 Section 1 of A to Z. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A to Z by Various. Piffle's ABC book of Funny Animals. Copyright by Howard E. Altanus. A stands for Ape, sitting high in a tree where he is knitting a sweater for me. B stands for Bruin, the great clumsy bear climbs to a treetop if honey be there. C stands for Camel, who loves the hot climb, goes without drinking ten days at a time. D stands for Deer, the most graceful of all, see how he jumps or the old waterfall. E stands for Elephant, with a small eye eats almost everything, trumpets when dry. F stands for Fox, with a large bushy tail, dogs like to chase him or hill and or dale. G stands for Gorilla, enormously strong when hunters see him they don't tarry long. H stands for Hippo, who stands in the Nile, wears a loose skin and an expansive smile. I stands for Ibex, I'm a wild goat you see, high in the Alps, they are hunting for me. J stands for Jaguar, that comes from Brazil, climbs trees and eats monkeys and rarely is still. K stands for Cake Fisher, who dies for the fishes and always secures the ones that he wishes. L stands for Lion, that loudly doth roar, making sounds like great thunder when hungry for Gore. M stands for Mammoth, an elephant? No, mammoths had wool and all died years ago. N stands for Natterjack, some call it Toad, don't you hear it cry glook glook out there in the road? O stands for Ostrich, that eats everything, its feathers are worn on bonnets each spring. P stands for Pig, and I'm sure you're agreed, there's no introduction this glutton will need. Q stands for Quail, and Bob White is my name, the portrait some call me and hunt me for game. R stands for Rhino, with horn on his snout, I fancy he's thinking of Dinner, no doubt. S stands for Sheep, that were lost you all know by Little Bo Peep a long while ago. T stands for Tiger, a terrible beast, his eyes are on Jaco, he hopes for a feast. U stands for Unicorn, fabled of old, the horn on its head made it fierce to behold. V stands for Vicunia, in Chile they roam, on the high snowy mountains, they're completely at home. W stands for Wolf, you must watch or he'll bite, he's often seen prowling in the forest at night. X stands for Axis, a deer spotted white, some call it hot deer, and hunted at night. Y stands for Yak, it is covered with hair, long soft and silky, per lace that is rare. Z stands for Zebra, the last in the show, he's covered with stripes like a jailbird you know. End of section one, Piffle's ABC book of Funny Animals. Section two of A to Z. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Louise J. Bell. A to Z by Various The Blind Spot by Saki. You've just come back from Adelaide's funeral, haven't you? said Sir Lowworth to his nephew. I suppose it was very like most other funerals. I'll tell you all about it at lunch, said Egbert. You'll do nothing of the sort. It wouldn't be respectful, either to your great aunt's memory or to the lunch. We begin with Spanish olives, then a borscht, then more olives and a bird of some kind, and a rather enticing ranish wine, not at all expensive as wines go in this country, but still quite laudable in its way. Now there's absolutely nothing in that menu that harmonizes in the least with the subject of your great aunt Adelaide or her funeral. She was a charming woman, and quite as intelligent as she had any need to be, but somehow she always reminded me of an English cook's idea of a madras curry. She used to say you were frivolous, said Egbert. Something in his tone suggested that he rather endorsed the verdict. I believe I once considerably scandalized her by declaring that clear soup was a more important factor in life than a clear conscience. She had very little sense of proportion. By the way, she made you her principal heir, didn't she? Yes, said Egbert, and executor as well. It's in that connection that I particularly want to speak to you. Business is not my strong point at any time, said Sir Lowworth, and certainly not when we're on the immediate threshold of lunch. It isn't exactly business, explained Egbert as he followed his uncle into the dining room. It's something rather serious, very serious. Then we can't possibly speak about it now, said Sir Lowworth. No one could talk seriously during a borsch. A beautifully constructed borsch, such as you are going to experience presently, ought not only to banish conversation, but almost to annihilate thought. Later on, when we arrive at the second stage of Olives, I shall be quite ready to discuss that new book on borough, or, if you prefer it, the present situation in the grand duchy of Luxembourg. But I absolutely decline to talk anything approaching business till we have finished with the bird. For the greater part of the meal, Egbert sat in an abstracted silence, the silence of a man whose mind is focused on one topic. When the coffee stage had been reached, he launched himself suddenly a thwart his uncle's reminiscences of the court of Luxembourg. I think I told you that Great Aunt Adelaide had made me her executor. There wasn't very much to be done in the way of legal matters, but I had to go through her papers. That would be a fairly heavy task in itself. I should imagine there were reams of family letters, stacks of them, and most of them highly uninteresting. There was one packet, however, which I thought might repay a careful perusal. It was a bundle of correspondence from her brother Peter. The canon of tragic memory, said Loworth. Exactly, of tragic memory, as you say. A tragedy that has never been fathomed. Probably the simplest explanation was the correct one, said Sir Loworth. He slipped on the stone staircase and fractured his skull in falling. Egbert shook his head. The medical evidence all went to prove that the blow on the head was struck by someone coming up behind him. A wound caused by violent contact with the steps could not possibly have been inflicted at that angle of the skull. They experimented with a dummy figure falling in every conceivable position. But the motive, exclaimed Sir Loworth. No one had any interest in doing away with him, and the number of people who destroy cannons of the established church for the mere fun of killing must be extremely limited. Of course there are individuals of weak mental balance who do that sort of thing, but they seldom conceal their handiwork. They are more generally inclined to parade it. His cook was under suspicion, said Egbert shortly. I know he was, said Sir Loworth, simply because he was about the only person on the premises at the time of the tragedy. But could anything be sillier than trying to fasten a charge of murder onto Sebastian? He had nothing to gain, in fact a good deal to lose, from the death of his employer. The cannon was paying him quite as good wages as I was able to offer him when I took him over into my service. I have since raised them to something a little more in accordance with his real worth, but at the time he was glad to find a new place without troubling about an increase of wages. People were fighting rather shy of him, and he had no friends in this country. No, if anyone in the world was interested in the prolonged life and unimpaired digestion of the cannon, it would certainly be Sebastian. People don't always weigh the consequences of their rash acts, said Egbert. Otherwise there would be very few murders committed. Sebastian is a man of hot temper. He is a southerner, admitted Sir Loworth. To be geographically exact, I believe he hails from the French slopes of the Pyrenees. I took that into consideration when he nearly killed the gardener's boy the other day for bringing him a spurious substitute for sorrel. One must always make allowances for origin and locality and early environment. Tell me your longitude, and I'll know what latitude to allow you is my motto. There you see, said Egbert, he nearly killed the gardener's boy. My dear Egbert, between nearly killing a gardener's boy and altogether killing a cannon, there is a wide difference. No doubt you have often felt a temporary desire to kill a gardener's boy. You have never given way to it, and I respect you for your self-control. But I don't suppose you have ever wanted to kill an octogenarian cannon. Besides, as far as we know, there had never been any quarrel or disagreement between the two men. The evidence at the inquest brought that out very clearly. Ah, said Egbert, with the air of a man coming at last into a deferred inheritance of conversational importance. That is precisely what I want to speak to you about. He pushed away his coffee cup and drew a pocketbook from his inner breast pocket. From the depths of the pocketbook he produced an envelope, and from the envelope he extracted a letter closely written in a small, neat handwriting. One of the cannon's numerous letters to Aunt Adelaide, he explained, written a few days before his death. Her memory was already failing when she received it, and I dare say she forgot the contents as soon as she had read it. Otherwise, in the light of what subsequently happened, we should have heard something of this letter before now. If it had been produced at the inquest, I fancy it would have made some difference in the course of affairs. The evidence, as you remarked just now, choked off suspicion against Sebastian by disclosing an utter absence of anything that could be considered a motive or provocation for the crime, if crime there was. Oh, read the letter, said Sir Loworth impatiently. It's a long rambling affair, like most of his letters in his later years, said Egbert. I'll read the part that bears immediately on the mystery. I very much fear I shall have to get rid of Sebastian. He cooks divinely, but he has the temper of a fiend, or an anthropoid ape, and I am really in bodily fear of him. We had a dispute the other day as to the correct sort of lunch to be served on Ash Wednesday, and I got so irritated and annoyed at his conceit and obstinacy that at last I threw a cup full of coffee in his face and called him at the same time an impudent jack-a-napes. Very little of the coffee went actually in his face, but I have never seen a human being show such deplorable lack of self-control. I laughed at the threat of killing me that he spluttered out in his rage and thought the whole thing would blow over, but I have several times since caught him scowling and muttering in a highly unpleasant fashion. And lately I have fancied that he was dogging my footsteps about the grounds, particularly when I walk of an evening in the Italian garden. It was on the steps in the Italian garden that the body was found, commented Egbert, and resumed reading. I dare say the danger is imaginary, but I shall feel more at ease when he has quitted my service. Egbert paused for a moment at the conclusion of the extract. Then, as his uncle made no remark, he added, If lack of motive was the only factor that saved Sebastian from prosecution, I fancy this letter will put a different complexion on matters. Have you shown it to anyone else? asked Sir Lallworth, reaching out his hand for the incriminating piece of paper. No, said Egbert, handing it across the table. I thought I would tell you about it first. Heavens, what are you doing? Egbert's voice rose almost to a scream. Sir Lallworth had flung the paper well and truly into the glowing center of the great. The small neat handwriting shriveled into black flaky nothingness. What on earth did you do that for? gasped Egbert. That letter was our one piece of evidence to connect Sebastian with the crime. That is why I destroyed it, said Sir Lallworth. But why should you want to shield him? cried Egbert. The man is a common murderer. A common murderer, possibly, but a very uncommon cook. End of Section 2. The Blind Spot Recording by Louise J. Bell. Sebastopol, California Section 3 of A to Z. