338 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVI. No. 41 r 



language, and to know how we might carry on her education. 

 We asked advice of one of the oldest teachers of the deaf. 

 "You can do nothing," was the answer. "When she is ten 

 years old, send her to the Institution, where she will be 

 taught the sign-language." 



"But she still speaks. Can we not retain her language ? " 



"She will lose it in three months, and become dumb as 

 well as deaf. You cannot retain it." 



It was in this time of our discoiiragement that we heard 

 of the visit of Mr. Horace Mann and Dr. Howe to the schools 

 of Germany, and their report in favor of the oral system. 

 We turned to Dr. Howe for help. He told us that even 

 children born deaf could be taught to speak, and encouraged 

 us to talk to our little girl, and to teach her to recognize the 

 spoken words of our lips. He warned us not to use nor to 

 allow any signs, and never to understand them. Cheered 

 by his encouragement, but discouraged by all other teachers 

 of the deaf and by our own ignorance, we groped our way. 

 Gradually light dawned. The child began to recall words 

 forgotten in her long illness, and to add new words to her 

 vocabulary learned from our lips. A young teacher, Miss 

 True, who has ever since been devoted to the instruction of 

 the deaf, but was then totally inexperienced, though admira- 

 bly fitted by nature and training for the work, came to our 

 aid. Our little girl joined her sisters in their lessons and 

 their play. She knew no signs, she spoke imperfectly but 

 intelligibly, and understood those around her. It was in after 

 years that she told me she did not then know that she dif- 

 fered in any way from other children, and sometimes won- 

 dered why strangers would address her younger sister rather 

 than herself. Meanwhile, under Miss True's intelligent teach- 

 ing, her mental development progressed rapidly, and her 

 language grew daily. We could not but feel that we had 

 chosen the better system of education for our child, and ear- 

 nestly wished other deaf children might share its advantages. 

 We were confirmed in this opinion when, on a trip to Wash- 

 ington, we called with our little girl on Mr. Gallaudet and 

 his mother, a deaf-mute. As she observed the child, and 

 witnessed the readiness with which she understood and an- 

 swered Mr. Gallaudet, she turned to her son and asked, "Why 

 was not I taught to speak ? " 



In 1864, in connection with a few friends and aided by 

 Dr. Howe, we applied to the Legislature for a charter for a 

 school where the system of teaching articulation and lip- 

 reading should be used. Hon. Lewis J. Dudley of North- 

 ampton, a member of the Senate and of the Committee on 

 Education to which our petition was referred, had a daugh- 

 ter born deaf, then a pupil in the American Asylum. He 

 was convinced from his own observation that it was impossi- 

 ble to teach the deaf to speak, and through his influence our 

 efforts were defeated. 



Not baffled nor discouraged by defeat, we then, with the 

 aid and sympathy of a few friends, determined to open a 

 little school of our own. After eight months of waiting for 

 pupils, our school was opened at Chelmsford, in June, 1866, 

 with only five pupils; but Miss Rogers was their teacher. 

 Her sister had been with Dr. Howe as the teacher of Laura 

 Bridgman and Oliver Caswell, both deaf, dumb, and blind 

 from their birth. How identified Miss Rogers has been 

 with the whole work from the very beginning, how much of 

 its success is due to her earnestness and entire devotion, we 

 all know. 



Since the first days of that little school, teachers equally 

 faithful, equally devoted, equally earnest, have entered into 

 the work, and have carried it on to its present success : but 



Miss Rogers gave it its first start. Hon. Thomas Talbot, then 

 lieutenant governor, and brotherin-law of Miss Rogers, be- 

 came interested in the work, and encouraged us to apply 

 again to the Legislature. Mr. Talbot called with me on 

 Gov. Bullock to secure his aid. To our great surprise and 

 pleasure, the governor informed us that he had just learned 

 that a gentleman in Northampton had been watching our 

 work, and was ready to give fifty thousand dollars towards 

 the endowment of a school for the deaf in Massachusetts, 

 and that he would gladly help us. 



In his annual address to the Legislature, in 1867, he said, 

 " For successive years the deaf-mutes of the Commonwealth,^ 

 through annual appropriations, have been placed for in- 

 struction and training in the asylum at Hartford. While, in 

 the treatment of these unfortunates, science was at fault and 

 methods were crude, in the absence of local provisions, this 

 course was perhaps justifiable; but with added light of 

 study and experience, which has explored the hidden ways 

 and developed the mysterious laws by which the recesses of 

 nature are reached, I cannot longer concur in the policy of 

 expatriation, for I confess I share the sympathetic yearnings 

 of the people of Massachusetts towards these children of the 

 State detained by indissoluble chains in the domain of si- 

 lence. This rigid grasp we may never relax; but over un- 

 seen waves, through the seemingly impassable gulf that sep- 

 arates them from their fellows, we may impart no small 

 amount of abstract knowledge and moral culture. They 

 are the wards of the State. Then, as ours is the respon- 

 sibility, be ours also the grateful labor; and I know not to 

 what supervision we may more safely intrust the delicate 

 and intricate task than to the matured experience which has 

 overcome the greater difE.culty of blindness superadded to 

 privation of speech and hearing. In no other object of phi- 

 lanthropy the warm heart of ]\fassachusetts responds more 

 promptly, assured as I am, on substantial grounds, that legis- 

 lative action in this direction will develop rich sources of 

 private beneficence. I have the honor to recommend that 

 the initial steps be taken to provide for this class of depend- 

 ants within our own Commonwealth," etc. 



This portion of the message was referred to a large joint 

 special committee, of which Mr. Dudley was chairman on 

 the part of the House. Dr. Howe and Mr. F. B. Sanbom 

 (the chairman and secretary of the Board of State Charities) 

 appeared for that board ; I represented petitioners for an act 

 of incorporation; while Rev. Collins Stone (the principal of 

 the American Asylum). Rev. W.°W. Turner (its former 

 principal), and Hon. Calvin Day (one of its vice-presidents) 

 appeared in the interests of the asylum as advocates of the 

 sign-language, and as opponents of our petition. A large 

 number of deaf-mutes, with Professor D. E. Bartlett as in- 

 terpreter, were also present. At one of the hearings my 

 daughter was called before the committee, and questioned in 

 arithmetic, history, and geography. Her answers were sat- 

 isfactory. 



To test her general intelligence, a gentleman asked, "Can 

 you tell me who laid the first Atlantic cable? " Quickly and 

 smilingly she answered, "Cyrus Field." The committee 

 was convinced that her progress and intelligence were equal 

 to that of most hearing children of the same age, and gave 

 us our charter. At one of these hearings our little girl saw 

 for the first time the deaf-mute's signs, and asked why deaf- 

 mutes did not speak with the lips, as she did, for she thought 

 it a great deal better to talk with the mouth than with the 

 fingers. 



Mr. Dudley became convinced of the superiority of the 



