DEAF MUTES' DEBATE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19785, 8 March 1927, Page 4

DEAF MUTES' DEBATE

WORDS FLY FROM FINGERS EERIE HUSH THROUGHOUT. “Having been informed of an important international sporting congress convened at a fashionable Brussels restaurant,” says a writer in the Now York Herald, “I presented myself, only to be puzzled by rapping for fifteen minutes with no response. A.t last I decided to enter at the risk of ejection and observe discreetly what this most secretive assembly was doing. “Within there was all the stir and animation of any large meeting,” he continues, “but astonishingly unlike any convention—not a sound. A chairman was presiding, it was true, but as I watched his lips uttered no word. Likewise there were no monotone side conversations, no divided interest. All eyes were fastened on the. chairman, lingers flitted feverishly in a cinematic series of gestures “Reason enough that I had rapped unheeded! Here was a sporting congress indeed, but the world’s first international athletic conference without words —deaf and dumb sport enthusiasts, representatives of ‘silent sport clubs’ in nine European countries, met to establish an international committee of ‘silent sports.’ They included delegates from England, Germany, Italy, France, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Belgium. Lightning-Like Gestures. Emilio Pacenza, the Italian delegate, was particularly vigorous in finger debate, beginning his address, if such it may be called, by making the Fascist salute to the assembly. They were debating over the admission of the Austrian deaf and dumb athletes, ami Pacenza’s fingers twisted like lightning describing sharp angles, loops and geometrical designs. The Italian’s eyes flashed, every movement of his body showing his intense emotion. Then, as controversy became more impassioned, other delegates rose to their feet, desperately signalling for the floor, flinging floods of postured words upon the air in fierce conflict of ideas. A veritable pitched battle and still not a sound. But noise finally broke the silence. The chairman, a true Frenchman, highly nerved, could not stand the bed lam any longer. With clenched fists he pounded the table to restore order and give one man the floor. Then the debate went on, at times measured, at other times swept with passion, yet always in an uncanny hush like goblins in a panomime. “It seemed,” continues the writer, “that no normal man could be a spectator of their proceedings without pondering upon how wasteful we are with words, and how far a. few words dan go. Although equally excitable, the ‘silent athletes’ might havo furnished a good lesson to politicians—at least, by making a few phrases go a long way.

French Woman’s Interest. “Had it not been for a fortunate meeting I should have been quite at sea. But I chanced to meet Allie. Lariviere, who was born of deaf and dumb parents yet speaks not only her native French but also English, German and Dutch with, great facility. Like her six brothers she early learned the deaf and dumb language, and so translated to me much of the hottest debate and most interesting incidents. ’> Because of her unusual education

Mlle Larivicrg may soon take an active part in a much discussed problem of the deaf and dumb, namely, as to which method of educating them is most efficient. At present the best methods are said to be the French and Belgian. With these systems a French mute child learns to articulate 250 phrases at the age of ton, while with the Belgian method the child masters 537 phrases. This difference of instruction, nevertheless, made it especially striking to see how—in spite of such a handicap—the delegates transferred their ideas with such speed and deftness. As a result of this congress it is expected there will be a great incrozase in athletic meetings between deaf and dumb athletes of the various European nations and, at some later date, the pos sibility of a unification of education methods for those of the silent kindred.