130 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



the evils of land-speculation in leading to the robbery of 

 land granted as Indian reserves, to give some of his friends 

 a short address, explaining my views on land reform. I note 

 in my journal, " preached on * Land Nationalization/ talk 

 afterwards.'* At this time, however, the one subject of 

 private interest everywhere in America was land-speculation, 

 and nobody could see anything bad in it. My ideas, there- 

 fore, seemed very wild, and I don't think I made a convert. 



One of the most interesting visits I made in Washington 

 was to the National Deaf-Mute College, founded in 1857, 

 and one of the best institutions of the kind in the world. The 

 president, Dr. Galaudet, learnt to speak by signs before he 

 spoke audibly, his mother being deaf and dumb, while his 

 father was the first teacher of deaf-mutes in the United States. 

 There are about one hundred and twenty students from 

 all parts of the Union, and the buildings stand in one hundred 

 acres of beautifully wooded grounds, within ten miles of the 

 Capitol. The more advanced students learn every subject 

 taught in the best colleges, such as mathematics, the ancient 

 and modern languages, the various sciences, moral philo- 

 sophy, etc., and all these subjects are taught as thoroughly 

 and as easily as to those who possess the power of speech. 



But besides being taught to use the gesture language as 

 easily and as quickly as we use ordinary speech, and to read 

 and write as well as we do, they are also now taught to 

 speak — a much more difficult thing, and long thought impos- 

 sible, because, not being able to hear either the teacher's voice 

 or their own, they have to be taught by watching their 

 tutor's mouth while speaking, and then trying to imitate the 

 movements of the lips and tongue, aided by feeling the 

 throat with their fingers. It is a very slow process, and 

 success depends much on the special imitative faculties and 

 vocal organization of the learner. Even in the best cases 

 there is a hardness and want of modulation in the voice, but 

 they learn to say everything, even to make a speech in 

 public, and at the same time they learn what is termed lip- 

 reading — that is, to know what a person is saying by watching 

 the motions of the lips and throat. But in this there is, 



