Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1875 — The Deaf Mute Learning to Talk. [ARTICLE]

The Deaf Mute Learning to Talk.

In England the ordinary mode of communication between deaf mutes and those M ho converse with them is by gestures and signs, some of which are alphabetical. It is only those who have mixed much with deaf and dumb who know how' to communicate with them in tliis manner. The advantage of lip-reading is that it enables the mutes to understand the words of people who have no special familiarity with their ways, provided always that the speakers have not too bushy beards and mustaches. In the hopeful cases dumbness is a result of deafness, and when once the attention is trained to observe tire play of the facial muscles these movements of the face can be imitated. By imitating the actions they see in speaking persons the dumb are actually made capable of speech themselves so as to be audible and intelligible to ordinary people. The children examined on Thursday had not attained perfection in this branch, for the school had only been open three years, and the course takes eight. Their voices wandered sometimes into strange and mournful cadences, their “r’s” were usually whole syllables; but at last two pupils made every word they said clearly and distinctly understood. The establishment of the institution is due to conferences held in 1871 in the house of Baroness Mayer de Rothschild, who hail already founded the Jews’ Deaf and Dumb Home on the same system and under the same management. There are now fifty children on the books who all pay some amount for their education. After a few’ words from Mr. Van Praagb, the director of the school, the children came forward in four groups. First, those who had been from a fortnight to six months in the school, very little girls and boys, wrote letters on the blackboard and repeated them after their teacher. The next class has been a year in the school and they wrote such words as “ moon” and “thumb,” and read off little sentences with an eagerness to show' their acquirements and a pleasure of countenance and gesture which contrasted strangely with their halting utterance. The next group had been tw r o and a half years in the school. They could say “ copy-book” very distinctly, and on being examined knew that it was made of paper and that it cost four pence. They worked easy sums; enumerated the games they had played—cricaet and foot-ball —and the flowers they knew'. They wrote down from Mr. Van Praagh’s dictation sentences which he formed by his lips without saying a word. The fourth group of children, who had been,three and a half years in school, were asked more difficult questions. One had been to Paris and liked it very much. They talked French in Paris, she said, and so one of the boys was asked what language was spoken in Melbourne. He made an intelligent and amusing mistake in replying “Australian,” and when asked to what country Iceland belonged, began guessing, “England,” “Ireland,” as other quick boys do. But one of' the girls knew that Iceland belonged to Denmark, and that from Denmark came the Princess Alexandra. They knew who fought the battle of Waterloo, and that Bonaparte was dead a “ long time ago.” They knew’ that Sir John Franklin went toward the North Pole, where he found ice and snow. “He is dead,” said one of the boys slowly and solemnly.— London Times.