TWENTIETH ANNUAL REPORT

OF THE

COLUMBIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

COLUMBIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB,
KENDALL GREEN, NEAR WASHINGTON, D. C.,

October 29, 1877.

SIR: In compliance with the acts of Congress making provision for the support of this institution, we have the honor to report its progress during the year ending June 30, 1877.

NUMBER OF PUPILS.

The pupils remaining in the institution on the 1st day of July, 1876, numbered..
Admitted during the year.
Since admitted..

Total

Under instruction since July 1st, 1876-males, 94; females, 13; of these, 59 have been in the Collegiate Department, representing twentytwo States and the Federal District, and 48 in the primary department. A list of the names of the pupils connected with the institution since July 1, 1876, will be found appended to this report.

CHANGES OF OFFICERS.

Mr. James C. Balis, a graduate of the college in 1875, who has for two years most satisfactorily filled the office of clerk, resigned his posi tion in September to accept an appointment as instructor in the Maryland Institution for colored deaf-mutes and blind, located at Baltimore. Mr. Balis's retirement is sincerely regretted by all with whom he was associated, and he carries with him the best wishes of his friends here for his success in his new position.

Mr. John B. Wight, for several years connected with a prominent. business-house in Washington, has been appointed to the office of super

visor.

In addition to the duties heretofore performed by the clerk, Mr. Wight will be charged with others of a supervisory character pertain ing to the conduct of the domestic affairs of the institution.

Mr. Baumgras, who has for many years given instruction in drawing and painting in both departments of the institution, resigned his posi tion in September to take a professorship in a collegiate institution at Champaign, Illinois.

Mr. Baumgras has been a successful and valued instructor, and his place will not be easily filled. Our best wishes attend him to his new field of labor.

HEALTH OF THE INSTITUTION.

We are permitted to record another year of exemption, not only from prevailing disease, but from serious illness, the few cases of sickness that have occurred yielding readily to treatment.

DEATH OF FRANK A. BRANNER.

Death has, however, invaded the institution, coming suddenly and in a manner which caused great distress to the friends of the deceased. During our Easter holidays a party of our students obtained leave to go on a fishing excursion up the Potomac River.

One of the number, Frank A. Branner, of Tennessee, was capsized from a canoe, and, though an expert swimmer, was drowned. All efforts for the recovery of his body proved unavailing, and it was not until two weeks after the accident that the remains floated to the surface.

Mr. Branner was a youth of fine promise and high character, and his death was felt to be a most painful dispensation by all connected with the institution. The following expressions concerning the sad event are taken from the records of the faculty:

The connection of Mr. Branner with the college was a continual source of pleasure and satisfaction to the faculty. Though his progress as a student was not rapid, it was remark able for the zeal with which he strove to improve every advantage, and the manly spirit in which he accepted every correction.

Difficulties disturbed, but did not daunt him; a failure with him only marked the beginning of a new struggle. His instructors remember that he set out upon his fatal excursion with a book under his arm and the determination to use every spare moment in conquering his shortcomings.

But his influence lay in his character as a man, rather than in his attainments as a student. In him uncommon personal attractions were joined with uncommon nobility of spirit. Endowed with great physical strength, he was kind even to gentleness with his inferiors in that respect. He seemed naturally lifted above all littleness. His whole course was characterized by strict honor, truthfulness, and candor. So he lived without fear and without reproach, proving day by day that he was entitled to a place among the ranks of that last and rarest product of a Christian civilization-the gentleman.

It was as such that he has impressed himself upon the faculty. While they grieve with his friends that Providence has seen fit to summon him to so sad and sudden a departure from this earthly life, they feel that his short career gave unmistakable evidence that he was called to a high and noble mission, and that his memory will remain a living and elevating influence in the hearts and lives of all who were so fortunate as to know him.

COURSE OF STUDY.

The courses of study pursued in the several departments have remained substantially the same as in previous years. As a full statement of these courses is to be found in our last annual report, it seems unnecessary to burden this report with a repetition of them.

EXERCISES OF PRESENTATION DAY.

The exercises of the regular public anniversary of our collegiate department took place on the 11th of April, in the hall of the institution. After prayer by the Rev. B. Peyton Brown, D. D., of Washington, the candidates for degrees delivered essays as follows:

Oration, "Oratory as a Power in Human History," by Wilbur Norris Sparrow, Massachusetts.

Dissertation, "Mythology," by Lester D. Waite, Ohio.

Oration, "Botany as a Study," by John Emery Craue, Maine.

After the conclusion of the essays presented by the candidates for degrees, the following addresses were delivered:

:

ADDRESS BY J. C. WELLING, LL. D., PRESIDENT OF THE COLUMBIAN UNIVERSITY.

Mr. PRESIDENT: I never attend the very interesting exercises of presentation day in the Deaf-Mute College without feeling myself entitled to confess some slight touches of envy, not indeed at the sumptuous appointments by which we are here surrounded, but at the extraordinary privileges accorded to the productions of this college-stage. Most of us, whether we speak from the college-stage, the pulpit, or the platform, are compelled to be content if our speeches are uttered in a single edition, but here, I observe, that all your academic discourses are simultaneously issued in two editions, one addressed to the ears of your audience, and the other addressed to the eyes of the more select class among your spectators. Few of us who "speak in public on the stage" are able to say anything that is deemed worthy of translation, but here I observe that all public addresses are translated at once from the mystic language of signs, read only by the eyes of a chosen few, into that vernacular mother-speech which is common to all of us who rejoice in the possession of the five senses.

