SILENT BANQUET.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 218, 14 September 1908, Page 3

SILENT BANQUET.

ONE HUNDRED DEAF-MUTES. AT

DINNER

"Ladies and gentlemen; pray silence for the toast " the toastmaster at the Holborn Restaurant was beginning (reports the Daily Mail of 22nd July), but he stopped himself in time, for the guests who filled the Venetian Chamber were inhabitants of the Silent World.

The deaf and dumb banquet was the climax of the series of festivities arranged by the English deaf-mutes in honour of the French sourds-muets whose visit to London ended the nextday. .

Nearly a hundred deaf and dumb people sat down to dinner, and the spectacle was a sufficiently remarkable one, for if tongues could not wag, fingers could flash, and at a pace that knew.no time limit.

The clatter of knives and forks was the only sound that broke the strange silence. Toasts were honoured— silently.- opeeches wer,e made— oti the fingers. Smiles greeted the afterdinner witticisms, but there was never a laugh to disturb the silence of the banquet chamber.

"We are all fellow citizens in the same Silent Kingdom. You, like I, prefer that clever play 'L'Enfant Pro-" digue' to the best efforts of Mme. Bernhardt or M. Coquelin, and a, quiet chat on the fingers to the best Ciceronian oration," signed the chairman, Sir Arthur Fairbairn, in his address of welcome.

Like the guests, Sir Arthur could neither-speak nor hear. To him belongs the not very enviable distinction of being the only bearer of an hereditary title born deaf and dumb. He has devoted his whole life to caring for the deaf -and dumb, and last night extended the warmest of welcomes toju's silent brothers and sisters from France.

Sir Arthur, in proposing the toast of "Sa Majeste le Roi de GrandeBretagne," told the French deaf-mutes that he could personally assure them that the King took the kindest interest in and felt the sincerest sympathy with the deaf and dumb of France.

The Rev. F. W. G. Gilby translated the chairman's speech from the twohand sign manuals to the graceful single-hand talking of the French visitors.

Mr T. B. Ecroyd, a wealthy northern manufacturer, who is deaf and dumb, signed the toast of the President, and M. Henri Gaillard, editor of La Revue dcs Soiirds-Muets, gave the toast "Progress of the Silent World." ' .