The Daily Transcript (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 320, Ed. 1 Monday, August 24, 1914 Page: 3 of 4
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: Oklahoma Digital Newspaper Program and was provided to The Gateway to Oklahoma History by the Oklahoma Historical Society.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
MP ZZ/t/Jf&t?'
fllRN the annual field
games and exercises
of the Parker Practise
school, Chicago, were
taking place a few
days ago, a feature
that brought unusual-
ly long and loud ap-
plause from the throng
of visitors crowding
the school campus was
a series of fancy
dances and drills given by several
classes of boys and girls ranging in
age from six to sixteen years.
A close observer might have no-
ticed that as the children went
through the various graceful evolu-
tions, In perfect time wfth the play-
ing of a piano, they kept their eyes
turned as much as their wheelings
and swaylngs would permit in the
direction of a young woman, who
with slight motions of her hand
seemed to be directing them in their
movements. The reason for this
was not apparent, since those who
dance to music usually do not need
any such form of guidance.
HOW
1/je'
DEAF
SEE
SOUNDS
SILO SPELLS PROSPERITY FOR DAIRYMAN
TOT HAGUE
-%g!Sfr
*JP"
■
One of the Most Durable Silo® It Made of Cement Block.
vsa/ct pzsiy- ivsrsr zA&rMferso&i
* <
But when inquiries were made It developed the
(urprlslng fact that not one of these children
could hear the playing of the piano; that they
• ere, indeed, totally deaf, and depended upon the
slight assistance given them by their teacher to
go through the different maneuvers with the
same precision that would mark the movements
of hearing children.
Probably this fact alone would have caused the
visitor sufficient wonder, but he would have been
considerably more astonished a little later if he
had chanced to run across a group of the same
children laughing and chatting together as mer-
rily and naturally as If they had never known
what it was to be denied the blessed privilege
of perfect hearing. Surely the age of miracles
must have arrived when the dumb can be made
to speak and the deaf to hear with their eyes!
But the women who have brought about these
seemingly impossible things do not regard them
as either miraculous or especially wonderful.
They think It is the most natural thing in the
world that little deaf children should be taught
to speak and to read the speech of others. They
tell you, moreover, that the only way In which
such children should be instructed Is by the
modern oral system, and that the ancient method
of signs and finger spelling is quite as much a
relic of barbarism as the practise of running a
ring through the nose to beautify one's fea-
tures.
This may sound almost unbelievable to those
whose only idea of a deaf person is one who is
totally devoid of the power of speech and who
must depend upon the algn language to commu-
nicate his thoughts to others. Fifty years ago a
person would have been looked upon as a dream-
er or worse, if he had insisted that children born
deaf could be and should be taught to speak.
Even today the general impression prevails that
a person who becomes deaf in infancy must nec-
essarily also be dumb during the whole of his
life and, strangely enough, this lack of power to
express one's self in spoken language Is ascribed
to some defect In the organs of speech. Both of
these conclusions are entirely wrong. It has
been demonstrated beyond all doubt that prac-
tically every deaf child has perfect organs of
speech at birth, and that It Is a very rare occur-
rence when a deaf person remains mute for any
other reason save the lack of training which a
hearing child receives through its ears.
If you should go to the Parker Practise school
any fine morning you would probably see on the
broad lawn in front of the school various groups
of children at play under the watchful eyes of
their teachers. But It is not likely that your at-
tention would be attracted to any particular
group because of anything unusual In their man-
ner of addressing their teacher or one mother;
all are romping, laughing and shouting in the
fulness of their childish delight. Yet the chances
are that some of these children have never in all
their years heard the sound of a voice.
Entering the school you might go from room
to room and not discover for quite a while that
there was anything different in the manner of
Instructing the pupils In one from those in an-
other In some of them, however, you would
find the same litt.e tots, who cannot hear, that
you passed on the lawn. If their eyes happened
'
to be turned away from the visitor upon his en-
trance, their attention would not be diverted,
since their organs of sight have to perform the
duty of the useless ears. Should they see the
newcomer, however, they will smile an affection-
ate welcome, then direct their gaze once more to
the lips of their teacher. It is this concentration
of gaze which first betrays their physical handi-
cap. All the knowledge they receive must come
through the sense of sight, and so their eyes are
ever on the alert to catch the smallest movement
of their teacher's Hps.
The oral-deaf department of the Parker Prac-
tise school is under the direction of Miss Mary
McCowen, the founder of the McCowen Oral
School for Young Deaf Children. For more than
thirteen years this school carried on the pioneer
work for the deaf In Chicago, and since 1896,
when speech classes were organized in the pub-
lic schools, has supplemented that work by con-
tinuing to teach the very young children. There
are eight classes, totaling about ninety pupilB,
under charge of Miss McCowen and her assist-
ants, the children ranging In age from five to
sixteen years.
