The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 17, 1900, Page 2

THE SUNDAY CALL EDUCATING AND DEVELOPING THE MINDS OF THE DEAF AND BLIND CMANY - ‘OF THESF: PEODLE WITH BUT FOUR SENSES BECOME FANOUS WHERE . - THEIR V. BETTER e = & ENDOWED the deaf .a mute dumb lawyer blind studeni, n Skl b by . % K. dcjass ot blind m n muste and I'm not “T became biind when I was 7 years old. Yes, 5 S BaRSies d broken down in health . y,0 yhat her blindness is an aid I remember everything with perfect distinctness d State. And Gussie poer than a arawback In that work— —colors and—and everything. No. I have no es- lerstand her puplls so plans for the fut: 1 shall probably Besides that, she attends to ¥ here and continue my study of music. Do dence and keeps up her T get all my music by ear? Oh, by no means. e is a girl of wonder- We have a special touch notation for musi nd we are all very Come up to the library and I'll show it to you. She led me through a serles of halls and or opened and she came in— stairways with an unhesitating certainty, ian with golden hair, a cheery “See, this is an exercise book. These little smile and eves that stare appealingly at ralsed points on the page are arranged in. dif- the notk Jess before her. ferent ways to represent different notes. The, Any one who thinks that blindness puts an end to work or usefulness should have erful voice without e full of honor in e Bt sl ger of rare sweet- she is more th: Left sightle s acquired thrg he gifts and on 8 its an chat with Gussie Mast. o : of course I can't read letters.” she -~ s r = n aswer to a question how she at- orrespondence of the answer them after has no expression for other than' concrete objects of sense, and a human being de- pendent upon the mater world about him for all knowledge Is but little above the plane of the animal. But the moment they begin to un- derstand written language it pupil yuns a finger along the surface and becomes possible to convey reads the music as readily as a seeing per- abstract ideas, and thelr edu- son, reads written music.” ation progresses rapidly She openea a desk and produced a ‘It must require wonderful delicacy of Hence you see that con- tybewaiter. « touch,” I ventured. trary to the general notign, “Now dictate something,” she said.. In reply she brought down a volume of the deaf are at first much IN THE PLAYSROVND e ™ MAST THE I dictated and she clicked it off as Swift, printed with raised characters, more helpless than the blind. FAMOUS rapidly and perhaps a trifle more ac- Then she spread a handkerchief over the Dumbness is not an affection BUNY curately than the average typewriter page d through it with her finger of the voice, but an ignorance \ 3 @ aver: son reads Of how to use the voice on SINGER girl il the average person reads Only qnce, when T referred to the WIth the eye. Then she doubled the hand- account of deafness from in- pupils of the institution as “inmate: kerchief to two, then four, thicknesses, . fancy. We are slowly evolv- sha turned on me with a pained look. Still continuing to read through it with” Ing a method ol teaching the “Don’t call us ‘inm; just as considerable readin deaf how to use the volce, though this were a lunatic asylum or “You see,” she said, by way of explana- zrm«: ‘lir ‘n ever hevnmm:1 pr;- & home' for the feeble minded. This tion, “the ability to read does not depend 1eCted o any e"':‘“" umb- s a school for the training of the deaf upon any espedial dellcacy in the texture 1¢S8 WIll be a thing of the e blind and we are no more of the skin or on any abnormal nerve cen- DSt Whenever 1t'1s possi- ‘inmates’ than are university stu- ters in the fingers. We feel just what you ° ogu T ORI lie J’l‘;s" whf-‘ dents. I dom't see why people can feel, but we know how to Interpret it bgt- o rfédlly to it lip reeadln: never realize tr ter.” g k A visitor sometimes makes this mistake Then she sat down to a plano and sans. Loats R o B LB on his arrival, but he usually léarns better It was a simple littic ballad, yet at the - the pet of th erin he N dea 3 the bet of the superintendent and the after he has been thiere an hour. There i3 sound of her Tich, syppathetic soprano - 214 dumy and biind per affiction, nothing about the place to suggest either the listener could not help but recognize { Mast? .Certainly,” snswerea Lhe ‘lum or the “home.” The Jlarge, that the singer is an artist at soul and Warring Wilkinson: to my Well-kept grounds are filled with little t the praises that have been showered re the is now, faking her knots of blind boys or girls strolling about o generously ypon her were tributes not 1. Gussie™ .