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Show PespiteHis Misfortunes Ho May Become & Bright and Useful Man. HE IS BLIND AND DEAF AND DUMB Surprising and Wonderful Feats Perform- cd by Orris Benson Notes of Interest. Vo clss of unfortunates have bo ex-eiterl ex-eiterl the sympathy and interest of pec-la pec-la as have the blind deaf mutes. They Cere once regarded as mentally defective defec-tive and less than a century ago the first Sorts were made to educate them. To-kv To-kv the methods of instruction have so improved that a person afflicted with loss of sight, Bpeech and hearing can be taught to read and speak by signs and writing in a few months. The first deaf blind mute to attract attention at-tention in this country was Julia Brace, who was educated in signs only, and not in the English language. Then Laura Bridginan, the first one educated in language find signs, came into prominence. promi-nence. There is now in the Perkins institute for the Blind, in Boston, a girl 13 years of age who has made great progress under special instruction. There is also a little boy receiving instruction in Hartford, Conn. The New York Instituticn for the Deaf and Dumb sent out three years ago a deaf blind mute named James Caston, who was a skillful typewriter, and they have another case of a young man 20 years of age, who lost hearing and sight when 3 years old. This patient also uses a typewriter. But the most interesting and by. far the most promising case known to the authorities has but recently come under their notice. Orris Benson, a boy now 8 years old, went to the institution last September, a blind, deaf mute who had never received an hour's intelligent in- 0EKIS BENSON AND HIS TEACHKR. rtrnction. The authorities exhibited him at the last commencement exercises as the most promising pupil they had ever received and sent him to his home iu Graham ville, Sullivan county, N. Y., for his vacation, delighted at the progress prog-ress he had made. At the exhibition the little fellow placed his hands upon those ' of his teacher, who said in the sign language: lan-guage: "What is your name? How old are you?" etc. The child was then led to the blatkboard, where he wrote the answers correctly. Letters were traced in the plm' of his hand by the teacher and the pupil immediately wrote them on tho board. A package of cards, on which were raised pictures of objects, was given to ; a man in the audience to make a selec- i tion. A card with a raised door key was handed the boy. Ho moved his fingers over the card, and when led to the board wrote the work key in very legible script, ! and picked up from a dozen objects on the table the key itself and went through the motions of unlocking a door. ! In the same manner did he find a pen I and a hand saw. About one hundred j words in raised letters of Dr. Moon's j alphabet for the blind placed on cards i were given him. He recognized them . hy touch, spelled them on his fingers and then wrote them on the board. Alphabetical Alpha-betical blocks with depressed letters were given him and he combined them ; i'-ito simple words like "horse," etc. He spelled the numerals from one to ten and wrnte them in figures. He has also been taught scripture verses and sentences from Dr. Peter's Language Lessons. . On the tjlhlo i i ill T -T-. , tn tUW Cllti Will IJO DCUU tUO UU Jecte which he has learned to recognize hy tonch and to describe in writing and y signs. The board above the table contains depressed letters aud words from wlu'ch he was first taught to read, ais teacher, Professor C. W. Van Tassel, , 50 a deaf mute, is speaking to him by forming tho letters with his fingers. Joe writing on the board to the left was done bythe little unfortunate himself. "Tien the boy came to the institution last September he cried every night for a month, because all was strange to him. us kind matron, Miss Smith, would sit y his bed until he cried himself to sleep. At last he took a peculiar fancy to one the other boys, so their beds were feed side by side, and after that he rned contented. At first he was placed in the charge of a boy, who woked after him during the day, for fear ne would hurt himself. But he evidently evident-ly did not like the restraint of an overseer over-seer and was allowed to go out alone "'th the other boys. ' He plays ball, after a manner, with them and has never revived re-vived but two injuries that were in the ast severe. He knows the signs for a" the dishes at the table, and once , stiown what the sign is he never forgets Jl- He looks delicate, but is perfectly wealthy, anri no other bodily deformity de-formity than those mentioned above. . e is about four feet in height, has dark nd is bright and active, but walks ""J i that careful, halting step peculiar m tne blind. When he meets a person , u touching to see him feel all over his e and clothing to see if they are strange. Benson has two brothers, 14 and 11 ;tts old respectively, and a sister 3 -ears of age. None of his family, rela- Tes or ancestors has suffered from deaf-w deaf-w blindness. His father and mo-. , er ar both living, and were not re- u previous to marriage. Orris was n Wind and became deaf when 3 years tv-,!?0 spinal meningitis, which al-jvs al-jvs uestroys memory in young chi!-n'm". chi!-n'm". is tuo cae with all deaf Imt 0Tgans of speech, are perfect, " never having heard a sound that lie . r?niember he canrat be made to ye a speakar. i |