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A to Z by Various. The Right and Wrong Ways of Making Coffee by Mrs. D. A. Lincoln. From the book Six Cups of Coffee by Mary J. Lincoln. The Right and Wrong Ways of Making Coffee, as described by Mrs. D. A. Lincoln. The Wrong Way Why the cheapest coffee, that is, the kind which costs the least money, without regard to its purity or quality? Use more or less coffee just as it happens. Accurate measurement is not essential. Put it in an old tin coffee pot. Pour on water from the tea kettle. Never mind about the quantity or its temperature, or the time it has been in the kettle, since as it comes from the tea kettle, it must be all right. Let it boil indefinitely, and if when breakfast is ready, the water has boiled away, just pour in more. If you can afford it, add one or two eggs at any time during the process when you happen to think of it. If it be royally strained, if you can find a strainer and serve it with, yes, common brown sugar and skim milk will do, if you choose to think so. The compound is, what? If there be any left, keep it warm on the back of the stove until the next meal. As this long steeping makes it dark, it must be strong, so add more water. After dinner, set the pot away, and the next morning pour out the old grounds. Rinse it or not, just as your time will allow, and repeat the process of making. Wash the coffee pot occasionally if the outside needed, but rinsing is sufficient for the inside. The right way. Buy pure coffee, not necessarily that which costs most, but buy it from some reliable dealer. Mixtures of one-third mocha and two-thirds java, or half mocha and half maleberry java, have given general satisfaction. There are some varieties of South American coffee which are very good. Occasionally one finds a brand through some friend who is in the business or who has had opportunity of procuring it directly from coffee-grown countries, which is of such remarkable excellence that it leads one to suspect that most of the best-grown coffee is not in the market. The raw berries are tough, difficult to grind and have little flavor. Roasting makes the berries brittle and crisp, and when properly done, develops a fine flavor. But when half done or done to excess, the result is a raw or bitter flavor. Many prefer to roast and grind the coffee for themselves, but in coffee houses the arrangements for roasting are so complete that it is far better for small families to buy roasted coffee and to grind it as needed, or to buy it ground in a small quantity. It should be kept in airtight tin cans or glass jars that define flavor may be preserved. Opinions vary to the best kind of coffee pot. Some prefer porcelain or granite ware, others prefer tin, but all good housekeepers agree that absolute cleanliness is of the utmost importance. The pot should be cleansed every time it is used, all parts of it, the spout not accepted. A brown deposit is soon formed on the inside of the pot if the coffee be allowed to stand in it long, or if it be not often and thoroughly cleansed. An important point one often overlooked even by intelligent housekeepers is that the water should be freshly boiled in a clean kettle. Water and boiling loses the air or gases, which give it a fresh taste and sparkling appearance, should be used as soon as boiled or it becomes flat and tasteless. A brown substance is deposited on the inside of the kettle, and this, if allowed to accumulate, imparts an unpleasant taste to the water. Yet there are many housekeepers, exquisitely neat in many ways, who seldom wash the inside of a tea kettle. It is an excellent plan to keep a small kettle to be used only in boiling water for tea or coffee. Wash and wipe it carefully every time it is used. The proportions of water and coffee are one heaping tablespoon full of ground coffee to one half pint cup full of boiling water. Reduce the amount of coffee slightly when several cupfuls are required. It takes a larger proportion and amount of both coffee and water to make just enough for one cupful than for more. As the grounds absorb a certain portion of the water and the last coffee poured out is not as clear as the first. Coffee should be made in such a way that the full strength and aroma may be obtained without developing the tannic acid. Whether coffee should be boiled or not will probably be always a question. Many think it has a raw taste if not boiled. Others contend that in boiling much of the aroma is lost. Boiling makes the mixture royally and it must stand long enough to let the ground settle and the liquid become clear. Some albuminous material will help to clear it. Fish skin, isn't glass, cold water and eggs are used for this purpose. Eggs give it a flavoring body and no doubt improve an inferior quality of coffee. But they increase the cost of the beverage as aside for their own cost they clog the grounds thus making a larger amount of coffee necessary to obtain the desired strength. But if coffee must be boiled let it be boiled in a closely covered vessel with a thimble or cork in the spout as if left uncovered the volatile oil which forms the fragrant aroma is dissipated and it should never boil more than five minutes as longer boiling extracts the tannic acid. There is a widely prevalent but erroneous notion that long boiling extracts more of the strength and color and is therefore more economical. But strength and color thus gained are obtained at the expense of flavor and wholesomeness. After thorough trial of several methods of making coffee I found filtering or percolation the simplest, most economical and most satisfactory. Various modifications of the bigon or French filter coffee pot are in use. This is a double coffee pot with one or more strainers in the upper pot. Some of these bigons are expensive and soon get out of order but others are very simple and with care will last a long time. The coffee should be ground very fine and be placed in the upper pot. Some varieties have a convex coarse strainer in the bottom to keep the grounds from clogging the fine strainer. Then a coarse strainer is placed over the grounds the boiling water is poured in and allowed to drip slowly through the coffee into the lower receptacle. Many of the coffee pots made on this principle are placed in another vessel containing boiling water. But if there be only two parts to it the coffee pot should stay on where the coffee as it drips through will keep hot but will not boil. If the upper part be not large enough to contain all the water desired it must be poured on in small portions. The full strength and aroma are thus obtained. No clearing is necessary and if care be taken to observe all the minor points in the directions the beverage will invariably be good. For good breakfast coffee, cream, scalded milk and blocked sugar are necessary. The milk should be scalding hot but never boiled as boiled milk gives an unpleasant flavor. Assertain the taste of those at the table as most coffee drinkers prefer to have the coffee poured on the cream and sugar. One tablespoon of cream, two of hot milk and two blocks of sugar with an extra block in the saucer is a fair proportion for a breakfast cup. Pour in the coffee until the cup is three-fourths full, never fill it overflowing. After dinner coffee or black coffee is made in the same way, a double proportion of coffee being used, it should be very strong and perfectly clear. Serve it in small cups with blocked sugar if desired but not with cream or milk as the milk counteracts the purpose for which the coffee is taken. Coffee is stimulating and when taken clear and very strong after a hearty meal aids digestion. But when combined with cream or milk a leathery compound is formed which is indigestible and irritates the internal membranes. End of Section 3 Section 4 of A to Z. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Nemo. A to Z by Various Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death by Patrick Henry March 23, 1775 No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism as well as abilities of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the house. But different men often see the same subject in different lights and therefore I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs. I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the house is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part I consider it is nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time through fear of giving offense I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty of heaven which I revere above all earthly kings. Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope we are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beast. Is this the part of wise men engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past, and judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British Ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the house. