ix., 1910, p. 45. The
present publications are: the _Deaf-Mutes' Journal_, of New York, a
weekly; the _Observer_, of Seattle, a bi-weekly; the _Frat_, of Chicago,
a monthly; and the _Pennsylvania Society News_, a quarterly.

[135] Those now existing are: the _Catholic Deaf-Mute_, of New York,
under Roman Catholic auspices; the _Silent Churchman_, of Chicago, under
Protestant Episcopal; the _Silent Herald_, of Chicago, under Methodist;
and the _Deaf Lutheran_, of Milwaukee, under Lutheran.

CHAPTER VI

POPULAR CONCEPTIONS CONCERNING THE DEAF

VIEWED AS A STRANGE CLASS

The position of the deaf in society is yet to be seen from another
standpoint. The question may be asked, How does the public at large, how
does "the man in the street," look upon the deaf? Are the deaf viewed
merely as so many people deprived of the sense of hearing, in whom also
the power of speech is often wanting? Or is there superimposed upon this
a feeling, owing perhaps to the supposed isolation of the deaf, that
they are in other ways a peculiar class of beings?

Unfortunately, it is the latter of these two conceptions that is the
prevailing one--unfortunately for the deaf, for their burden is quite
sufficient as it is. The public has been and is under many
misapprehensions and delusions regarding the deaf.[136] Being thrown
intimately with them but seldom, people often come to form curious
ideas respecting the deaf, but ideas which are more or less unhappy
ones. There is frequently an attitude towards them combined of wonder,
misgiving, fear, aversion--a vague feeling or belief that the deaf are
more or less distinct in their thoughts and actions from other people,
that they are somehow "unnatural" or "uncanny."[137]

VIEWED AS A DEFECTIVE CLASS

Not only are the deaf often looked upon as a strange class in the
community, but they are not uncommonly known as "defectives," and this
is the classification frequently applied to them. It is true that the
deaf are "defective" in that they are deprived of one of the most
important of the physical senses; but, in addition, the term often
carries a connotation of mental, or even of moral, aberrance, and
results in the infliction upon the deaf of an unnecessary brand. In many
libraries such a classification is found, and the deaf are catalogued
under the heading "defective." In the "Index of the Economic Material in
Documents of the States of the United States" of the Carnegie
Foundation