William B. Swett - Adventures of a Deaf-Mute and Other Short Pieces

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ADVENTURES OF A DEAF-MUTE

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

ADVENTURES OF A DEAF-MUTE

and Other Short Pieces

William B. Swett

INTRODUCTION BY

Kristen C. Harmon

Gallaudet University Press

WASHINGTON, DC

GALLAUDET CLASSICS IN DEAF STUDIES

A SERIES EDITED BY

Kristen C. Harmon

Gallaudet University Press

Washington, DC 20002

http://gupress.gallaudet.edu

2017 by Gallaudet University

All rights reserved. Published 2017

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Swett, William B., 1824-1884.

Title: Adventures of a deaf-mute, and other short pieces / William B. Swett; introduction by Kristen C. Harmon.

Description: Washington, DC : Gallaudet University Press, 2017. |

Series: Gallaudet classics in Deaf studies

Identifiers: LCCN 2016046696| ISBN 9781563686832 (pbk.) |

ISBN 9781563686849 (e-book)

Subjects: LCSH: Swett, William B., 1824-1884. | DeafUnited StatesBiography. | White Mountains (N.H. and Me.) Description and travel. | HikingWhite Mountains (N.H. and Me.) | Sign language. | Finger spelling. | Gallaudet, T. H. (Thomas Hopkins), 17871851. | Clerc, Laurent, 1785-1869.

Classification: LCC HV2534.S94 S94 2017 |

DDC 362.4/1092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016046696

Cover photograph: Old Man of the Mountain, Franconia Notch , White Mountains (between 1890 and 1901), from the Detroit Publishing Company Photograph Collection in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Images of William B. Swett, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet,

and Laurent Clerc courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives.

Photograph of the Old Man of the Mountain at Night

Courtesy of the New York Public Library.

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992

(Permanence of Paper).

Contents

Kristen C. Harmon

Introduction

Kristen C. Harmon

I always had a love of adventure, but made it a rule never to get into danger until I had planned how to get out of it.

William B. Swett

E ACH SUMMER in the three years immediately following the end of the American Civil War, Deaf New Englander William B. Swett (18241884) worked as a carpenter, handyman, and guide for the famed Profile House, a hotel and tourist destination in the Franconia Range of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The hotel took its name from a craggy collection of rocks on top of Cannon Mountain that resembled the profile of an old man, and this iconic image, known as the old man of the mountains, adorns the New Hampshire quarter and postage stamps. Swetts many travails and adventures during those three summers working at Profile House formed the basis for Adventures of a Deaf-Mute in the White Mountains, a short memoir published and reprinted in 1869, 1874, and 1875.

Just about to turn forty years old that first summer in 1865, Swett began his adventures in the White Mountains under a dark cloudtwo of his five children had died of diphtheria the year before, and, as a carpenter, he said the competition was so great, I being a mute, I found it hard work to support a family (75). Additionally, in the years prior to the Civil War, he had been much hindered in all kinds of work by sickness, and the expense more than [he] could get by steady work (75). And so, reeling from the tragedies and setbacks of the years leading up to and during the Civil War, when Swett saw the advertisement for a large gang of workmen for the Profile House, he noted, I may as well say here, that, while the wages offered were very acceptable, they had not so much to do with my decision as had a desire to see a place of which I had heard so much, and an idea that there would be some chance to gratify my love of adventure (3).

Of adventure, Swett went on to say, I subsequently had a good deal (3). His short but memorable account narrated in first person reads as a Deaf-centered accounting of adventures abroad, in the company of hearing and nonsigning people. His travelogue does not begin with the leave-taking of his Deaf spouse, Margaret Harrington Swett (18261907), and it does not address or portray his life as a signing Deaf person from a multigenerational Deaf family from New Hampshire; it begins instead on the train platform in Concord, NH. In keeping with the title, Adventures begins with Swetts first step outward into this journey as the self-proclaimed Deaf-Mute of the title.*

With a great deal of self-possession and wry humor, Swett records the varied perceptions of deafness that he encounters; initial negative reactions, are, of course, more often converted into acceptance or outright admiration for Swetts abilities and skills. Confident in his identity as a Deaf mute (a non-speaking person) in this era, Swetts descriptions of his encounters often contain amusing observations of how the other portion of society perceives differences. While he feels compelled to counter negative stereotypes through demonstrations of his own able-bodiedness and cleverness, he does not feel the need to justify his own existence or explain or apologize for his Deaf signing identity. On that first journey up to the White Mountains, for example, Swett and his fellow travelers are caught in a snowstorm; having perched, by choice, on top of the stagecoach, Swett is especially relieved to see the fire and hot supper provided for them at the Profile House. Upon entering the hotel, Swett notes that

my signs and gestures, and my little slate, of which I made free use in talking with my companions, soon attracted the attention of the company, to most of whom a deaf-mute was evidently a new thing. One man in particular, an Irishman, who was seated in a corner smoking a pipe, after eyeing me intently for some time, approached me, laid a hand on my shoulder, looked me in the face, and then, making the sign of the cross, he nodded, went back to his seat, and resumed his pipe, apparently satisfied that it was all right. I could not help smiling at his behavior, and did not know what to think of it; but have since concluded that it was his way of either getting acquainted or of expressing sympathy. (67)

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