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir. It will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those war-like preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation, the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy in this quarter of the world to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir. She has none. They are meant for us. They can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British Ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable. But it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned. We have remonstrated. We have supplicated. We have prostrated ourselves before the throne and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the Ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted. Our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult. Our supplications have been disregarded. And we have been spurned with contempt, from the foot to the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free, if we mean to preserve, in violet, those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending. If we mean not, basely, to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, in which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our Conta shall be obtained, we must fight. I repeat it, sir, we must fight. An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that has left us. They tell us, sir, that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed and want a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of Nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty and in such a country as that which we possess are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations and who will raise up friends to fight our battle for us. A battle, sir, is not to the strong alone. It is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery. Our chains are forged. Their clinking may be heard on the plains of Boston. The war is inevitable, and let it come. I repeat, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace, but there is no peace. The wars actually begun. The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. Our brethren are already in the field. Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take. But as for me, give me liberty or give me death. End of Section 4 Applied Psychology for Nurses by Mary F. Porter This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Chad Horner from Balli Clare in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Applied Psychology for Nurses by Mary F. Porter Chapter 13 The Psychology of the Nurse Emotional Equilibrium Suppose that when you first entered the ward, you were wishing with all your heart you had never decided to become a probationer. Perhaps the white screen and its possible meaning has so frightened you that your thoughts refuse to go beyond it. Suppose the very sight of so much sickness has agitated you instead of strengthening your determination to help nurse it. That is, suppose your emotions, your feelings, so fill your mind. That perception is necessarily inaccurate and blurred. Then tomorrow your account of the ward will be hazy and your desire will probably be against returning to a place where so many unpleasant feelings were aroused. The emotional balance which refuses to allow feelings to obscure judgment by leading reason astray is a necessary safeguard for the work of the nurse. There is little place in the profession for the woman who is all sentiment but perhaps there is less for the one without sentiment. Feeling we find is the first expression of mind. Feeling which in the early months is entirely selfish. The happiest baby you know is not sweet and whining to please you but because he feels comfortable and happy and cannot keep from expressing it. His universe is his own little self and you exist only in your relation to him. If you give him pleasure he likes you. If pain he does not want you. His mother often feels to please him but satisfies him so much more frequently than anybody else that he loves her best. Then comes the nurse or father. If he proves the satisfactory kind of father or she a nurse he can love. To the baby whatever he happens to want is good. What is not desirable is bad and such emotional responses are altogether normal in early months. Yes even until the child is old enough to use reason to choose between two desires the one that will in the end prove more satisfying but they are defects in adult life. The nurse who would always act as her first feeling dictates would not be in training many days. Unpleasant sights and sounds the fear of making a mistake which might harm a patient. The undesirability of long hours of hard work in caring for patients who frequently only find fault with her best efforts would early decide her in favour of another life work. Comparatively few so-called grown-ups are guided only by feeling and most of those are in institutions that are well safeguarded but a great many mature men and women allow feeling to unduly influence their thinking. The sentimental nurse for instance may find it very difficult to give an ordered hypodermic. The patient dreads the pain and the nurse fears hurting her. Suppose she were to feel to give it on such grounds this is an almost unthinkable case but the very nurse who agrees that such an emotional weakling should not be allowed to train will help her patient even when recuperating nicely to grow inexcusably self-centered by sympathising with every complaint warning her at every turn by allowing her and even encouraging her perhaps to discuss her illness and suffering in the minutest detail. The nurse is more damaging than the sentimentalist who feels to give the hypodermic for that slip is easily discovered and the transgressor must immediately reform and obey orders or be dismissed but the second nurse may take perfect care of the sick body and the doctor never realise that she is developing the sickness idea in her patient's mind. In both of these instances reason has followed the leadings of feeling it is unpleasant to hurt the patient as she is disagreeable to when you insist on carrying out the orders it is easier to agree with her ideas and sympathise with her troubles much easier than to find some other avenue for her thinking or to search for feeling substitutes. It is pleasanter right now to allow her mind to slip unmolested into sick reactions than to lead her unwilling as she is into the ways of health. Reason follows feelings logic which suggests that it is much better for the patient to talk of her ills than to keep them pinned up inside and judgement is sadly obscured. The emotionally balanced nurse hears the story once that she may have the material for helping the need feeling perhaps deep and genuine sympathy with the real trouble is aroused and rightly but this brings a keen desire to help the situation. Reason insists that talking of sufferings real or fancied only makes them more insistently felt that there must be some better way to meet them. It suggests various methods to divert the patient's attention to change the train of thought until she is able herself to direct it into healthful channels. Judgement weighs the propositions and decides upon the one which will lead to ward establishing a health attitude. The nurse is continually meeting the necessity of acting contrary to fear and discouragement and wearing a spirit. How can she secure emotional equilibrium for herself? Keep in mind the fact that most sick people are very suggestible that you have a definite responsibility to make your suggestions to your patient wholesome and that your mood is a constant suggestion to him. Remember that he needs your best then if your own trouble seems too great to bear determine that so long as you remain on duty you will not let it show. Try an experiment. See if you can go through the day carrying your load of sorrow or disappointment or chagrin with so serene a face that the sick for whom you are carrying will not suspect that you have a burden at all. That is a triumph worth the striving. Then if you can let it make you a little more comprehending of others pain a little more gentle with the sickest ones a bit more patient with the trying ones more kindly firm with the uncooperative realising that each one of them all has his burden too you have not choked feeling but you have fulfilled reasons counsel that sick people are not the ones to help you in your distress that a good nurse should rise above personal trouble to the jury at hand your judgement has compared your reasons and decided that you should act before your patients as you would if you were well and well holds you to emotional equilibrium such a thing that can be done in a very large measure and no better opportunity for emotional control will ever be offered than the necessity of being calm and serene before your patients no matter how you feel but while reason and judgement teach us to control the expression of certain things of certain feelings they urge that this control be exercised in transforming those feelings into helpful ones and giving them an adequate outlet such a substitution has been suggested above let us not forget that nothing in existence is of personal value until it gives someone an emotion that feeling is the beauty of life that feeling without the happy wholesome affective glow would not be worth the effort that beauty and strength and sweetness of feeling make for a worthy self remember too that feeling is the curse of life it is feeling that would make us give up the whole struggle and ugliness and weakness and bitterness of feeling make for a despicable self hope lies for us all in the realisation that we can choose our feelings, our responses we can be utterly discouraged and bitter and depressed at failure or we can recognise it as a signboard telling us that the other way than the one we just followed leads to the goal and we can follow its pointing finger with faith in a new attempt because now we know at least how not to go we can learn to spare from all the bitter and the hateful and the mean or we can learn that they never could be called so if there were not the sweet, the lovable and the generous with which to compare them you can learn to search as with a microscope for all the undesirable traits of your patience or you can calmly accept all that assert themselves as undeniable facts but use your microscope to find their desirable characteristics which offer possibilities of being brought to the foreground you cannot constructively help yourself or your patient by denying the existence of the less worthy traits but you can resolve to call out the something better and if you do not find it as may rarely be the case you can refuse to let it make you sceptical of finding it in others let us remember always that it is not things or conditions or people that harm us it is only the way we respond to them that can hurt this one great truth if really believed and made a part of all our thinking would save scores of people from nervous wreckage it is a favourite saying of a wise man who has helped a great many people to endure and take new courage when life seemed too hard to meet that big broken arm case on the ward cursed you yesterday because you would not listen his splints and you rushed from the room angry and humiliated wishing you could quit nursing forever and asked to be moved because you had been insulted but that man cannot harm you he has never known a real lady in his life before his training from childhood has been to regard women as chattels to do man's bedding his experience in life is that they usually do what he asks women of his kind he has never had a serious pain before and it is not to be injured of course the man must be dealt with and made to realise the distinction between his new surroundings and the old probably the intern or the doctor is the one to do