Anecdotes & Incidents of the Deaf and Dumb

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ASK A BLESSING.

 little boy was admitted as a pupil into the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Derby. Previous to his admission he had given his parents and friends a great deal of trouble, and fears were entertained that he would be none the less troublesome to those in charge of him at the Institution. Happily however, owing to the firmness and kindness of his teachers, he very soon yielded to the rules and became a good, obedient boy. At length the time came for the vacation, and, amongst others, this little fellow went home for his holiday. The dinner hour arrived, and sitting down with his parents, he looked up at his father and put his hands together. He wanted his father to ask a blessing. The father made the boy understand he did not know what to say, then the poor little fellow began to cry. At last he thought of a plan, he would ask the blessing himself; and so he spelt on his fingers the blessing he had learnt at the Institution, and got his friends to spell on their fingers after him letter by letter and word by word, and thus overcame the difficulty in which he was placed.

In America there are four deaf and dumb clergymen working in connection with the Church Missions to the Deaf and Dumb. There are also in connection with the same mission eight lay readers, all of whom are deaf and dumb.—Deaf Mute World.

HOW TO SAVE THE RATES.

n a vast majority of cases where the deaf and dumb are allowed to grow up uneducated and uncared for they become inmates of Workhouses or Lunatic Asylums. Many years ago L—— K—— was taken from a workhouse in Derbyshire where he had been for a number of years, and educated and apprenticed to a suitable trade; he is now a steady, industrious man, married, and himself a ratepayer. This is only one of many similar instances that have come within our experience. In some other cases they are struggling to support widowed mothers and sisters.

The following is taken from the Manchester Mercury and Harrop's General Advertiser, June 10, 1800:—"On the 12th ult., in the Island of Anglesea, Mr. Henry Ceclar, a gentleman well known for his pedestrian feats, to Miss Lucy Pencoch (the rich heiress of the late Mr. John Hughes, Bawgyddanhall), a lady of much beauty, but entirely deaf and dumb. This circumstance drew together an amazing concourse of people to witness the ceremony, which, on the bride's part, was literally performed by proxy. A splendid entertainment was given on the occasion by the bridegroom; but a dreadful catastrophe closed the scene, for the bride, in coming down stairs, made a false step, and fell with so much violence against a chair that she immediately expired."

M. BERTHIER.

This gentleman, who is now senior professor in the Paris Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, is described as a man of rare merit, probably superior in literary abilities and acquirements to any other deaf mute from birth that any country can produce....