39
Events of the Passing Time
Soon after the opening of school in September, the managers of the great Industrial Exposition, then being held in the city, invited all its silent pupils and their teachers to attend the exposition, offering them the privilege free of charge. Of course the invitation was accepted, as anything that added to the happiness or progress of the deaf and dumb was welcomed by Dr. Mayhews.
On the morning of the day designated for the visit, covered express wagons were sent to the institution to convey them to the exposition buildings. Owing to the large number of pupils, it was impossible to secure conveyance for all. So the boys walked and the girls were divided into companies, each company being under the care of a teacher. As fast as conveyances arrived, they were carried to the exposition buildings. That was a grand day to them—a day long to be remembered.
So many things claimed their attention—beautiful things, curious things, and things of utility. Thousands of pictures of different sizes were displayed, from the immense painting representing the “prodigal son”—which occupied a room alone and was valued at seven thousand dollars—to the small cabinet and vignette photographs. There was a beautiful artificial grotto with stuffed specimens of birds and wild animals grouped about on the ledges of rock. An artificial waterfall, pouring over the rocks into a basin beneath, was also seen. Fountains threw their misty spray high into the air. Flowers, fruits, etc., were temptingly displayed. But it is impossible to mention the thousands of beautiful things. It is sufficient to say that all greatly enjoyed the exposition and returned to the institution with happy and grateful hearts.
The daily experiences of school life passed on as usual. Lessons were studied and learned, household tasks occupied a part of the time each day, and various amusements filled up the leisure hours.
The usual entertainments marked the holidays, and now and then an extra entertainment lent variety to the everyday routine. But these were such as have been already described, and to give details would, I fear, only weary my readers.
Soon after the holidays, cards of invitation were sent to Dr. Mayhews and family, and to a number of the officers and teachers, requesting their presence to witness the marriage of a deaf-mute lady who lived in the city to a deaf-mute gentleman of New York State. The invitations were generally accepted, and on the evening appointed for the ceremony the invited guests gathered at the home of the bride’s sister. A minister of the Gospel read orally the questions which composed the marriage ritual, and these questions were translated into signs, as he read them, by one of the teachers from the institution.
After the couple had been pronounced man and wife and had received the congratulations of friends, the question arose as to who had married them—whether it was the minister who had spoken in what was to them a foreign language, or the teacher who had, by means of the sign language, made the questions plain to their minds. It was finally agreed that, by virtue of his office, it was the minister who had performed the ceremony. That question being settled, all proceeded to the dining room where an elegant marriage feast was spread. After partaking of that, a pleasant social time was enjoyed. Wishing the newly married couple a pleasant and prosperous journey together through life, the guests departed.
Time went on, and the genial spring days came once more, when a gloom was cast over the institution by the death of one of its inmates—a little boy who had not been long there and who had seemed, from the first, mentally unable to climb up the “bright rungs” of the “ladder of knowledge.” His father was telegraphed for, but being in indigent circumstances, he could not come to view the remains or afford the expense of having the body sent home for burial. So preparations were made to have the body taken to Crown Hill Cemetery, the beautiful city of the dead six miles away, for interment.
It was arranged that about seventy-five of the pupils should accompany the remains, walking a portion of the way and riding in streetcars—which had been specially engaged for the purpose—the remainder of the distance. A funeral discourse was delivered in the chapel; then all filed past the coffin to view the countenance of their little schoolmate for the last time on earth. His face in life had been by no means beautiful, his mouth having been sadly disfigured, as his father had informed the superintendent, by some medicine which a doctor had administered by mistake. But death, or some gracious assurance that had come to him on the approach of death, had stamped his features with a calm, happy look that gave to the poor, disfigured face a comely, pleasant appearance.*
When all had gazed in awe at the still, calm face, the coffin lid was fastened down and it was borne away, followed by a number of the pupils. The funeral concourse moved onward until the beautiful cemetery, with its hills and dales, and its white, glistening monuments and silent vaults, was reached. The sexton was slowly tolling the great bell that swung from a lofty tower. The whole scene was one to fill the heart with feelings of solemn awe and lead the thoughts to the life beyond the grave.
The pupils marched, two by two, down one of the broad avenues and halted in front of a vault. The body was taken from the hearse and placed therein, after which the graves of three other deaf-mutes were visited. Then all retraced their steps to the streetcars and returned to the institution.
While the daily routine was going on as usual, a little white-winged messenger was borne to the institution, which announced that Katie Wynn had passed through the shadowy valley of death into the unknown life beyond. This intelligence was received with feelings of deep sorrow, for the sunshine of her loving, helpful ways had won for her many warm friends by whom she would be sadly missed. She passed away in the early summertime of life, just when she seemed to be best fitted and most favorably situated to exert a beneficial influence upon others. Why she should thus early be called away, leaving, as it seemed, her work still unfinished, was incomprehensible to her sorrowing friends. They only knew that she was gone, nevermore to return.
At this time a young deaf-mute gentleman was lying ill in the college for deaf-mute young men at Washington, DC. Nearly four years previous he had graduated from the I Institution and entered the college for a four-years’ course of study. Katie Wynn had been a classmate and warm personal friend of his, and when the news of her death reached him he said, “We will soon meet again.” His prediction came true, for death soon called for him. Before he died he spoke of not regretting his hard struggles to gain a good education, although that education was not to prove of the practical value to him that he had hoped it would. Yet it had served as an elevating and refining influence over him during his life, and it is believed that through it, also, he was led to understandingly accept Jesus as his Savior.
*I do not believe that God will overlook the faults of those, be they deaf and dumb or hearing persons, who, after their minds have been enlightened and they are able to ascertain and obey his commands, still choose to live on in disobedience to what conscience tells them is their duty. But I do not think it is too much to suppose that our kind heavenly Father has provided means of salvation for those who, through circumstances beyond their control, never learn of him, or of his will, in this life. Through the power of Jesus they receive pardon and eternal life, unless, indeed, their souls are so perverted that they are in no way fitted to enjoy this gracious gift.