| Summary: | Newsletter of the North Dakota School for the Deaf. THE NORTH DAKOTA BANNER 5 on the deaf as a whole. It is akin to the practice among our state institutions of having the county pay the transportation expense of pupils whose parents are too poor to bear the expense themselves. Only a small percentage of the students of colleges and universities for the hearing are residents of the state where the institution is located. Most of them, like the deaf students of Gallaudet College, travel hundreds of miles to reach their destination. At the University of Chicago over a thousand students work their way through every year. The same is true in a varying degree of all other colleges. Yet who has ever heard of a state passing a law to help these indigent students along?” Only a few states pay the expenses of students at Gallaudet College, and we think that the practice is altogether commendable in view of the fact that there is only one college for the deaf in the world, and the heaviest expenses are borno by students from the western part of the country. If state aid tends to pauperize our young hopefuls, what about parental aid? It would seem that there should be some sort of law prohibiting aid from rich parents, so that their sons aud daughters may have a chance, like the poor students, to work their way through college. We believe (hat the reason that “the small percentage of students of colleges and universities for the hearing are residents of the state where the institution is located” is because they cannot afford to go elsewhere. Those, who have the money, go to Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, or whatnot; those who have not, go to the state university. The deaf students, who have ample means, go to Washington; those who have not, stay at home unless they can work their way through. That is about all the difference there is. The hearing, rich or poor, gets his higher education, while only the deaf of means gets his, unless state aid comes to the rescue of the “pauper.” We admire the qualities of the boy that prompt hitn to work his way through college, and wo note that the University of Chicago has a- thousand of such boys, but it should be remembered that the University of Chicago is a university, and students there do not only get a classic education, but they have also the choice of studying a profession. They study law, medicine, civil engineering, chemistry, dentistry, etc., and the inducements for one to work his way through a university are accordingly greater than those for one who goes to college merely for higher learning. Gallaudet College is not in the university class yet. Lot as many young men and women from our schools go to college, and if state aid will enlarge the representation, we think that it should be encouraged. The privilege carries with it no more stigma of pauperism than does father's fat wallet. Here and There. From the Silent Echo, we learn that there is a school for the deaf at Fred-eriokshafe, Greenland. It will soon celebrate its first anniversary. The people of Greenland are well educated for a people in a far northern country, and there is no wonder that they embrace the deaf in their sphere of education. A course in agriculture will be started for the boys of the Michigan School. It is a new venture in that the students taking up the course enter school in March and remain until December, when their three months’ vacation begins. They would divide their time evenly between work in the school-room and in the field. This, of course, means that part of the teaching force would have to be on the job all summer. Last January a Swedish weekly, Svensha Americunska 1‘osten, published in Minneapolis announced a prize for the best two hundred (or less) word essay on the topic, “The Happiest Moment of My Life.” The prize was a History of Sweden in six volumes, with 3.000 pages and 2,312 illustrations. Among the contestants was Mr. P. N. Peterson, a member of our corps of instructors. Last week the prize was delivered at his house. We congratulate Mr. Peterson upon his success. We are proud that a graduate of our school was a winner, and we know that the deaf people all over the state will feel gratified that one of their number has won out in a competition that was open to any one. The editor of the Swedish paper is Mr. Swan J. Turnblad, who was one of the ablest members of the State Hoard of Visitors.—The Companion, t s The school over which Dr. Taylor presides is a Hebrew institution, [the New York Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf Mutes] and many of its rules and regulations are of a kind not found in other schools for the deaf. For instance, certain dishes must be used only on certaiu days or occasions. If by auy chance a mistake is mado in this particular the set of dishes must be replaced by new ones. We wTent down to the pupils’ dining-room at the noon meal. As soon as all were seated, a boy rose, put on a little skull cap, went to a platform at one side of the room, and asked a blessing, orally. 1 could not understand him, but he evidently was not speaking in English, so it was not strange that it was unintelligible to me. —W. A.G. in the California News. 5 5 Mr. L. L. Straus, a deaf man, and a business man of Montgomery, Ala., has won a prize of a fifteen hundred dollar automobile, given in a voting contest to determine who was the most popular business man in that city'. We did not learn the nature of the busiuess in which Mr. Straus is engaged, but the fact that he has beer, declared the most popular business man in that enterprising Southern city speaks well for him; and all the more so, because of his handicaps. The Messenger%&ys,\ “This, we think, tends to prove what we have long thought, that a deaf person, who can offer to his employer or to the public, really good service of any kind, has a real advantage over his hearing competitor of equal merit. We don’t doubt that there are in Montgomery other business men, who, like Mr. Straus, are upright and honorable in their dealings, courteous and agreeable in manner, and who offer to their customers full lines of well chosen goods, with the assurance of attractive prices and prompt and accurate service. Hut the man who wo all especially favor is the one who has succeeded in doing all this under a heavy disadvantage.”— The Illinois Advance. Mr. Edwin Allan Hodgson, editor of the Deaf-Mutes' Journal, was honored by his deaf friends in New York City in four different celebrations on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday on Feb. 2St-h. At one of them, in the lecture room of St. Ann’s Church, every seat of which was occupied, he was presented with a beautiful gold fob, a replica of the New York Institution's seal. Mr. Hodgson lost his hearing after he had passed his ISth year of age, and ever since he became editor of the Journal some forty years ago, he has identified himself with the interests of the deaf, championing all matters for their welfare, and has been an active and influential member of the National Association of the Deaf ever since its founding in 1880. Alex L. Pach, one of his closest friends, pays him this tribute: “Of broad learning, first to approve a good act and last to condemn
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