For myself, anxious to lose no part of the double entertainment here set before me, I am sometimes in doubt whether I should close my ears and open my eyes, or whether I should shut my eyes and open my ears, to catch the winged words that flit before me, and in this state of uncertainty between the senses whose guidance we are expected to follow, I may be pardoned, perhaps, if the strange surroundings of this time and place should remind me of thoughts that come from the visions of the night, and I can recall no vision more appropriate to this occasion than the dreams that came to the celebrated Dr. John Kitto while he was lying in an English work-house.

I need not say that Dr. John Kitto, the author of the "Daily Bible Illustrations," the editor of the "Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature," &c., deserves to be numbered among the most erudite scholars of the present century. Though not absolutely a mute, he was doomed by the total loss of his hearing at a very early period of his life to pass the greater part of his days in a mute-world, insomuch that he lost all facility of vocal utterance, if not entirely the faculty of speech. And to this loss was added the loss of friends and of all means for self-support, until in the end, at the early age of fifteen, he was compelled to find his sole surviving refuge in the cold charity of the Plymouth work-house.

But into this forlorn retreat there followed him a love of learning which was unquenched and unquenchable. The tedium of his confinement, in the intervals when he laid aside the lapstone and the awl of the cobbler, was beguiled by the reading of books and the keeping of a daily journal, in which he recorded the memoranda of his monotonous life. One day he fell asleep over the book he had been reading, and dreamed that he was transported into a bookseller's shop, where he saw a printed volume lying on the counter entitled "The Journal and Memoranda of a Man with Four Senses." He recognized the "journal" to be a printed copy of his own humble diary, and while he was wondering how that private record could have attained to the honor of a public typography, and while a few brainless witlings were pouring arrogant scorn on the book, a man of grave and reverend aspect interposed with gracious words to rescue it from their contempt, and to assert for it an honored place in his library, as being a work which redounded not a little to the credit of its unfortunate author. The pride of authorship thrilled the young dreamer's heart, but the joy was transient, for he awoke and found it was only a dream. At a later day, while still pining in the same Plymouth work-house, John Kitto had another dream. He saw, as in a vision, the form of an angel standing before him. The heavenly visitant was taller than the sons of men; his eyes beamed with celestial fire; his vestments were of ethereal blue; a starry zone of glittering gems encircled his waist; and in his hand he bore a rod of silver. The angel touched John Kitto with his wand, and said, "Child of mortality, what wishest thou? I am the angel Zared, and am sent to teach thee wisdom. Wishest thou honor, glory, or riches?" And John Kitto was mute, as in a sort of glad astonishment, when the angel said, “I know what thou wishest; thon wishost learning, and learning thou shalt have, with the fame it brings to those who win it." Again the angel touched him with the silver rod and vanished, when straight way it seemed to John Kitto that he was transported to a spacious room, two sides of which were covered with books piled up to the very ceiling. On a table lay letters addressed to John Kitto, from all parts of the globe. On the chimney-piece, conspicuously displayed, were placed sundry volumes with the name of John Kitto written in letters of gold upon their backs, for of those books it seemed that he was the acknowledged author.

The dream of Kitto does not need a Daniel for its interpreter. It was but the radiant reflection of his waking aspirations. Shakspeare has said of us all that "We are such stuff as dreams are made of," and even more literally is it true that our dreams are commonly woven from such stuff as we are made of. The vision of that grave and

reverend patron, as also the vision of the tutelary angel came to John Kitto in a dream of the night, because through the live-long day he longed for the helping hand which should conduct him out of that prison-house into the temple of the muses, and the helping hand came in due time to lead him ont of darkness into light. But for the favored youth of the National Deaf-Mute College the brilliant dreams of Kitto are more than realized in the munificent provision which here has been made for the favored denizens of a silent world-a silent world, indeed, and yet not even Prospero in his enchanted isle was visited with such a gentle spiriting as that which our eyes this day have witnessed and as our ears this day have heard. The angel Zared has been here, not in a dream, but in spirit and in truth, quickening the minds of these ingenuous youth into a new life, with a touch more magical than that of any silver wand ever held in the enchanter's hand; and as Kitto was grateful to the venerable ptron who cheered his heart even in a dream, so I cannot doubt that the graduates of this college will ever cherish a fond recollection of the venerable "Uncle Samuel" who has made such bountiful provision within these walls for a favored class of his nephews, and it is a source of special gratulation to the members of the graduating class that the President of the United States has this day come to grace their literary festival with his presence; and if, Mr. President, (here the speaker turned and addressed President Hayes,) your locks are not as yet sufficiently touched with gray to give you the grave and venerable aspect of John Kitto's imaginary patron, I am sure that these young men will none the less gladly accept the propitious auspices you bring them, and will trust to old Father Time to cure that little deficiency.

