Friend Of Deaf Mutes

Interesting Reminiscences of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Gallaudet.

Rev. Dr. Thomas Gallaudet's death will cause mourning around the world, says the New York Times. Thousands of deaf mutes are scattered who loved the rector of St. Ann's church, in New York, for the work he had done for them.

Dr. Gallaudet followed in the footsteps of his father, for whom he was named. Like his father, he married a deaf mute, and gave up his life for the help of the unfortunates. Father and son were called to the labor of love through the afflictions of others. Each was a minister of the Protestant Episcopal church. The elder Gallaudet, when a young man in Hartford, Conn., pitied a little girl, Alice Cogswell, the daughter of a neighbor, who had lost her power of speech and hearing through scarlet fever. He managed to communicate with her through a system of signals with the fingers. It was not long before he taught the little girl to read.

Alice's father, finding that there were many others similarly afflicted, interested wealthy men of Hartford in a school for deaf mutes. Dr. Gallaudet was sent abroad, where it was said that the foreigners best understood the sign language. He returned with Laurent Clerc, a pupil of Secard, and the celebrated institution at Hartford, the first in America, was founded. Other schools sprang up all over the country.

Dr. Gallaudet, the son, after being graduated from Trinity college, accepted the position of instructor in what is now the New York Institute For the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb. At the same time he was studying for the ministry. Soon after his ordination a minister told him of a young girl dying with consumption. She was deaf and dumb and could not read, as she had never been instructed. The young clergyman went to her and in a little while was able to make her understand the sign language. In that way he gave to her the consolations of religion. She died shortly after, having signaled: "I leave content and sure of my welcome."

Dr. Gallaudet was a frequent visitor to the bar of the Fifth Avenue hotel, in New York, on Sunday afternoons. It has been the custom of the proprietors for years to give up this room to the afflicted on Sunday. One week day he heard some one laughing at the antics of a "dummy" in the bar. He walked in, wearing his clerical garb. He made a few swift movements on his fingers, and the man left the place with him. He was never seen again in the bar except on Sunday afternoons.

"I have heard and read many pathetic stories," said Senator Hoar to a Washington Star man, "but none of them ever awoke so much bad sympathy as one which Professor Gallaudet related. The professor had a favorite pupil, a little deaf mute boy, who was exceptionally bright. Mr. Gallaudet asked him if he knew the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. With his nimble fingers the little one said he did, and then he proceeded to repeat it. The noiseless gesticulations continued until the boy had informed the professor of the elder Washington's discover of the mutilated tree and his quest of the mutilator. 'When George's father asked him who hacked his favorite tree, signaled the voiceless child, 'George put his hatchet in his left hand'--

"'Stop,' interrupted the professor. 'Where do you get your authority for saying he took the hatchet in his left hand?'

"'Why,' responded the boy, who knew nothing of speech, 'he needed his right hand to tell his father that he cut the tree.'"