Note 144 — Chapter VI

The foregoing illustrate some of the most striking misconceptions regarding the deaf. On the other hand, no doubt the deaf as well as the blind suffer from sentiment on the part of the public, and from the sensational accounts which appear from time to time in the newspapers and magazines concerning what the deaf have been found able to accomplish. Many things are referred to as "wonders", as though it were strange that they could be done by people without hearing, some of the achievements of the deaf being set down as most remarkable. Such writings are usually in a kindly spirit, and may often serve a useful purpose in making known the similarity of the capabilities of the deaf and of the hearing; but when they make the deaf appear as a peculiar and unlike part of the race, their effect may be most misleading. The worst result is that the public becomes ready and willing to believe almost any thing about the deaf.