CHAPTER 5

My stay at the Institution resulted very happily in one way, it brought about my meeting with Richard Wagner, “ Dick. ” But unlike his illustrious namesake, Dick had no music in him—he was a mute, and a mute has absolutely no conception of musical notes. He was in the class just below me, and so strong was our friendship that I decided to remain at the school the coming year to be with my chum, as well as to become more familiar with the sign language and to improve my scholarship by review work. So I stayed a full school year at the Institution, and was gradually absorbed into the new order of things, into this little world of silent people.

When I returned home the second summer, I found all my old school friends greatly changed. Even Florence had changed. There were new cliques and gangs, new cases—Florence had another fellow! I no longer belonged to any set. I had unconsciously, yet quite naturally, acquired ways and ideas foreign to those old time companions; I was interested in things that pertained to the deaf and their world, old interests had faded away, and I was, to my own surprise, becoming retiring and clannish.

By the latter I mean I preferred the company of my deaf friends to that of hearing people. My thoughts dwelt on such things as promised an outlook for one in my condition. I dwelt upon future activities that had never come into my mind while I was partially deaf, and never dreaming that I should ever be stone deaf. Over a year away from my hearing companions had put a new face on matters, had brought about a different viewpoint and a world of affairs quite different from those of hearing people. For example, I must forget such occupations where one must use a telephone; I could not hold a job where dictations were necessary.

Dick and I had often discussed our future college days. There was but one college for the deaf in the whole world, and it was both a privilege and an honor to go there, and the day of actually stepping upon the campus for the first time an event to look forward to with great anticipation. We had been told that it was not unlikely we would be met at the railroad station in the college city by some of the students, or even be accosted by some of the professors, who, in a welcoming and helpful way, a kind of get-together spirit, would escort us over the city, sight-seeing, and guide us to the college. Dick told me that it would be our duty, if so met, to face the cost of it in return for the courtesy and friendly aid rendered.

So all summer preceding our college opening, my head filled with the great times in store, and Dick and I kept up a correspondence on this subject until a few days before our respective dates for leaving home. Mother and Nell were proud of me, but sad-eyed over the idea of separation. I was a young man now, with long pants and long thoughts. Even Florence came with some of her new set, for it was not often the town sends one of its youth away to college, and my case had its unique aspect. Dick had spent his summer on a western farm, and we timed our departures so we would arrive in the college city the same day.

I stepped off my train in that city of my dreams at three thirty-one Friday afternoon, and at exactly four the long train from the West pulled in with Dick aboard. And didn’t we feel bully? I had never experienced such a hearty handshake as Dick gave me. He, brown, callous and strong, full of western frankness and spirit; I, while equally spirited and crazy over the meeting, only half-tanned and hardened. Our contact and grasp were like the joining of two electrical currents; we were just “ full up ” with life and joy.

“ Made nearly two hundred this summer, Mickey, and I’ve saved most of it. How are you, old kid? ”

“ Great—bully, ” I replied, grinning, and returning that hard, honest grip. “ Do you know how to get to the college? Its northwest, I think or—northeast, somewhere. This town’s marked off like a compass with the Capitol at the center. Let’s ask an officer, then we’ll look after our baggage. ”

“ They look after that at the college—send the wagon for it. We don’t bother—come along — ” and just then two gentlemen stepped up to us and greeted us in the sign language.

“ Newly arrived deaf students for college? ” inquired one, who, dressed in a long coat over a white vest, and crowned with a silk hat, I judged must be one of the faculty.

“ Yes, sir, ” I returned, smiling. He extended his hand, saying, “ I am Doctor Greene ”—I had heard the name—“ and this is Professor Ellis. We came expecting a large delegation of students, but as they are not here, I presume they are on the next train. ” Dick and I took the proffered hand of the other gentleman, and gave our names.

We were, indeed, flattered on being met by these high personages. I instantly recalled the tip on just such a thing, now it had come about, and weren’t we, indeed, honored?

Professor Ellis was tall and slim. He wore a mustache and glasses. He was rather pale. He did not, however, appear so old as I had fancied these college professors to be. Like the Doctor, he had on a long coat and white vest—they might have been taken for senators—but the Doctor was rather rotund and shallow. Their manner and conversation were fully in keeping with their high station and that superior air we notice in college men. Dick gave me a nudge and a look that warned me that we were now to meet with real college experience, and must conduct ourselves as ones versed in the ethics, and meet all situations with an air of cognition.

“ To get to the college, ” explained Professor Ellis, “ we must walk four blocks to the car. As our car goes through the city to a terminal where we must wait for a transfer, we might spend an hour sightseeing—if you students like. ”

“ That will be fine, ” I replied, in high expectations. “ Is there a place at the terminal where we can check these suitcases? ”

“ Of course, ” assured our escorts; and we set off for the car. Aboard our car, I sat with the Doctor and Dick with the Professor. I paid the fares for all, and as we moved along it seemed that everything worth seeing, world-famous landmarks, were all strewn along that identical street. There was the house where a great martyr died—here was the brick hotel the city’s founder built, and yonder was a famous statesman’s home. An equestrian statue of the father of his country was especially referred to as the work of a former student of our college, a famous deaf sculptor, now abroad. Of course Dick and I were all eyes and attention. But the climax came when a body of cavalry galloped by, and following, in a carriage, sat a stout man and a fair woman. “ Look! ” both our guides exclaimed, “ there are the President and his wife! ”

At last we came to the terminal, and we all got out. Dick and I checked our luggage. Dr. Greene explained that the car for the college would not be on hand until five thirty, when the cars ran on the half hour for the suburbs, and now, indeed, was our chance to go sight-seeing. So we set off over the wonderful city and soon came to an eminence from which we had a magnificent view of the splendid panorama, the city, and the great river that flows by it. The Doctor pointed to a great white shaft.