As the young men here gathered are greatly to be congratulated on the highest enlture vouchsafed to them by the liberality of the Government, so it remains. for us to say, with added emphasis, that the members of the learned faculty, whose duty and pleasure it is here to open the seals of thought and reveal the mysteries of science to à peculiar class of minds, are worthy to be held in highest honor for their works' sake. It is difficult to estimate the learning, ingenuity, and patience embodied in the methods and plans of the institution, unique in its kind and degree, which they are appointed to conduct. And who shall estimate the fruitfulness of their enlightened labors? For theirs is at once a work of the highest benevolence and of the highest beneficence-a work of singular benevolence in the philanthropic zeal they bring to the discharge of their onerous duties, and a work of singular beneficence in the priceless boons they are able to bestow on the objects of their tender care. The world of literature and science has agreed to hold in admiration the genius and skill which have unlocked for us the mysteries hidden by the cuneiform characters of Assyria and by the hieroglyphics of Egypt, and this, too, though the wedge-shaped letters deciphered by a Grotefend and a Rawlinson, and though the hieroglyphs which have been spelled out by a Champol lion and a Lepsius, can, at the best, impart to us only the buried thoughts of an extinct generation-thonght baked in cylinders of brick in the Tiglath-Pilesers and Nebuchadnezzars of the East, or thought graven on monumental stone in the time of the Shishaks and Ptolemies, who slumber under the pyramids of Egypt. But the hieroglyphs which compose the mystic dialect of this silent learned fellowship are all instinct with a life drawn from the "living present;" for the "sign-language" here inscribed in the air, and leaving to human eyes no trace behind the glowing fingers by which it was sketched, is seen by us all this day to have left its indelible traces on the tablets of the human hearts which it has filled with "thoughts that breathe and words that burn." So true is it that the thoughts of men depend for their vital breath on the inspiration of the soul within them, rather than on the organs of his speech, and that burning words may as well be kindled by the fire which lights the eye and warms the hand, as that which glows with passion on human lips.

ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

I shall not mar the interest of this occasion by undertaking to fulfill the promise of this order of exercises. I am thankful to my friend, Dr. Gallaudet, that he did not warn me that my name was to be upon this bill. It would have deprived me of two reasons for feeling satisfied this afternoon; one, what I escaped by leaving the other end of the city, and the other by enjoying with you this pleasant occasion. And really this is an interesting and gratifying thing. It is an occasion for congratulation, for gratitude: three young gentlemen appearing before us, speaking of oratory, mythology, botany! We are accustomed to hear these topics discussed at college commencemen's and exhibitions, and here we have these young gentlemen with but the four senses doing it so satisfactorily, so well. I am told that those orations which we have listened to are criticised, are corrected in no other way than is usual with such essays by professors at our schools and colleges; and yet we would not detect, I am sure, that they were not written by young men with all the five senses. And how completely they exhibited the characteristics of the young men. You and I are strangers to them. but we now know that the first thinks of oratory as one with hearing, a scholar, might think—as accurately, as correctly. He measures it; he seems to know what it means,

as if he had enjoyed it, practiced it. Indeed, he did practice it before us. And the young man who treated of mythology, that fondness for the poetical, the imaginativeall noticed the peculiar bent of his mind and studies; and botany the same way. And now haven't I done all that I promised?

Messrs. Sparrow and Crane were then presented by the president of the institution to the board of directors, as candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and Mr. Waite was presented as a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy. The president of the institution announced that the board of directors had conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy on the Rev. Thomas MacIntire, superintendent of the Indiana Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.

The exercises were then closed with prayer and the benediction by the Rev. David Wills, D.D., of Washington.

CONFERRING OF DEGREES.

At the close of the academic year degrees were conferred in accordance with the recommendations of presentation-day.

COMPLETION OF THE COLLEGE-BUILDING.

At the date of this report the college-building will lack but a very few weeks' labor to make it ready for occupancy. Its completion will very greatly facilitate the operations of the collegiate department, besides providing accommodations for an increased number of students.

The building contains in the basement, quarters for the janitor, space for the heating-apparatus and the storage of fuel. On the first floor are the office, president's room, a suit of rooms for an instructor, a readingroom, and rooms which will accommodate sixteen students. On the second floor are the library, museum, suits of apartments for two professors, and rooms for the accommodation of eight students. The third floor contains a suit of rooms for an instructor, a room for the use of the literary society, and accommodations for twenty-two students. The fourth story contains an art studio, rooms for seven students, and a small room for an assistant janitor.

In the old section of the building, which has been in use a number of years, there will be six recitation-rooms, a laboratory, and accommodations for twenty-eight students. Water-closets and bath-rooms are provided at suitable points in the building.

It is believed that the college-building as thus completed will meet all the wants of the collegiate department for some years to come; and when the number of students shall exceed eighty-one, the wants of the institution can be supplied by providing small buildings, each sufficent for ten or twelve students, rather than by the erection of any large structure. There is need for a gymnasium for the use of both departments of the institution, but no estimate is submitted for this improvement at present.

The receipts and expenditures for the year now under review will appear from the following detailed statements: