finds again conditions differing from those which obtain both at Ealing and at Margate. The children are sent to Dr. Stainer from some sixty different Boards, and are mostly paid for by the Poor Law Guardians. Some of them go to Dr. Stainer's homes as mere babes. He prefers to have them as young as possible, believing that education begun early is the most effectual. Whilst some of his charges are younger than any at Ealing or at Margate, he does something for the older ones which Dr. Elliott so far has not been able to do for his pupils. He has started workshops in which boys are taught bootmaking, tailoring, carpentering, wood carving, and other trades, and he is able in the course of time to ascertain what callings they are individually most suited for. Kindergarten and Slojd work naturally plays a considerable part in the curriculum at the Pentonville Homes. As regards the girls, they are taught every sort of domestic duty, laundry work, &c., so that, given the opportunity, they are fitted to accept places as servants, sempstresses, laundry maids, &c. Let us take a peep first at the latest arrivals. At the moment I saw them the little ones were having their tea. There was no sort of shyness about the majority of them. Many greeted me with a smile; one boy, not long since rescued from the streets, in his delight proved somewhat intractable, and one girl closed her hand and shook her thumb at me most vigorously. This I learned meant "good"; whether that she considered herself the good one of the bunch, or that it was good of me to come to see them, I do not know. The method of teaching is pretty much the same as at Margate. Those who can be taught to speak are taught, but the conditions keep the number small. The workshops are the chief novelty in Dr. Stainer's homes. The boys seem to take great interest in their work, and some have proved not only efficient, but excellent workmen. One adjunct to the carpenters' room gave rise to an anecdote worth recording. A steam engine in the laundry beneath is used for the purposes of the saw-bench and the turning-lathe. The boys have learnt that the broad belt of leather which comes up through the floor is moved by the machinery below. There was lying on the floor part of a tree trunk. They know that trees come out of the ground, and being asked how they grow, they conclude that the same sort of hidden power forces them up. The forces of Nature are not easily made comprehensible to them. In the same way they are not readily convinced that the stars are not holes in the heavens, and are only visible when the lights on the other side are lit. Space, time, and abstract ideas generally are beyond the majority of people who can hold hourly communion with their fellows. What wonder that they should be almost wholly be beyond the deaf?
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The deaf mute, all unconscious of his great infirmity as he is, is a very superior person. There is a consensus of opinion bearing out this statement. Those people who are ready to regard the deaf and dumb as stupid would be well advised sometimes to take care