it also he must be brought to apologise or leave the hospital perhaps but he did not hurt you your own reaction did that for outside things or people cannot damage what we are in ourselves the way we respond to them does the harm when you can control your expression of anger and humiliation and substitute for your intense feeling of desire that such a patient may learn that pain is often the gateway to healing that some respect for women may be kindled in him so that eventually such an outburst in the ward may be impossible for him or for anyone who heard it then you are choosing between emotions the one of helpfulness for the one of justified indignation and feeling has followed reason rather than leading reason astray the judgement which decides you to try methods which will shame or inspire some manliness into the patient was one influenced by a well balanced emotional life if we would really acquire emotional poise there are a few practical proved methods we might adopt for ourselves when we can hold back the expression of the almost overpowering impulse or passion of anger and resentment and hurt we will absolutely shut tight our lips until we can think then wait until we can think without the strain of intense feeling we will not only keep ourselves out of trouble but we will be able to calmly state our position right the wrong done us if wrong there was or recognise that we ourselves were wrong for we seldom analyse the situation properly under the influence of strong feeling if we want to accomplish anything with our words wait until we can speak them without having to choke down our sobs or cram back our hot anger or forcibly restrain ourselves from tearing things or slamming doors after all that wildfire of emotion is gone judgement will lead us to wisely reasoned action End of chapter 13 this recording is in the public domain Section 6 of A to Z this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording my phone A to Z by Various a droll fox trap by C.A Stevens When I was a boy I lived in one of those rustic neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the great main woods foxes were plenty about all those sunny pioneer clearings birch-partridges breed by thousands as also field mice and squirrels making plenty of game for reynard there were red foxes, cross-graze and silver-graze even black foxes were important these animals were the pests of the farm yards and made havoc with the geese, cats, turkeys and chickens in the fall of the year particularly after the frost the clearings were overrun by them night and morning their sharp, kerl-like barks used often to rouse us and of a dark evening we would hear them out in the fields mousing around the stone heaps making a queer, squeaking sound like a mouse took all the real mice out of their grass nests inside the stone heaps this indeed is a favourite trick of reynard at the time of my story my friend Tom Edwards 10 years of age and myself were in the turkey business, equal partners we owned a flock of 31 turkeys these roosted by night in a large butternut tree in front of Tom's house in the very top of it and by day they wondered about the edges of the clearings in quest of beech nuts which were very plentiful that fall all went well till the last week in October when, on taking the census one morning a turkey was found to be missing the 31 had become 30 since nightfall the previous evening it was the first one we had lost we proceeded to look for traces our suspicions were divided Tom thought it was the trumbly boys nefarious Sam in particular I thought it might have been an owl but under the tree in the soft dirt where the potatoes had recently been dug we found fox tracks and two or three ominous little wads of feathers with one long tail feather adrift thereupon we concluded that a turkey had accidentally fallen down out of the butternut had a fit perhaps and that its flutterings had attracted the attention of some passing fox which had forthwith taken it in charge it was, as we regarded it one of those unfortunate occurrences which no care on our part could have well foreseen and a casualty such as turkey-raisers are unavoidably heirs to and we bore our loss with resignation we were glad to remember that turkeys did not often fall off their roosts this theory received something of a check when our flock counted only 29 the next morning there were more fox tracks and a great many more feathers under the tree this put a new and altogether ugly aspect on the matter no algebra was needed to figure the outcome of the turkey business at this rate together with our prospective profits in the light of this new fact it was clear that something must be done and that once too or ruin would swallow up the poultry firm rightly or wrongly we attributed the mischief to a certain silver grey that had several times been seen in the neighbourhood that autumn it would take far too much space to relate in detail the plans we laid and put in execution to catch that fox during the next two weeks I recollect that we set three traps for him to no purpose and that we borrowed a foxhound to hunt him with but merely succeeded in running him to the burrow in a neighbouring rocky hillside once we found it quite impossible to dislodge the wily fellow meanwhile the fox or foxes had succeeded in getting two more of the turkeys heroes it is said are born of great crises this dilemma of ours developed Tom's genius I'll have that fox he said when the traps failed and when the hound proved of no avail he still said I'll have him yet but how I asked Tom said he would show me he brought a two bushel basket and went out into the fields in the stone heaps and beside the old logs and stumps there were dozens of deserted mouse nests each a wad of fine dry grass as large as a quart box these were gathered up and filled the great basket there said he triumphantly don't them smell mousy they did certainly they savoured a strongly of mice as Tom's question of bad grammar and don't foxes catch mice demanded Tom confidently yes but I don't see how that's going to catch the fox I said well look here then I'll show ye said he play use the fox and play twas night and you was prowling around the fields go off now out there by that stump full of wonder and curiosity I retired to the stump Tom, meantime, turned out the mass of nests and with it completely covered himself the pile now resembles an enormous mouse nest or rather a small haycock pretty soon I heard a low high-keyed squeaking noise accompanied by a slight rustle inside the nest evidently there were mice in it and feeling my character as fox at stake I at once trotted forward then crept up and as the rustling and squeaking continued made a pounce into the grass as I had heard it said that foxes did when mousing instantly two spry brown hands from out the nest clutched me with the most vengeful grip as a fox I struggled tremendously but Tom overcame me forthwith choked me nearly black in the face then in dumb show knocked my head with a stone do you see now he demanded I saw but a fox would bite you I objected let him bite said Tom I'll risk him when once I get these two bread hooks on him and he can't smell me through the mouse nest either that night we set ourselves to put the stratagem in operation with the dusk we stole out into the field where the stone heaps were and where we had oftenest heard foxes bark selecting a nook in the edge of a clump of raspberry briars which grew about a great pine stump Tom lay down and I covered him up completely with the contents of the big basket he then practised squeaking and rustling several times to be sure that all was in good trim his squeaks were perfect successes made by sucking the air sharply betwixt his teeth now be off said Tom and don't come poking around nor get in sight till you hear me holler thus exhorted I went into the barn and established myself at a crack on the backside which looked out upon the field where Tom was ambushed Tom meanwhile as the afterward told me waited till it had grown dark then began squeaking and rustling at intervals to draw the attention of the fox when first he should come out into the clearing for foxes have ears so wonderfully acute that they are able to hear a mouse squeak 20 rods away it is said an hour passed Tom must have grown pretty tired of squeaking it was a moonless evening though not very dark I could see objects at a little distance through the crack but could not see so far as to stump it got rather dull watching there and being amidst nice cozy stroll I presently went to sleep quite unintentionally I must have slept some time though it seemed to me but a very few minutes what woke me was a noise a sharp suppressed yelp it took me a moment to understand where I was and why I was there a sound of scuffling and tumbling on the ground at some distance assisted my wandering wits and I rushed out of the barn and ran toward the field as I ran two or three dull wax came to my ear got him Tom I shouted rushing up Tom was holding and squeezing one of his hands with the other and shaking it violently he said not a word and left me to poke about and stumble on the limp warm carcass of a large fox that lay near bite ye I exclaimed after satisfying myself that the fox was dead some said Tom and that was all I could get from him that night we took the fox to the house and lighted a candle it was the silver grey Tom washed his bite in cold water and went to bed next morning he was in a sorry and very sore plight his left hand was bitten through the palm and badly swollen there was also a deep bite in the fleshy part of his right arm just below the elbow several minor nips in his left leg above the knee and a ragged grab in the chin these numerous bites however were followed by no serious ill effects the next day Tom told me that the fox had suddenly plunged into the grass that he had caught hold of one of its hind legs and that they had rolled over and over in the grass together he owned to me that when the fox bit him on the chin he let go of the brute and would have given up the fight but that the fox had then actually attacked him upon that said Tom I just determined to have it up with him considering the fact that a fox is a very active sharp biting animal and that this was an unusually large male I have always thought Tom got off very well I do not think that he ever cared to make a fox trap of himself again however they sold the foxkin in the village and received 13 dollars for it whereas a common red foxkin is worth no more than 3 dollars how or by what wiles that fox got the turkeys out of the high butternut is a secret one that perished with him it would seem that he must either have climbed the tree or else have practised sorcery to make the turkey come down end of section 6 recording by phone section 7 of A to Z this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Devorah