- 5 —the biind always go about in twos and to her blindness but to her gentus. But ce then it rik of fitting tk the blind girl slowly but uner- threes. There are no burs on the windows for her blindness who knows to what ringly picked her way to thé office the OF heavy locks on the doors. Every- helghts she may not attain. And who W occu- vemerable ‘superintendent told me many Where is the cleanliness and comfort of a knows to what heights she may not at- ¢ at the Mark things about her. ¥ Wwell-kept boarding-school. And of per- tain in spite of it? 1s one of these. he lost the sight of both her eyes onal freedom the pupils are given as And how does this institution for the se, the blind girl through sickness when she was a chilq of Much as they can use. training of the deaf and dumb and blind elve egrees fro; e State Unl- 7. Then she came here and from the first Gussie Mast is a talkative little woman, do its work? Hastings College of Law showed wonderful aptitude. She evinced perfectly willing to discuss anything but Its first and principal equipment is an n for herself an enviable musical ability and means were furnished herself. On that subject she is br a Infinite patience on the part of the terary w is another, her to cultivate her voice. She has a rather excessively to the point. teachers. From all parts of the State / come boys and girls between the ages of 7 or 12, deprived of one or more senses. Then the first task is to establish some mode of communication between the pupil and the outside world. In the case of those who are deprived only of sight this is a comparatively easy task. They can hear and use spoken words 4nd their mode of thought Is the same as that of others. Their education, . then, consists ot an acquirement of the knack of read- ing raised letters. This once mastered they have at thelr disposal a library of about 1000 volumes, including all the standard works. By this means they are given a course in general culture, and if they show any disposition for it, in music. The blind pupil graduating from the in- stitution at 20 has a knowledge of alge- bra, geometry, geography, history, gram- mar, literature, languages and all the otner branches that go to make up a gens eral education. In the case of the deaf-mute it is far different. He has no comprehension of language until by slow and laborious pro- cesses it is ‘mparted to him. This is in- variably a matter of no small difficulty. “I know of nothing harder,” said Super- intendant Wilkinson, “than to teach a mind accustomed entirely to a sign lan- guage. and having no comprehension of abstract ideas apart from things, to think in terms of words Instead of in terms of concrete objects. ‘It is always hardest at the beginning. The pupll comes here often with no conception of language, With a mental lifo mcde up entirely of sight images. By means of plctures and objects we gradiially teach them the use of print- ed substantives. Then by taking these name-words to pleces we get at the alpha- bet. This is the most difficult part of the process and often takes many years. Af- ter the alphabet is mastered we teach Sons is much smaller than fs generally them word formation and their education $uPPOsed, there being only about fifty in becomes vastly simplified atter they learn o¢°these Is of course extremely diffeul] to understand printed language. and it is not often that they are put com- “Tmagine trying to inculcate an ab- pletely in communication with the outer stract idea of morality or the existence :gx‘;]sd. n?{':;f} ”fie‘l’fnm)‘é'fl‘e;“mehgxcepl‘ . notably e ellar, who, ale of & God Into a mipd which depends en- (1lougn deaf and dumb and biind, ia phe: y upon sense perception for ideas. IL nomenally bright. She is now attending is almost impossible. The primitive sign Radcliffe College in the East.” language, which they form for themselves, The blind are educated in classes separs < o ¥ keeping and quarrel very much as girls of all conditions do. Except for an ap- pealing loak bness In t they are bri own m g s v x weam, which ' an a mateh for t e a all piz r = me s 3 T s 3 ns ate from the deaf and dumb and lead for the most part a separate existence. Their afliction prohibits any active out- door exercise, and _ their energies are ST turned chiefly to music. Only sometimes k during play hours may they be seen wan- dering about the grounds In little groups or sunring themselves on some d Living.,as they do in an eterr 4 they are yet extraordinarily se e to sunlight ‘and Seek it Upon every oppor- tunity. Of course they have their characte ~John Eweetman has = sore finger and 8o he cannot rem r his ns till it gets well, for he studies spelling out all he re r “Adol dark Mexican boy, wi clos hair and harrible sightless eves knowh for his unique personali stless to make much hool, he is vet a n of ari trument in the tra in the productic freak mu: medicine bot he crestes he plays t native Mexico favorite instrum 1ts on which £irls of Mo es wide from to help airs thorough master. Often he will sit for It go throug s of hours thre off with vast sympa s r r and fee miliar airs of his child- £ g of hood, while the little blind boys gather around and listen, still as statues. With the deaf and dumb life is a far different matter. Once educated up to the polnt where they can understand guage, they are placed very near! par with the outside world. The girls study, sew, embroider, and in their play hours amuse with dolls, see-saw, house- be m pla c Al k the afflicted.