SILENT SPEECHES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 736, 8 April 1910, Page 5

SILENT SPEECHES.

NATIONAL DEAF CLUB BANQUET. Speeches in silence," toasts proposed without an uttered wordr-such were features of the proceedings at. a dinner at the Holborn Restaurant recently. It was the annual banquet of the National Deaf Club, attended by about 100 members, and their friends. Yet throughout the meal and,, the following, proceedings, conversation never waned. ■ "A battle of fingers" wa9 how tho chairinan," Mr. A. J. Wilson, described it. One would notice the fingers of a diner working and twisting with wonderful quickness. Then his companions would smile broadly or utter a half chuckle. Evidently an amusing story hadbeen related. Members talked gaily of their present enjoyment, of the club's progress, of the day's sporting results, and of the hundred and one topics of a public dinner, all in dumb show or in the oral systemforming words by the lips without making any word sounds. Mr. Wilson has been' deaf sinco he was a boy of twelve, but. he can speak aud make a neat after-dinner speech. . Out of respect for the guests present he used the unspoken word. ' He talked slowly and well,' .'while . behind him, on a chair, stood a man interpreting the speeches into the sign and finer language, while another, an. expert in the oral, system, made the..speech with his lips, without speaking. • ' -