Allen A to Z by Various a biographical sketch of the Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet LLD the first great educator of the deaf in America prepared on the occasion of the Gallaudet Centennial Commemoration December 1887 by Henry Winters Seil M.A a saying as true as it is common declares like father like son as physical peculiarities of stature and form feature and color descend from generation to generation and afford means of easily recognizing relationship so it is beyond question that intellectual and moral characteristics are likewise transmitted the varying circumstances of each generation have more influence upon the development of the mind and the spirit than upon that of the body in which latter the possible range of variation is far more limited a great man may like Washington leave no son or like Cromwell one of only ordinary abilities still it has been observed in enough cases to establish the law that strong natural abilities and a tendency to exert them in a certain direction are as genuine family traits as any physical feature as the ages of brass and iron recede and happy days roll onward leading up the golden year the world more readily perceives and more openly confesses its indebtedness to those great men whose capacity stimulated by zeal and displayed in patient toil has been exerted not amid the clash of arms or in the intrigues of statecraft but in the gentle paths of peace these now are honored who least of all strove for honor glory of warrior glory of orator glory of song paid with a voice flying by to be lost on an endless sea glory of virtue to fight to struggle to right the wrong nay but she aimed not at glory nor lover of glory she give her the glory of going on and still to be many a father has there been whose son trodden his footsteps and both attained eminence but few instances can be cited where a father and two sons while devoting themselves to the same special kind of beneficence to helping the same class of their fellow men yet each struck out his own path each was the pioneer in a new field each accomplished results peculiarly his own of far reaching influence and worthy to be held in lasting remembrance few names can be ranked with that of Gallaudet a hundred years have all but rolled by since he who first made this name the illustrious saw the light and preparations are now being made far and wide to commemorate his centennial birthday on this occasion pen and pencil here combined to offer a tribute to the memory of the Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet LLD the man who more than any other gave to the death of America the blessing of education and to that of her who was the worthy wife of such a man the mother of such sons as the Reverend Thomas Gallaudet P.D. and Edward Minor Gallaudet P.H.D. LLD sons by whose work in the church and in the college their fathers in the school has been fitly supplemented mentioned to is made of Alice Cogswell through whom he was led into his beneficent career and of her father Dr. Mason F. Cogswell to whose exertions the establishment of the Hartford Institution was originally due the engraver's art depicts their features and those of some of Gallaudet's associates Miss Huntley better known as the poetess Mrs. Sigourney Sigard and Claire Weld Bartlett Turner and others here also will be seen views of the scenes of their labors the edifices they reared these their true monuments but supplemented by grateful affection with the sculptured shaft and animated bust which preserved the name and liniments of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and his friend and fellow laborer Lauren Claire Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was born in Philadelphia on the 10th of December 1787 he came of a Huguenot family his great-grandfather Peter Elihu Gallaudet a Protestant minister at Rochelle in France came to this country about the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and joined the Huguenot settlement at New Rochelle on Long Island Sound a few miles from New York he had a son Thomas Gallaudet whose name is stamped on a prayer book of the Church of England now in the possession of his namesake in New York the son of this Thomas Peter W. Gallaudet married Jane Hopkins daughter of Captain Thomas Hopkins a descendant of one of the first settlers of Hartford and the family which had come to Philadelphia removed in 1800 to that city his college classmate and biographer the Reverend Heman Humphrey D.D. says he grew up a sprightly and promising boy his correct deportment, his amiable temper his sparkling eye and his studious habits gave early promise of the high distinction which awaited him in classical attainments and in the improvement of those native talents which prepared him for such eminent usefulness in afterlife among his papers was found a reverie written in his boyhood upon the various causes which had contributed to break the golden chain which once bound together the whole family of man towards its end is found the following remarkable anticipation of the language of signs by the use of which so much of his usefulness was achieved before the millennium arrives will one language prevail and swallow up the rest or will mankind agree to form a universal language what shall this universal language be is there already one provided by nature herself easy of acquisition universal in its application and which demands neither types nor paper young Gallaudet graduated from Yale College in 1805 with the highest honors though the youngest among such classmates as the Reverend doctors Samuel F. Harvest Heman Humphrey Gardner Spring and John M. Witten he then studied law for a year but his health failing after another year of literary study he spent two more as a tutor at Yale and then entered a mercantile house at this point of his life his thoughts were strongly directed to spiritual affairs he made a public profession of faith in Christ united with the congregational church and devoted himself to the sacred ministry completing the theological course of Andover in 1814 he was invited to the pastorate of several parishes but God was calling him into a field as yet untilled and to labor's truly missionary and character though performed at home how singularly was his course of life which had perhaps seemed fragmentary and unsatisfactory ordered as a preparation for the duties now to be discharged his natural abilities his academical legal and theological acquirements and his experience in teaching would all find use in the task of introducing and developing a system of education of the deaf for whom there was as yet not one school in America we do not intend here to review the history of deaf mute education up to that time it was briefly sketched in our retrospect of the education of deaf Philadelphia 1886 suffice it to say that from time to time during centuries attempts were made by all sorts of methods and more or less successfully with a few favored individuals the most distinguished Englishman who made the experiment was the Reverend Dr. John Wallace a professor at Oxford the system by which he taught several children beginning in 1661 was described in some letters mainly in the transactions of the Royal Society finally the private schools kept by one person and receiving the rich only developed into public institutions for the masses of the people sustained by government or by benevolent contributions on the continent of Europe such institutions became quite numerous most of them springing from the schools begun by Heineke in Germany and Delepe in France both about the year 1760 nearly at the same time Thomas Braidwood a teacher of Elocution at Edinburgh began teaching deaf children he was largely indebted to Wallace's publications his school attracted great attention from the most learned men such as Dr. Samuel Johnson and drew pupils even from America in 1783 he removed to Hackney a suburb of London the banker poet Rogers in his table talk mentions meeting at a dinner party at Hackney Charles James Fox with whom was his son a dumb boy who was the very image of his father having come for the occasion from Braidwood's Academy to him Fox almost entirely confined his attention conversing with him by the fingers and their eyes glistened as they looked at each other Tally Rand remarked to me how strange it was to dine in company with the first orator in Europe and only see him talk with his fingers the accounts preserved of Braidwood's pupils show that he was a skillful and successful teacher that his art was gainful appears from one lady spending $7,500 to have her son under him ten years this lady's compassion for the mother's unable to meet such a heavy expense enlisted her friends in the establishment of the London Institution in 1792 Braidwood's nephew Joseph Watson obtained the headmastership and handed it down to his son and grandson the last of whom resigned in 1878 similarly the schools projected elsewhere had to come for their heads to the family which alone possessed this art small wonder that the family strove to keep so profitable a secret to themselves one grandson Thomas Braidwood went to Birmingham in 1814 another John to Edinburgh in 1810 but in a couple of years went to Virginia as private tutor to the second generation of deaf children in the Balling family his successor was Robert Kinneborough formerly an assistant at Hackney who was put under bonds of $5,000 not to impart the method of instruction to any other teacher for seven years allowed to receive private pupils only on condition of paying half their fees to the Braidwood's in 1816 just after Gallaudet's repulse the existing schools unanimously refused to aid one projected at Dublin and when at last Kinneborough was free from his bonds he would give three months training to its intended teacher only on payment of $750 in America meantime the deaf were not unnoticed nor the possibility of their education known though traces of them are few the Pennsylvania magazine of February 1776 a copy of which was lately presented to the institution at Philadelphia gave a cut of a two-hand alphabet which differs somewhat from that now known as the British the accompanying article though hinting at its possible convenience for the deaf spoke of it mainly as a means of amusement for the hearing just as Delepe alluded to the smallest school boys in his early days with both hands from one end of the class to the other the first American educated deaf mutes we hear of were Thomas Balling of Gutchland County, Virginia sent to Edinburgh in 1771 and his sister Mary who followed five years later the next was Charles son of Francis Green of Boston his father had in his youth been an officer in the British Army and at the revolution his sympathies led him to make his home in England the boy who had at an early age proved to be a deaf mute was placed in Braidwood