The caller probably will be ushered into one of
the kindergarten classes. Here he will find ten
or a dozen contented little scholars seated In
baby chairs about a low table. It Is likely they
will be counting colored sticks, or making pat-
terns with them, murmuring all the while the
names of the figures they are forming. The
teacher talks busily and naturally to the children,
Just as if they could hear, no other form of com-
munication than spoken language ever being em-
ployed. This Is necessary in order to so develop
the brains of the children that they shall think
and express themselves In spoken language as
naturally and unconsciously as hearing children.
Two not unreasonable questions may be asked
by anyone whose notice is called to this work-
how and why do these children reproduce the
speech they never hear? And second, what does
It do for the children when they are grown?
Let us watch one of the baby classes. The pro-
gram suddenly changes from the play with the
colored sticks and blocks. The teacher, leaning
forward, arrests the attention of one of her pu-
'pils, enunciating with perfect articulation some
simple word. Instantly the child's expression
crystallizes to reveal pure concentration of
thought. All the intelligence of the childish men-
tality Is focused through the eyes on the teacher's
lips. Then gradually there germinates in his
mind a sense of the mental action that evoked
the motions of her Hps and tongue as she spoke,
and this sense blooms Into an Imitation of the
act, accompanied by the corresponding sound. If
this is not correct the teacher repeats the word
and illustrates to the child just how it should
be made. Usually he gets it more and more per-
fect each time, and when the lesson is finished
he returns to his play, smiling from pure Joy in
the intellectual exercise.
Only the simplest words are given for the child
to reproduce at first. These arfe really not words
at all, but mere sounds. When Individual sounds
are mastered they are then combined to form
words. For example, suppose the child has
learned to make the sounds of the vowel "a" (ah)
and the consonant m." The teacher now places
the child's hand upon her throat, and the child,
all eagerness, prepares to imitate her. First she
begins with the sound of "a" and, while still
uttering it, gently closes her lips, but without
interrupting the sound. This action causes the
sound of "m" to follow "a" and the result is the
word "arm." When the little scholar is made
to understand to what the word applies he Is
usually so delighted that he needs no urging to
repeat it over and over until he has It just right.
Sometimes the positions may be excellent, but
the sounding weak. The teacher will then direct
the child to use his voice. The meaning of this
direction and the way of obeying It are taught
in the very beginning of the work by holding
the child's hand upon the' teacher's throat and
chest while she makes utterance of a sound. His
hiind is then applied to his own throat and chest
until he has produced similar vibrations. All
the while, of course, he is watching his teacher's
lips, and the direction is repeated until he has
learned Its meaning.
The power to distinguish differences of vibra-
tion by touch is a very important thing, for it is
the child's chief guide in modifying his own
voice later—In raising it if it is too deep, or
lowering it if It is too shrill. Exercises bearing
upon this are conducted with musical instru-
ments such as the guitar and piano, and then
applied to the vibrations as felt in the chest,
head and throat. The teacher first strikes a low
note and the child, watching, feels the vibration.
Then she strikes a high note and calls his atten-
tion to the difference. Next she places his hand
upon her throat while she sings low and high
notes alternately, and in time he acquires the
ability to recognize the difference in tone by
touch.
The making of aspirant sounds, requiring the
forcible exhalation of breath, such as "p," is ex-
plained by using a feather or lighted candle. The
expulsion of breath blows the feather away or
causes the flame of the candle to flicker. The
difference between "p" and "b," which have the
same visible motions, but not the same sound, Is
illustrated in a similar manner. In the case of
"p" we Bitnply close the lips, compress the air
In the mouth and then allow It to escape in a
little voiceless puff. But with "b," while the lips
are closed and opened in exactly the same way,
the voice is brought into use and this lessens the
force of the breath as It leaves the mouth. Gut-
tural sounds like "k" and "g," being formed at
the back of the tongue, are difficult to acquire,
but the use of the mirror is of particular assist-
ance in teaching the child the correct positions
for the sounds of these letters.
Speech-reading, which is the ability to under-
stand spoken language by watching the speech
movements on the speaker's face, goeB side by
side with the teaching of speech. From the first
hour the child is taught to watch his teacher's
Hps and to attach a meaning to all their move-
ments, and he learns to Interpret spoken lan-
guage with his eyes as the hearing child does
with his ears, without knowing the how or why
of it.
The second question—that as to what speech
does for the deaf children when they are grown
up—is not difficult to meet. In the first place. It
puts them on a more equal footing with hearing
children both in their social and business life.
Very few hearing people care to take the trouble
to learn the sign language, or finger spelling, just
for the purpose of conversing with one or two
persons, and a system of written communication
Is always slow and laborious. For this reason
' the deaf child who cannot speak is always at a
great disadvantage when attempting to mingle
with his more fortunate brothers. He must con-
fine his activities largely to that sphere in which .
his peculiar form of communication is under
stood, and this sphere is exceedingly small, com-
paratively speaking. But with speech at his com
mand he finds a thousand avenues of usefulness
and endeavor, of which he formerly knew noth
ing, opened to him. I
(By J. E. DORMAN.)
