ADVENTURES IN
SILENCE
HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD
333 WEST 30th STREET
NEW YORK
By HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD
[Pg 2]
WHOSE RARE SYMPATHY AND
SISTERLY UNDERSTANDING HAVE
HELPED ONE DEAF MAN THROUGH
THE SILENCE.
INTRODUCTION
There are in this country about 75,000 people who were never able tohear. There are also about half a million who have lost all or part oftheir hearing, and more than one million in addition who must use somecontrivance to aid their ears. This army, nearly as large as the onesent overseas, is forced to live a strange and mysterious life, whichmost normal persons know nothing about, even though they come into dailycontact with the outposts. The ordinary deaf man is usually regardedas a joke or a nuisance, according to the humor of his associates.This social condition is largely due to the fact that he has foundno place in literature; he occupies an abnormal position because hisstory has never been fairly told. The lame, the halt and the blindhave been driven or gently led into literature. Poem, essay and storyhave described their lives, their habits, their needs; as a result theaverage person of reasonable intelligence has a fair notion of what itis like to be crippled or blind. But no one tells what it is like tobe deaf. No one seems to love a deaf man well enough to analyze histhought or to describe the remarkable world in which he must live apart,although he may be close enough to his companions to touch them and tosee their every action. Very likely this is our own fault; perhaps wehave no right to expect the public to do for us[Pg 4]what we should do for ourselves. I have long felt that we are sadlyhandicapped socially through this failure to put our life and ourstrange adventures into literature—the deaf person must remaina joke or a tragedy until he has made the world see something of thefiner side of his life in the silence. This is why I have attempted torecord these “adventures.” I am aware that it is rather a crude pioneerperformance. Beginnings are rarely impressive. Much as we respect thepioneer of years ago, very few of us would care to house and entertainhim today. It is my hope that this volume will lead other deaf personsto record their experiences, so that we may present our case fully tothe public. The great trouble is that we find it so easy to make agenuine “tale of woe” out of our experience; it is hardly possible toavoid this if we record honestly. Perhaps we “enjoy the thought of ouraffliction” so thoroughly that we do not realize that the reading publichas no use for it. My own method of avoiding this has been to turn themanuscript over to my daughter and to walk away from it, leaving herentirely free to cut the “grouch” out of it with the happy instrumentsof youth and hope and music. With us the great adventure of life is topass