78 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to speak French, German, Italian, to say nothing of her school experi- 

 ence of Latin and Greek. Her range of language, expression and com- 

 prehension is thus no mean one, confined though it be to the avenues 

 of touch and motion. 



It is interesting to trace the evidence of this ' touch-mindedness ' 

 in the imagery of her well-formed and expressive style. Her recollec- 

 tions of the days of her childhood, as well as her more mature experi- 

 ences contain many of them. In reading them it should be recalled 

 that they include sensations of temperature and — very important to 

 the deaf — the impressions of jar or vibration, which present a rich 

 variety of distinctive qualities. 



"Oh, the delight with which I gathered up the fruit in my pina- 

 fore, pressed my face against the smooth cheeks of the apples, still 

 warm from the sun, and skipped back to the house!" Of the Ply- 

 mouth rock: "I could touch it, and perhaps that made the coming 

 of the Pilgrims and their toil and great deeds seem more real to me. 

 I have often held in my hand a little model of the Plymouth rock 

 which a kind gentleman gave me at Pilgrim Hall, and I have fingered 

 its curves, the split in the center and the embossed figures '1620,' and 

 turned over in my mind all that I knew about the wonderful story of 

 the Pilgrims." "The rumble and roar of the city smite the nerves 

 of my face, and I feel the ceaseless tramp of an unseen multitude, and 

 the dissonant tumult frets my spirit. The grinding of heavy wagons 

 on hard pavements and the monotonous clangour of machinery are 

 all the more torturing to the nerves if one's attention is not diverted 

 by the panorama that is always present in the noisy streets to people 

 who can see." With Mr. Jefferson as he personated for her Bob 

 Acres writing the challenge : "I followed all his movements with my 

 hands, and caught the drollery of his blunders and gestures in a way 

 that would have been impossible had it all been spelled to me. Then 

 they rose to fight the duel, and I followed the swift thrusts and parries 

 of the swords and the waverings of poor Bob as his courage oozed out 

 at his finger ends. Then the great actor gave his coat a hitch and his 

 mouth a twitch, and in an instant I was in the village of Falling 

 Water and felt Schneider's shaggy head against my knee." "The 

 hands of those I meet are dumbly eloquent to me. The touch of some 

 hands is an impertinence. I have met people so empty of joy that 

 when I clasp their frosty finger tips it seemed as if I were shaking 

 hands with a northeast storm. Others there are whose hands have 

 sunbeams in them, so that their grasp warms my heart. ... A hearty 

 handshake or a friendly letter gives me genuine pleasure." When an 

 organ was played for her : "I stood in the middle of the church, where 

 the vibrations from the great organ were strongest, and I felt the 

 mighty waves of sound beat against me, as the great billows beat against 



