappeared.
Ponders Over Matter.
ct stared upward into my mothers
anxious face. Her lips moved, thought,
and noticed she was looking directly
at me as she was wont to do when
asking a question. But no sound came
to my straining ears, and I managed to
murmur for a drink of water. She left
the room, not yenturing to call the
nurse, who was asleep upon an adjacent
couch, exhausted.
I'm her absence I pondered over the
matter. seeking some explanation other
than the one which was surely, relent-
lessly, forcing itself upon me. But in
My entire outlook on life was being
slowly, yet irrevocably changed by the
fact that was brought home to me.
"I was deaf.
deaf! What terrible word, fraught
with inexpressible pathos; what a
calamity to descend upon one so young;
what bright hopes dashed to nothing
ness upon the rocks of adversity-so 1t
seems now to one who stops to con-
slider. My weakened and blunted men,
tai condition rendered the shock, when
1t came, less effective than 1t would
have been had been well. No more
to hear the singing OF the locusts IN
the tall pine tree on the hill, the chat
tering of the squirrels In the old oaks
by the well, the tinkling Of the cow
bells as drove the herd home from
the orchard at dusk. Never again to
hear the cackling Of the barnyard
fowls, the cooling Of the pigeons IN the
hayloft, the ripping Of the creek in the
meadow, the call of the whip-o'-will
on cool Summer evenings-were lost to
me forever.
"Semper silentium? Who knows?
ITO the uninitiated, 1t would seem
that my life would be darkened, my
very existence made unhearable by this
misfortune. Nothing could reasonably
be so far from the truth. Certainly It
was trying at first, but the primal de-
spondency quickly gave place to q
stoical indifference; today it scarcely
ever comes to my mind and then with
but o vague regret for what once had,
but have adapted myself to do without.
Masters Sign Language.
ct was, much to my qualification, en-
abled to continue my education at q
State school for the deaf. There ! met
many boys and girls who had much in
common with myself. After many
laughable mistakes and much exercise
Of determination, I finally mastered TO