School in February 1780 being then eight years old Mr. Green took the most affectionate interest in his progress and in 1783 to help Braidwood published a book named Vox Oculus Subjecta written in English despite its Latin name which gives highly interesting accounts of Braidwood's success and extracts from earlier writers on the education of the deaf carefully emitting however to describe the methods employed but nearly thirty years elapsed before the steps were taken which led to the establishment of the first school for the deaf in America in the city of Hartford there dwelt one of the most distinguished surgeons of America Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell sprung from an old New England family born in 1761 he rapidly rose to professional eminence thanks to a mind never ruffled or disconcerted a hand that never trembled and a happy dexterity in the use of instruments nor were his social qualities less admirable Professor Jonathan Knight who gives the above estimate of him adds no man I have ever known enjoyed more entirely the confidence, esteem and respect of all with whom he was in any way associated he was, as all who knew agree a kind, benevolent and noble spirited man in the domestic circle and in the society of his friends he was polite, cheerful and abounding and pleasant and instructive conversation he was an assiduous and successful cultivator of polite literature especially of poetry and a proficient in music and the active friend and supporter of every plan for the relief of the misfortunes and distress of his fellow men to him, among other children there was born on August 31st, 1805 a lovely daughter named Alice hardly had she completed her second year when a severe illness destroyed her hearing and her speech faded away and was almost entirely lost before she was four years old her disposition was sweet and her mind responded readily to such efforts as could be made for its development still her progress was painfully behind that of her hearing playmates of her own age among these were the younger children of the Gallaudet family her next door neighbors and one day as the child, now about eight years old was playing in their garden she met their elder brother Thomas then a theological student catching with native quickness and impressiveness her instinctive gesture talked he skillfully managed to make her understand that the few and simple characters of the word hat represented the article he held in his hand following up this beginning he succeeded in teaching her many words and even sentences and when his own studies called him away the work was continued by her own family and other friends aided by one of Sikard's books which Dr. Cogswell procured from Paris Alice was enabled to attend with her sisters the private school of the accomplished and amiable Miss Lydia Huntley better known as Mrs. Sigourney this gifted lady gives in her autobiography Letters of Life the following interesting account on Friday afternoon was a thorough review of all the studies which had been pursued during the week then also my dear little silent disciple Alice Cogswell the loved of all had her pleasant privilege of examination coming ever to my side if she saw me a moment disengaged with her sweet supplication please teach Alice something the words or historical facts thus explained by signs were alphabetically arranged in a small manuscript book for her to recapitulate and familiarize great was her delight when called forth to take her part descriptions and animated gestures she was fond of intermingling with a few articulate sounds fragments from the annals of all nations with the signification of a multitude of words had been taught by little and little until her lexicon had become comprehensive and as her companions from love had possessed themselves of the manual alphabet and much of the sign language they affectionately proposed that the examination should be of themselves and that she might be permitted to conduct it here was a new pleasure the result of their thoughtful kindness eminently happy was she made while each in rotation answered with the lips her question given by the hand I alternately officiating as interpreter to her or critic to them if an explanation chance to be erroneous never can I forget the varied expression of intelligence naivety, irony or love that would irradiate from her beautiful hazel eyes on these occasions it was such intercourse that suggested the following poetical reply to a question once asked in the institution of the Abbey Saccard at Paris la soudmoire se trouve à tel malheure are the deaf and dumb unhappy oh could the kind inquirer gaze upon thy brow with gladness fraught its smile like inspirations raise would give the answer to his thought thine active life, thy look of bliss the sparkling of thy magic eye would all his skeptic doubts dismiss and bid him lay his pity by for sure the stream of voiceless course may flow as deep, as pure, as blessed as that which bursts in torrent's horse or whitens or the mountains breast the only known portrait of Alice Cogswell is a large silhouette which however preserves her sweet expression for the privilege of reproducing it and to oil paintings of Dr. Cogswell at the age of about thirty and sixty years respectively we are indebted to his descendants Mrs. William H. Hodge of Philadelphia and Dr. L. Van Rensselaer of Burlington, New Jersey Dr. Cogswell's inquiries discovered no less than eighty-four deaf persons in Connecticut and his representations had such influence that at a meeting held at his house on April 13th, 1815 it was resolved to send a suitable person to Europe to learn the art of instructing the deaf and returning, open a school Mr. Gallaudet was universally regarded as the man for the mission and in a few weeks he set sail Four months were spent in learning that the doors of the British schools were barred with gold and opened but to golden keys The committees, however willing found to their mortification and regret that the secret was securely held by the Braidwood family but on his arrival in London Mr. Gallaudet had met the Abbe Sikard the ingenious successor of the benevolent Delepe at Paris who was exhibiting his pupils, Massieu and Claire and received a polite invitation to visit his famous school Its methods had been declared by the venerated philosopher Dugald Stewart, superior to those of Braidwood as being of a higher nature and capable of more extensive usefulness Mr. Gallaudet therefore proceeded to Paris after spending the winter in study at Edinburgh where Stewart's young and eloquent successor in the chair of moral philosophy Dr. Thomas Brown studied with him the letters of Alice Cogswell and one day declared If I were not engaged in my duties at the university I know of no pursuit in which I could take more delight than in the instruction of the deaf and dumb At Paris he enjoyed every facility for learning the methods used from the lowest class to the highest and received special lessons, if not from Sikard himself which is doubtful certainly from Claire, Massieu and Paul Mier He had already grasped from Sikard's books the theory of the system To put it into practice in America he perceived the desirability of taking home with him as his right-hand man He had by long experience acquired a thorough familiarity with details and could at leisure impart them to himself and future assistants and who was himself deaf and thus an exponent of its success such a man he found in Laurent Claire and with this co-editor he landed in New York on August 9th, 1816 after an absence of 15 months Meantime, Dr. Cogswell and other friends had procured subscriptions and a charter for the Connecticut Asylum The next eight months were devoted to preparations for its opening which included journeys as far as Boston, Albany and Philadelphia The first three pupils are said to have been Alice Cogswell, George H. Loring and Wilson Whitten With these and four others the school was opened on Wednesday, April 15th, 1817 The house number 15, now 48, Prospect Street was occupied for all purposes except meals which were taken at the City Hotel The little family marching to and fro as Dr. W. W. Turner a few years ago graphically told Mr. Cullingworth The view we give is believed to be the first ever published and is from a photograph taken expressly for this work At the door, our artist has imagined Juliette and Claire standing with their first three pupils Thus began 13 years of arduous toils in the maintenance and management of the establishment Its rapid growth necessitated the erection of a building which was dedicated May 2nd, 1821 and has since been much enlarged A grant of land, the proceeds of which formed a liberal endowment was made by Congress in 1819 and 20 In some degree through the interest aroused during a visit to Washington by Mr. Clare who was received with distinguished courtesy and the name of the school was in consequence changed to the American Asylum It was at first thought this one school would suffice for the whole country but others sprang up almost immediately and carried off temporarily or permanently some of the best of the teachers whom Mr. Gallaudet with Mr. Clare's valuable help carefully trained Clare himself was spared for six months to set on a firm footing the Pennsylvania Institution and on his return, Louis Weld a son-in-law of Dr. Cogswell went there till recalled to succeed Gallaudet Harvey P. Pete's administrative ability and David E. Bartlett's warm heart, magnetic energy and dramatic power were given to New York John A. Jacobs came from Kentucky to enjoy a year's training preparatory to establishing the first school west of the Alleghenies William W. Turner remained steadfastly at Hartford through a long career as teacher, steward and principal His recent death at the age of 87 leaves Samuel Porter, dean of the faculty of the college at Washington who began teaching soon after Gallaudet's retirement the nester of the profession unfortunately Mr. Gallaudet was compelled to the last even when presiding over eight instructors and 140 pupils himself to teach a class and worn out by Toil in 1830 his failing health forced him to resign but he continued ever helpful and honored as the father of the death the pupils received in those early days were as a class far harder to control and teach than the children who now fill our school rooms many of them were men and women grown out of the 31 admitted in 1817 15 were over 19 years of age one being 40 18 were born deaf and nine lost their hearing under four years of age such persons had formed habits difficult to alter and had often been weakly indulged so that to reduce them to discipline was a task demanding all Mr. Gallaudet's tact and authority an anecdote communicated by Dr. Thomas Gallaudet shows his presence of mind he was standing by the dining table waiting to say