A DAY WITH THE DEAF MUTES, BELLEVILLE.

BY REV. E. N. BAKER, M.A., B.D.

BELLEVILLE-beautiful city -is an educational centre. It has a good common and high school, two first-class business colleges, Albert College doing most efficient work for the Church and country, and, last of all, the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. For situation, size and equipment, the last is first. This magnificent pile of buildings, consisting of the main school, the workshops, the hospital, and the residence of the principal, is situated about a mile west of the city on the beautiful Bay of Quinte. It is fully equipped with a most efficient staff of teachers and all necessary helps for the training of the unfortunate class of deaf mutes. It is a Christian in

stitution, its very idea is Christian. It is a monument of the Christian spirit of this age. It is Applied Christianity in bricks and mortar. The management is Christian! not Roman Catholic, nor Anglican, nor Presbyterian, nor Baptist, nor Methodist; it is Catholic, in the true sense of the word. The different pastors of the city can, through an interpreter, each address the pupils of his religious denomination as frequently as he desires at the close of the school.*

The Institution is practically free, as there is only a few pupils whose parents pay anything. The tuition, books and medical

From the last report of the institution we learn that the total number of pupils in attendance in 1893 was 298. From the beginning of the institution there have been in all 982 pupils who have received a more or less thorough education. The report of the public inspector states: "It is safe to add the observation that the unusual success of the literary training of the pupils of the Institution arises from a practical common-sense

ONTARIO INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB, BELLEVILLE.

attendance are free. The pupil is taught, besides the literary schooling, a trade. For the boys there is printing, carpentering, and shoe-making; for the girls domestic work, tailoring, and dress-making.

What this Institution is doing for the individual who is so unfortunate as to require its assistance can be known, in part, by seeing the pupils when they first came to the school, and observing them when they go away after their seven years' course. With few exceptions, when they come, they are morally as well as intellectually incapable of performing the duties of citizenship. The exceptions are those who have been carefully guarded by parents and associates at home and who are naturally bright. These may pass through life without showing much defect in conduct or character. But the great majority are almost, if not altogether, ignorant of moral and religious obligations. They are subject to strong passions that sway their actions without restraint. This is easily accounted for. They are not only uneducated, and so incapable of understanding the laws of God and man, but they have been given almost free liberty to gratify every wish.

What a task the teacher has before him! He is to take this child without any means of communication with the outside world except sight, and without any knowledge of words or their use. He is to present facts so clearly to them through the eye that they are to get them distinctly-a task that requires patience, faith, gentleness, and long-suffering hope; in fact, every Christian virtue is required in those who would successfully teach the mute.

No more interesting, and I venture to say, few more profitable days could be spent than to visit the classes in the Institution. In the primary class the teacher sketches objects on the board, and the figure or picture gives the deaf child a conception of what is meant. These repeated efforts supply words necessary to

course of study adapted to the capacity and need of the inmates, consistent with itself, and carried out uniformly and with unanimity by a competent and willing staff of teachers. One of the most beautiful and affecting sights is the reverence and decorum with which the children, when assembled, render in their mute language the Lord's Prayer." A handsomely printed paper is published in the Institution to teach printing to some of the pupils. Mr. Mathison, the superintendent, wishes to know the names and post-office address of parents of deaf and dumb children throughout the country, not attending school, that they may be informed where and by what means their children can be instructed and furnished with an education. Religious instruction is given by visiting clergymen of the different churches of the town, and ministers of all denominations are cordially invited to visit the institution. Instruction is given in printing, shoe and carpenter-work, and to the girls in sewing and domestic work.

express a name or an action. The manual letters of the alphabet are placed before the child in pictured form, and their formation with the hand follows as a daily drill. A child of ordinary intelligence very soon gets the alphabet. The next step is to teach objects. They are placed before the child-say a hat, boy, girl, slate, desk, or the like. Their names are spelled slowly. The pupil is deeply interested and soon catches the idea. They expressthe joy in their countenance as the new ideas enter the mind.

The next step is to perform actions or describe actions performed by others. The teacher touches the hat or slate and tells what he did. The child soon grasps the idea and will express in words the simple action performed. As the child's mind expands. and new ideas are introduced, simple sentences are constructed. The adjectives, adverbs or qualifying words are clearly defined by figures or actual comparisons. For example, "John is a big boy;" if there is a big boy named John present, he is presented to the class and compared with a little boy. If actual comparison is impossible, two boys of the required sizes are sketched on the board.

The second or third year finds the pupils writing short lettershome. Some of these letters written by the senior pupils are models of neatness and marvels of intellectual training.

Articulation, or visible speech, is taught to all pupils capable of benefiting by it. The great majority of the pupils are not capable of benefiting, and of those who are, it is only the most com-mon and familiar sentences, and with those with whom they associate from day to day, that they can understand. That any mutes can be taught so that they can express themselves in words, and also, by the motion of the lips, understand what is said to them, is one of the wonders of the age.

Marvellous have been the results of the work among the deaf and dumb, not only in the few prodigies who have been here, but in nearly all who have come to the Institution. The mind and heart have been reached, and both have been educated. Graduates of these schools are the peers of their more fortunate fellows in all that constitutes true manhood. They can reason intelligently, and have a just conception of God and the plan of redemption. A teacher of many years says, "I firmly believe that their faith in salvation as taught in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, is more firm and unchanging than that of most hearing people." They do not have to say,

"If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word."

Their love is simple, they take God at His word.

Is deafness hereditary? This is a debatable question. Dr. A. Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone and also of the system of visible speech, says it is, and that deaf persons should not marry. But census statistics carefully prepared in the United States and Canada show that such marriages do not result in a

(Photographed by a CONVENTION OF GRADUATES OF THE ONTARIO INSTITUTION, BELLEVILLE. Deaf Artist.)

deaf offspring. In Ontario, where there are many deaf mutes

married, there is, so far as known, only one deaf child the result of such marriages. Congenital deafness is more often traced to consanguineous marriages and intemperate habits. There are striking instances where there are no apparent causes. There are