“ That’s Washington Monument, ” he explained, but we already knew that. “ It’s 999 feet high. Whenever I tell that to a new student, he invariably asks why the workmen didn’t go on and add another foot, and I have to repeat the old story about the materials giving out. You see, there’s a stone contributed by every important city in the world, and no city might give two stones, nor could two stones be alike; so the builders ran out of stones. The job was halted just under the height originally planned — ”

“ How many stones were contributed? ” broke in Dick, his curiosity getting the better of his hitherto respectful reserve. “ This is all new to me. I thought the monument was 555 feet — ”

“ You’ve been misinformed, my boy, ” interrupted the Professor.

“ And as to your question, I am surprised that any youth capable of entering our institution of advanced learning should ask it—he should know. I will keep that in mind, and later on you will get the answer through your own diligence. There is a work on geology and masonry in the Library of Congress which you two should get, and learn all about this wonderful shaft. There is a stone there from Iceland antedating the Glacial Age and bearing evidence of having been broken off from the sub-strata of the Polyphemus igneous formation, supposed to be sixteen thousand feet below the surface of the earth! ” The Professor’s face was very grave.

I gasped. Dick paled. We were afraid of again being forced to admit our unworthiness to enter the seat of advanced learning, and the Doctor, noticing our embarrassment, turned the subject and suggested that we get supper before going to the college. The lateness of the hour, he explained, would not admit of our arriving in time for supper at the college. Anxious to get out of the awful channel the Professor had steered us into, we gladly acquiesced, and off we set for a restaurant. Dick and I were hungry, if our friends were not exactly so.

“ I was hungry on arrival. The excitement drove it away; but now my appetite is on again with a vengeance, the more so as I get whiffs of the broilers around here. Do you know a good place to eat? ” I looked inquiringly as I spoke.

“ To dine, you mean, Master Michael. At college, you know, we are more careful of our choice of words. ”

I had been spelling my words, as I preferred to do with some people who understood them, as in the case of these deaf professors. So many of the mutes I had met used signs almost to the exclusion of spelled words. I never liked that. Then a brilliant thought came brilliantly forth, and I said, “ Then how about the mutes—they sign ‘ eat ’ and ‘ dine ’ the same way? ”

“ Here we are, boys, a great place to eat! ” The Doctor called our attention as one might sign it out.

I paused, amazed. He, this doctor of learned laws who had just reproved me for incorrectly using the word “ eat ” had used it himself! I was on the point of rashly correcting him when Dick gave me a jab that shut off my steam. I was mighty thankful for that jab, as there is no telling what those men would have thought of me for such audacity.

It was, indeed, a great place to dine. We left it to our exalted escorts to order the dishes. I noticed that the waiter had difficulty understanding the Doctor’s words, but there is so much noise in a restaurant I took it accordingly and paid no further heed. That order, as written down by the sleekly-groomed waiter was amazingly long, I thought, and I tried a side glance to see what was coming, but failed. It was too long. However, in due time, that order was set before us, a great New York cut an inch thick, with mushrooms and garnishings. There were six other dishes besides shoestring potatoes—I don’t remember the names, but they smelled and tasted expensively good, and we all lit in with an utter abandon and lack of dignity, the professors all aglee.

I’ve often heard that men of brains and learning have their peculiarities at table—Emerson ate pie at breakfast!—that they aren’t much for manners, and so forth, and surely I had my chance to verify it right there. Both the Doctor and the Professor broke every law of etiquette I had learned in childhood and that Mrs. Walton and Nell had taught me. Even Dick, after his summer on a Missouri farm where they aren’t much for manners, was unable to conceal his astonishment.

That meal cost five dollars, and Dick and I paid for it. We felt sore, as it almost broke us for that day. Still, it was our part to feel, or try to feel, honored. We were sure we had conducted ourselves highly in keeping with our position and had undoubtedly made a good impression on two members of the faculty; so we didn’t complain of the cost—just then.

The streets were ablaze with lights when we left the restaurant and to us, fresh from the country, it was a wonderful sight, enchanting and bewildering.

“ The dinner was great, boys, and you have done the proper thing. It is the custom when students are honored at the station, as you have been, to dine the professors royally. Now, we might go to a good play—a vaudeville show, for instance, that won’t cost much, then we’ll go home—I mean to the college. ”

It took some persuading and tact on our part before we finally had matters our way, which was decidedly against spending more of our money, and by that time we had got in a crowd packed in front of the theatre. Then, before we knew it, our escorts had disappeared! We managed to emerge from the human pack and had a chance—arm room—to discuss the situation. Then, like a bullet, the truth struck us.

“ Dick! ” I turned a doubting face to him, “ Do you think those fellows were really of the faculty? ”

Dick’s jaws parted. “ Gosh, ” he spelled, “ I believe we’ve been stung! ”