grace when in darted an unruly boy who snatched up a knife and rushed at him there was no escape and with his delicate frame no chance in a hand-to-hand conflict throwing open his dress he bared his bosom and bade the boy strike abashed he threw the weapon down these facts throw light at once upon the severity of his labours and upon his choice of means his high estimate of the use of signs in preference to attempting to teach written language without their aid and to spending time on articulation experience only confirmed him in this view which he ably defended long after he retired from active teaching in opposition to those who with Horace Mann finished signs on the plea of their hindering the mastery of English he was of a deeply religious nature and regarded it as of the highest importance to secure moral influence and spiritual development at the earliest possible day this he believed could most speedily and effectually be done through signs he has claimed to have been the first to use public prayer in signs with the assembled school although below the medium height and slightly built he was a perfect master as well as an enthusiastic student of the language of gesture as some interesting anecdotes remain to prove with a bright pupil he would fold his arms and relate even a long narrative solely by the motion of his head and the play of his mobile and expressive features he ascertained from an uneducated deaf mute eighty years old his last wishes respecting his property was subdued by simple and solemn prayer a stubborn youth most pathetic of all he stood by the bedside of Alice Cogswell in her heart broken delirium after her father's death fixed her wandering eye by the sacred sign of the wounded hand and calmed and soothed that poor, stricken lamb as he commended her to the Good Shepherd so that when she shortly after closed her eyes her end was peace after leaving the institution Dr. Gallaudet occupied himself largely in writing he preached occasionally but his only collected sermons are the Discourses published in 1818 his other publications were addresses and reports in behalf of the deaf and of various benevolent enterprises magazine articles on the principles and practice of education and books for children on religious subjects or to aid in the study of the English language the youth's book on natural theology and some of the scripture biographies were translated into Russian and the child's book on the soul into French, German, modern Greek Chinese, Siamese and other languages the Hartford School for the Deaf is set to have been with the exception of a small hospital for the insane in Virginia the first institution for a special class in this country its success in the face of great difficulty and discouragement may as his son President E. M. Gallaudet declares be said to have afforded the inspiration for all systematic philanthropic effort in America many enterprises grew out of his own work or were due to his suggestion or indebted to his advocacy and the list of schools, colleges and societies which strove to secure his services was long and most remarkable but he refused all invitations that would have taken him away from Hartford or interfered much with the use of his pen for seven years he was the unpaid chaplain of the county jail and in June 1838 after having long urged provision for the spiritual care of the insane he became the first chaplain to this class at the retreat in Hartford a charge he retained for the rest of his life the decision to abide in Hartford was due largely to regard for the education of his children and for the happiness of his wife whose own deafness only made him the more tender of her here she had, as he told an urgent friend a place of worship on the Sabbath and a circle of intimate acquaintances who knew her language and they were very near her aged mother and deaf and dumb sister the latter ten years older than herself Mrs. Gallaudet deserves more than a passing notice but our limits are narrow the reader will be well repaid by turning to the appreciative sketch from Professor Draper's graceful pen in the annals for July 1877 fifteenth on the role of admissions at Hartford stands the name of Sophia Fowler of Guilford, Connecticut from the day of her birth March 20th 1798 her ears were untouched by earth's broken harmonies pleasing in face and form and manner and enjoying superb health she grew up admirable in the relations of life and expert in household arts but her eager mind had to wait nineteen years for the blessed opportunity of satisfying its highest cravings during the next four years much as she learned her teacher learned more to her unfaigned amazement when at last he avowed his love but his wooing was brief and on August 29th, 1821 their wedding set the seal to his conviction that deafness was no barrier to elevation to the social station of the most fortunate fortunate indeed was she in the love and pride with which he ever regarded her and as for him for thirty years he found in her affection and her wisdom repose from weariness and relief from care seldom says Henry Bernard has domestic life been blessed with so sweet an accord of temper taste and views of family instruction and discipline and by such a bright dower of clustering charities and when that loved home was gradually broken up by death and by the departure to other homes of the children in whose guidance and the ways of happiness they both found delight and who now arise up and call them blessed she accompanied her youngest son Edward to the two humble cottages which in 1857 formed the Columbia Institution and remained its matron till 1866 by which time it had expanded into the college of which he was inaugurated president at Hartford and at Washington alike the instant she presented of womanly sweetness grace and dignity and faithful performance of all domestic and social duties was as effective as her direct efforts in impressing upon those whose favorable opinion was all important the value of that education which could produce such fruit her husband's deep and childlike piety was her own and when at the ripe age of four score the summons came to join him it fitly found her on her knees at her evening devotions the morning of the next day May 13th 1877 bore her pure spirit to rejoin his own we can only briefly record the two chief occasions on which the deaf people of America attested their veneration for Dr. Gallaudet first on September 26th 1850 at the suggestion of Mr. Thomas Brown of New Hampshire they presented to Dr. Gallaudet a silver pitcher and salver suitably inscribed and valued at $300 and the like to Mr. Clare upon one side of each pitcher is an engraved scene representing Mr. Gallaudet leaving France with Mr. Clare the ship is at hand and beyond the waves is seen the future institution on the other side is an interior view of a school room with teachers and pupils and in front is the head of Sikard while around the neck of the pitcher are the coats of arms of the New England states within a year on September 10th 1851 after a long season of failing health he said I will go to sleep and so gently breathed his last that the faithful daughter by his bedside knew it not his memory lives in every heart his monument is everywhere in the persons of all who have been benefited by and through his labors but the erection of some visible memorial was desired by those whom he educated accordingly on September 6th 1854 there was dedicated in front of the institution where he labored a graceful marble monument noteworthy in that both the designs and the cost were contributed by the death the general plan was by Albert Newsom but the bar relief was designed by John Carlin who also delivered the oration at the dedication it is only necessary to note that the word on the shaft encircled by rays is in Hebrew characters the bar relief is an admirable representation of Dr. Gallaudet with his three first pupils one of whom he teaches as she stands at his knee this conception we understand is to be embodied also in the bronze statue by DC French to be erected in 1818 by contributions from the death and their friends throughout the land on the grounds of the college at Washington in the college his work of intellectual elevation of the death has reached a higher point in the hands of his youngest son as it was given to the eldest to take up and extend in the mission of the church his labors for their souls end of section 7 section 8 of A to Z this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Betty B A to Z by Various The Handyman by Kate Gannett Wells A handyman is the greatest convenience a woman can possess ever since Eve presumably found him in Adam family life has more or less depended upon him save in those uncivilized tribes where in addition to being a woman the female has to assume the tasks of the man but as specialization has stepped in to take the place of being jack of all trades the handyman is dwarfed and in many homes has become extinct yet what wife or mother would not rather have him round the house than an expert bacteriologist or connoisseur in ceramics only the wealthy who can issue the day's orders to as many separate individuals as there are jobs to be done can get along without him the handyman is a kind of general machinician knowing a little about all useful trades he is an amateur plumber, carpenter, electrician surveyor, farmer, nurse, and doctor the more primitive the section in which he lives the greater his power usually he has more common sense than other people and his ready dry humor amuses us in spite of ourselves he is grateful that he can do so many things just well enough we yet are often annoyed that they are not better done still he is the help-meet of the tired wife and mother and has been known to turn the clothes ringer make the coffee, wash the dishes and walk the floor with the baby that he should lay the kitchen fire and do the chores as part of the widely recognized but unwritten marriage contract he may be an inventor spoiled in the making having taken out several useless patents or he may have graduated into the handyman from having broken down as minister, lawyer, or insurance agent the genuine kind however starts in life handy hired out as a boy and is the sole support of his mother until he falls in love he straightens out crooked nails saves strings and paper bags and eats with his coat on having a sense of the fitness of things he is not the kind that spends money on barns and mowing machines yet lets his wife fetch water from the well for he pipes the water supply into the house as far at least as the kitchen sink being handy he sees the pecuniary value of labor-saving devices for women as well as for men and oh, the fences he bends the gate latches, he adjusts the wagons he repairs and yet he cannot shoe a horse he knows with a pitiful sense of his weakness that he is just