Kate M. Farlow - Silent Life and Silent Language

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Silent Life and Silent Language

GALLAUDET CLASSICS IN DEAF STUDIES

A SERIES EDITED BY

Kristen C. Harmon

Volume	1	The Deaf Mute Howls Albert Ballin Introduction by Douglas Baynton
Volume	2	A Mighty Change: An Anthology of Deaf American Writing, 18161864 Christopher Krentz, Editor
Volume	3	Gaillard in Deaf America: A Portrait of the Deaf Community, 1917 Henri Gaillard Bob Buchanan, Editor
Volume	4	Sweet Bells Jangled: Laura Redden Searing, A Deaf Poet Restored Judy Yaeger Jones and Jane E. Vallier, Editors
Volume	5	The Deaf Experience: Classics in Language and Education Harlan Lane, Editor Franklin Philip, Translator
Volume	6	When I Am Dead: The Writings of George M. Teegarden Raymond Luczak, Editor
Volume	7	Deaf Heritage: A Narrative History of Deaf America Jack R. Gannon
Volume	8	Islay: a Novel Douglas Bullard
Volume	9	Mickeys Harvest: A Novel of a Deaf Boys Checkered Life Howard L. Terry Introduction by Kristen C. Harmon
Volume	10	Adventures of a Deaf-Mute and Other Short Pieces William B. Swett Introduction by Kristen C. Harmon
Volume	11	Silent Life and Silent Language: The Inner Life of a Mute in an Institution for the Deaf Kate M. Farlow Introduction by Kristen C. Harmon

Silent Life and Silent Language

The Inner Life of a Mute in an
Institution for the Deaf

Kate M. Farlow

Introduction by
Kristen C. Harmon

GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY PRESS

Washington, DC

Gallaudet University Press
Washington, DC 20002
http://gupress.gallaudet.edu

2018 by Gallaudet University
All rights reserved. Published 2018
Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Farlow, Kate M., author. | Harmon, Kristen, writer of introduction.

Title: Silent life and silent language : the inner life of a mute in an institution for the deaf / Kate M. Farlow ; introduction by Kristen C. Harmon.

Other titles: Inner life of a mute in an institution for the deaf Description: Washington, D.C. : Gallaudet University Press, 2018. | Series: Gallaudet classics deaf studies ; 11 | A reissue of the edition published in 1883.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018013364| ISBN 9781944838294 (paperback) | ISBN 9781944838300 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Deaf childrenEducationUnited States19th centuryFiction. | Deaf children19th centuryFiction. | Mute persons19th centuryFiction. | Indiana Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and DumbFiction. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / People with Disabilities. | FICTION / Biographical. | GSAFD: Autobiographical fiction.

Classification: LCC PS3606.A712 S55 2018 | DDC 813/.6dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018013364

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

In dumb signifants we speak,
And many happy hours spend
With thoughts that other hands have penned.

In voiceless song to God we raise
A psalm of grateful love and praise.

Authors Preface

My design in writing this book was to give the public a fair idea of life in an institution for the deaf and dumb; and to show what has been done, and can still be done, for those deprived of the senses of hearing and speech. I also wish to disabuse the minds of parents who think their deaf-mute children will not be well cared for and receive benefit in these institutions. I can say from my own experience they certainly are a blessing to the deaf and dumb; for I am myself a deaf-mute and have been educated in one of these institutions.

It is through my life there that I have obtained the material for my story. Most of the colloquies that occur, and a few of the incidents, were merely composed to bring out some important truths concerning the deaf and dumb; but the story itself is founded on facts. The names given to the characters are not the real names of the persons, but most anyone who dwelt in the institution with the writer will, I think, be able to assign to most of the characters represented their proper names.

There is much still to be said on my subject which the state of my purse will not permit me to say in this volume. It is my intention, should this meet with success, to write another book on the subject, detailing my life as a teacher in another institution for the deaf and dumb where new methods of teaching, new arrangements, etc., were observed.

This book will, I trust, interest all who read it, and may give to many new ideas concerning this once unfortunate class of human beings.

Crude though the work may be, yet I hope it will be kindly received. With a silent prayer that it may be the means of doing good, I send it out into the wide world.

K. M. F.

Introduction

Kristen C. Harmon

Silent Life and Silent Language: The Inner Life of a Mute in an Institution for the Deaf is a record of life at a Midwestern residential school between 1869 and 1875. Like the author, Kate M. Farlow (18541909), the protagonist of this embellished memoir was deafened in childhood from meningitis and entered what Farlow calls in this book the I________ Institution (the Indiana School for the Deaf). As Farlow notes in her preface, It is through my life [at the Indiana School for the Deaf] that I have obtained the material for my story. Most of the colloquies that occur, and a few of the incidents, were merely composed to bring out some important truths concerning the deaf and dumb; but the story itself is founded on facts (ix).*

There are few accounts written by American Deaf women in the nineteenth century, and this episodic memoir is all the more remarkable in that it gives a detailed accounting of daily life and learning in a deaf school from someone who experienced it. The forty-two short chapters with descriptive titles such as Some Glimpses into the Condition and Doings of Deaf-Mutes and Some Birthday Customs include nostalgic and thorough descriptions of the local foods that were served on a daily basis, sumptuous holiday feasts, daily and seasonal play activities, and the training that young Deaf men and women of that era received in the residential schools.

Farlow wrote Silent Life and Silent Language with the intention of helping hearing parents of deaf children understand that their childs deafness was not a door closing; rather, with the right access and right community, they would be enabled to be blessings and helps instead of being objects to be looked down upon by their hearing brothers and sisters (180). She states in the preface that her design in writing this book was to give the public a fair idea of life in an institution for the deaf and dumb; and to show what has been done, and can still be done, for those deprived of the senses of hearing and speech. I also wish to disabuse the minds of parents who think their deaf-mute children will not be well cared for and receive benefit in these institutions (ix).

In many ways, this fictionalized memoir presages the accounts of Deaf lives written for hearing parents of deaf children by some 100 years. Farlow was an early advocate of residential schools, along with what was then called the sign method and Deaf community life and letters, and her support is evident in her depiction of the signing deaf children and teens in this work. She gives advice that will feel quite familiar to contemporary readers. For example, she is aware of the impact of what we now call language deprivation and the sensitive period of language acquisition.

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