DECEMBER 15. 1916 



^•^•«-' I OUR HOMES 



Editor 



O foolish people, and without iinderstandinK ; 

 which have eyos, and seo not ; which have cars, and 

 hear not. — ,]j;kemiaii "ji'il. 



And this is the condemnation, that light is come 

 into the world, and men loved darkness rather than 

 light, because their deeds were evil. — JOHN 3:19. 



A BEEKEEPER WHO IS A DEAF MUTE. 



A few weeks ago I was called for, aiid 

 found a beekeeper who by his motions signi- 

 fied that he w'as a deaf mute. He did not 

 seem to be sad nor downhearted, however ; 

 and even if he could not hear and talk 

 he was one of the briglitest and happiest 

 men (apparently) I ever came across. 

 With a tablet of paper in one hand and a 

 pencil in the other he would write not only 

 so plainly that anybody could read it at 

 a glance, but his hands and face added em- 

 phasis to tlie comical way which he had of 

 expressing himself. He called to invite me 

 to take a trijo in his Ford automobile down 

 to the Ohio Experiment Station. I shall 

 have to explain right here that he is the 

 entomologist having care of the shade-trees 

 of the city of Cleveland. He was on his 

 way down to confer with Professor Hauser, 

 Entomologist of the station. Perhaps I 

 had better state riglit here that his name is 

 Charles R. Neillie. Well, with him in liis 

 automobile were his two sons — the oldest 

 one, I think, 17, and the younger C". per- 

 haps 5 or 6 ; and it was really a wonder to 

 see that little chap talk to his father by the 

 use of the deaf-and-dumb alphabet. In 

 riding along he would give his father a 

 punch, and then, pointing to some object, 

 make a lot of signs with his little hands; 

 and several times T was tempted to think 

 that the relations between this father and 

 child were happier and purer than, may be, 

 nine out of ten who have the full use of 

 hearing and speech. The older son acted 

 a good deal as an interpreter along with 

 his father. He has been for some years a 

 newsboy in Cleveland, and has saved up 

 money enough so he will be prepared very 

 soon to take a college course* They seem- 

 ed to be well acquainted with the heads 

 of the station, and it was a pleasure to me 

 to see the kind and genial reception the 

 different professors gave him at every turn. 



* Once on our trip I noticed the father turned 

 around and made a quick sign with his hand to the 

 older boy, who quickly replied. I was curious 

 enough to know what it was the father signaled. 

 The son replied, " He asked me to listen carefully 

 to see if I could hear any unusual rattle with the 

 automobile." You see if the father himself could 

 not hear, as he was making a pretty good speed, 

 he wanted the benefit of his son's hearing to know 

 if everything about the automobile was all tisht 

 and secure. 



Well. T have something to tell you still 

 nuire wnndcrfiil — yts, teveral tilings. First 

 of all, the good mother is also a deaf mute, 

 and they have brought up a family of four 

 children ; and every one, from the bright 

 little girl only three or four years old, is 

 clear up to date in every line of juvenile 

 progress going on in the world just now.* 



My good friend Neillie told me confi- 

 dentially, but I think he wili i!ot object if 

 I tell it here, that his grandfather was 

 an infemiierate man and the father follow- 

 ed the grandfather, or was, perhaps, even 

 worse. For this reason friend Xeillie is 

 out-and-out dry, from the top of his head 

 to the sole of liis feet. His three boys, 

 one of them near -maturity, have never tast- 

 ed any liquor nor tobacco in any form or 

 shape. 



By the waj^, it is a wonderful thing to 

 see a man entirely deaf run an automobile; 

 and you might think it unsafe; but after 

 riding with him over fifty miles I could not 

 feel sa-fer, even at a good high speed, with 

 the majority of chauffeurs who can both 

 hear and talk. At a later date it was my 

 gTeat pleasure to visit the humble home of 

 friend Neillie, at 4317 East llGth St., 

 Cleveland; and their beautiful little gar- 

 den (containing hives of bees) was one 

 of the finest illustrations of supporting a 

 family on a small area of ground that I 

 have ever met. It was high-pressure gar- 

 dening " with a vengeance." Almost every 

 sort of fruit-tree was found on less than 

 one-fourth of an acre, and the limbs were 

 just bending with beautiful fruit of every 

 description. 



As friend Neillie is an entomologlist, 

 and has (not at his tongue's end but at his 

 fingers' ends) the whole matter of spraying 

 the shade-trees of the city, he certainly 

 ought to know hoAv to spray his garden 

 stuff. Huber and 1 made our trip to Cleve- 

 land in a new sedan Ford. Now, friend 

 Neillie had invited us to look over the chil- 

 dren's garden in the city of Cleveland; and 

 he suggested that he could run our Ford 

 whore he wanted to go easier than he could 



* Just think of it, friends. How can a fathei' 

 and mother teach a baby to talk when neilher 

 can say a word nor hear one? After the first 

 baby has grown so it can talk, I suppose he might 

 teach the other one. While Mrs. Neillie was show- 

 ing me thru their little homo I looked inquiringlj 

 at a sheet of paper fastened to the wall, containing 

 the deaf-and-dumb alphabet. She explained that 

 she kept it there so as to teach the children. 

 Now, try as you may, you cannot m imagination 

 comprehend or realize the tremendous tusk these 

 two parents liave gone thru in building up a home 

 and bringing up four children " in the straight and 

 narrow path" in which they should walk. 