If a dairy farmer were told that he
could roll silver dollars down a hill
and then pick up two dollars for ev-
ery ono he rolled down, and this state-
ment were verified by some of his
neighbors and hundreds of other dairy
farmers in the country, that farmer
would stay up nights to roll the
dollars. But when told that he could
double the profits by the use of the
silo he becomes very Indifferent and
keeps on in the same old rut, feeding
dry feed, wasting nearly half of his
corn crop and doing a lot of unneces-
sary work.
In these days of close competition,
dairymen should be ready to take ad-
vantage of every opportunity to re-
duce the cost of production, and it
will be found that it is easier, if the
proper methods are used, to do that
than to raise the selling price of the
dairy products. The results are the
same, a large net profit.
In the corn plant about 40 per cent
of the feeding value Is In the stalk,
and 60 per cent in the ear. When
the ear alone Is fed. nearly half of
the corn crop is wasted.
When the stalks are fed, at least
half of them remain uneaten, while if
Btored in the silo the loss is almost
nothing.
Every dairyman knows that cows
will do their best on fresh June pas-
ture. The grass is succulent and pal-
atable, and the conditions for a maxi-
mum milk flow are ideal. These con-
ditions, however, do not last very long.
The silo comes as near to supplying
the ideal conditions aB anything that
can be found, and it is available every
day In the year. It provides a uni-
form feed for every one of the 12
months.
Highly sensitive dairy cows resent
any sudden or violent change in feed,
and will show it by a decreased milk
flow. The change from fall pasture
to dry feed Is always followed by a
shrinkage in the milk.
In changing from the pasture to the
and even higher yields have been re*
ported. At 15 tons per acre, one acra
will furnish enough roughage for two*
cows for every day In the year, of
four cows during a feeding period of
six months. What other crop will do
that?
Other crops can be used, such a«
sorghum or cowpeas, in combination
with either sorghum or corn. The
cowpeas improve the silage, for it
adds protein, but the yield iB small
and difficult to harvest.
In selecting a variety of corn foK
silage, always use one that will ma-
ture its grain. Other things being;
equal, select a variety that produce®
a largo fodder, as the yield will bai
greater.
Com can b© planted somewhat
thicker than generally used in grow-*
ing grain, but not thick enough ta
prevent the good-ear development.
One dairyman, who has had good;
success in growing corn for the silo*
and puts up about one thousand tons
a year, says that he plants one-third,
more seed for the silage corn than for
the corn grown for grain.
The amount, however, depends much
upon the variety, and the condition of
the soil.
The size of the silo, of course, de-
pends upon the number of cattle to be
fed. It should never be less than 29
feet high, because pressure is neces-
sary to preserve the silage. The high-
er the better. A good rule is to have
It twice as high as the diameter.
Of course, a silo will cost some-
thing—all farm buildings do—but
there is no butlding that can be erect-
ed on the farm that will pay better.
There are many kinds of silo, and
made of different materials. Con-
crete. cement, brick, tile and several
kinds of wooden bIIo. The wood silo
is cheapest, of course, but it is not so
durable as the concrete or tile.
| The different styles range from
three to five dollars per ton capacity,
for the concrete and the tile silo,
while the wooden stave silo will cost
Filling a Silo-
silage, the change Is not so great, and
often the cows increase the flow of
milk when started on silage. Several
dairymen have recently' made the
statement that the increased profits
paid for the silo the first year.
Silage is not a complete ration for
a dairy cow. Silage is high In carbo-
hydrates, and some concentrates or
roughage with a high protein content
should be fed with it, such as wheat j
bran, oil meal, cotton seed meal or
alfalfa or clover hay.
When It is considered that corn :
can be grown so easily, and in every j
section of the country, it Btands at |
the head of the list of forage crops for j
this purpose.
The yield In feeding value and the i
convenience nf handling make It the j
best silage crop.
The yield will range from ten to j
Cnty tons per acre on good soil,
from two to three dollars per ton ca«
pacity.
When one considers that the croj
can be grown and put in the silo at
cost that should not exceed two dollars
per ton, and that it Is worth at ieasti
twice that much for feed, and the
large part of that feed is practically
lost without the use of the silo, the
value of this method of preserving tha
forage crop is very apparent.
A feed cutter with a blower or ele-
vator is necessary for filling the silo,
A good cutter, with a capacity of forty
to fifty tons a day will cost about
one hundred and thirty-five dollars.
The power to run it may be a gas
or a steam engine. This cau usually
be hired for a few days during tha
Clllng process. Or, where several
dairymen on adjoining farms have
silos, It is economy to own the cuttel1
and power In partnership.
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Burke, J. J. The Daily Transcript (Norman, Okla.), Vol. 1, No. 320, Ed. 1 Monday, August 24, 1914, newspaper, August 24, 1914; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc112781/m1/3/: accessed March 28, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.