handy and that he can do things but also that he lacks sustained mental vigor and depends upon the women folk what is the evasive quality he lacks when yet he has been so ready for pioneer life is it that his sense of the immediate and incidental has over-weighted his long-headedness and his grasp of broad outlooks he follows precedence rather than adopts initiative he is strong in simple expedience but cannot reason on long lines his want of self-conceit hindering his being quite sure that he knows it all then he is neither masterful nor diplomatic in family life he is just patient and not over-strong in health but he calls his wife dear and is always a lover for all that he is no longer the product of modern, subdivided life in which specialists are routing handymen where this is the inner contention of industrial education the kind of mechanic high arts and special trades instruction that is now given to boys as part of school knowledge is lessening their all-around ability to be handy and is fostering in them a dislike to do anything outside of their expert training and as a long step from that to marriage comes the result that a home costs more than it once did partly because the expert husband has not the common sense to be also handy his wages as skilled workmen seldom are the equivalent of the money he loses by paying others to do little jobs around the house or place more than that his pride rebels at doing himself what he could do but which is not his trade yet if his mother, wife, or daughter refused to be a like, cook, laundry, seamstress, and scrubber he would upgrade her for her shortcomings and denounce the public schools for not training her properly to do the multifarious duties of womanhood simultaneously the scarcity of handymen increases with each new specialization in industry we all have heard of happy home lives where the man is handy the home jobs he does accruing not only in value of things done but in savings deposited in the bank and we also see homes be gotten by men trained as experts where unless the wages or income is unusually large bills are run up for repairs and foreclosure of mortgages follows extreme instances these may be of each kind of home the truth lying between them in daily practice but any theory of industrial training which over and above its expert success results in a low estimate of the man to be handy, though not skilled, hurts the community and, just as common sense is as great as any other sense so should the capacity for being handy be valued as an essential in character to be handy is to know what to do in an emergency before the doctor or expert arrives of course it is better to be both the skilled workman and the handyman but let not the former despise the latter who will always yearn for expert skill again is it on a more practical plane the old question of the college educated or the self-made man it is so foolish to decry either when both have given of their best to the world though each one's best is different and kind from his neighbors however the handyman is never the leftover man who not wanted by anyone is always mildly in the way either he did not begin or was not begun in the right way as a boy and as a fellow was shoved aside by the girls with the fetch and carry role of social loneliness assigned to him at picnics and balls he has little grip in his muscles is understood only by his mother and becomes either a recluse or marries a shrewish woman perhaps it is in the summer when a housekeeper is far away from the base of supplies or repair shops that she best appreciates the handyman life then would be impossible without him just to let him come in the door with saw or chisel in hand and to hear him crack his jokes tears her up may technical instruction never wholly destroy his capacity for being the most all-round helpful kind of home companion ever given to woman End of section 8 The Untroubled Mind by Herbert J. Hall this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Chad Horner from Ballyclerre in County Antrim, Northern Ireland situated in the northeast of the island of Ireland The Untroubled Mind by Herbert J. Hall Chapter 4 Idleness O ye who have your eyeballs vexed and tired face them upon the widest of the sea Keats Extreme busyness whether at school or college Kirk or market is a symptom of a deficient vitality and a faculty for idleness implies a Catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity Students in it is an unfortunate fact that very few people are able to be idle successfully I think it is not so much because we misuse idleness as because we misinterpret it that the long days become increasingly demoralising I would ask no one to accept a forged idleness without objection or regret such an acceptance would imply a lack of spirit to say the least but idleness and rest are not incompatible neither are idleness and service nor idleness and contentment if we can look upon rest as a preparation for service if we can make it serve us in the opportunity it gives for quiet growth and legitimate enjoyment then it is fully justified and it may offer advantages and opportunity of the best Chief trouble with idleness is that it so often means introspection, worry and impatience especially to those conscientious souls who would feign be about their business I have for a long time been accustomed to combat the worry and threat of necessary idleness not by forbidding it not by advising struggle and fight against it but by insisting that the best way to get rid of it is to leave it alone and to accept it when we do this there may come a kind of followed time in which the mind enriches and refreshes itself beyond our conception I would rather my patient who must rest for a long time would give up all thought of method would give up all idea of making his mind follow any particular line of thought or absence of thought I know that the mind which has been under conscious control a good deal of the time is apt to rebel at this freedom and to indulge in all kinds of alarming extravagances I am sure however the best way to meet these demands for the conscious control is to be careless of them to be willing to experience these extravagances and inconsistencies without fear in the belief that finally will come a quiet and peace which will be all that we can ask the peace of mind that is unguided in the conscious and literal sense is the thing which too few of us know Mr Arnold Bennett in his little book How to Live on 24 hours a day teaches that we should leave no time unused in our lives that we should accomplish a great deal more and be infinitely more effective and progressive if we devote our minds to the definite working out of necessary problems whenever those times occur in which we are apt to be desultory I wish here to make a plea for desultoriness and for an idleness which goes even beyond the idleness of the man who reads the newspaper and forgets what he has read seems to me better whether we are sick or well to allow long periods in our lives when we think only casually to the good old adage work while you work and play while you play we might well add rest while you rest less than the end you should be unable successfully either to work or play a man is not necessarily condemned to tortures of mind because he must rest for a week or a month or a year to be anxious times especially when idleness means dependence and when it brings hardship to those who need our help but the invalid must not try constantly to puzzle the matter out if we do not make ourselves sick with worry we shall be able some time to approach active life with sufficient frankness and force it is the constant effort of the poor tired mind to solve its problems that not only feels of its object but also deeper into discouragement and misunderstanding how cruel this is and how unfortunate that it should come more commonly to those who try the hardest to overcome their handicaps to throw off the yoke of idleness and to be well when you have tried your best to get back to your work and have failed when you have done this not once but many times it is inevitable that misunderstanding should creep in and out not infrequently yet the chances are that one of the reasons for your failure is that you have tried too hard that you have not known how to rest when you have learned how to rest when you have learned to put off thinking and planning until the mind becomes fresh and clear when you are in a fair way to know the joy of idleness and the peace of rest you are a great deal more likely to get back to your efficiency and to find your way along the great paths of activity into the world of life it is not so much the idleness then as the attempt to overcome its irksomeness that makes this condition painful the invalid in bed is in a trap to be tormented by his thoughts unless he knows the means of successful idleness this knowledge may come to him by such strategy as I have suggested by giving up the struggle against worry and fret but peace will come surely steadily with healing in its wings when the mind is changed altogether when life becomes free because of a growth and development that finds significance even in idleness that sees the world with wise and patient eyes in a way it does not matter your physical condition or mind if our eyes have seen the glory that defies life and makes even its waste places beautiful what is that view from your window as you lie in your bed a bit of the sea if you are fortunate a corner of garden surely the top of an elm tree against the blue what is it about the revelations of a god in the world there is enough that is sad and unhappy but overall are these simple and effable things if the garden is an expression of god in the world then the world and life are no longer meaningless even idleness becomes in some degree bearable because it is a part of a significant world unfortunately the idleness of disability often means pain the wear and tear of physical or nervous suffering that is another matter we cannot meet it fully with any philosophy my patients very often beg to know the best way to bear pain how they may overcome the attacks of nerves that are harder to bear than pain to such a question I can only say that the time to bear pain is before and after living such a way in the times of comparative comfort that the attacks are less likely to appear and easier to bear when they do come after the pain or the nerves attack is over that is the time to prevent the worst features of another, forget the distress live simply and happily in spite of the memory and you will have done all that the patient himself can do to ward off or make tolerable the next occasion of suffering pain itself, pure physical pain is a matter for the physician's judgement it is his business to seek out the causes and apply the remedy end of chapter 4 this recording is in the public domain