When about fifty words have been thus learned, embracing all the letters of the alphabet, short phrases containing, an adjective and a noun are formed, which they are required to write on large stationary slates, placed all around the class-rooms, and thus they are advanced until able to transfer their knowledge of signs to the printed page. The progress made by these hitherto untaught children of silence is surprising, and those who complete the full course attain to high scholarship. The language of signs is much more definite than many suppose, and these speechless brethren are here taught to discern between the things that differ. At a recent examination, with no previous intimation, a class was called upon, in sign language, to write and explain the difference between the nearly synonymous terms of "conceal and dissemble," "antipathy and hatred," "courage and fortitude." In every instance the proper English word was instantly written on the slate by each member of the class in answer to the sign, and the nice distinctions of signification made. Several years since the more advanced students organized themselves into the "Fanwood Literary Society," which now numbers over one hundred members. The society meets every Saturday evening, and is characterized by animated discussions and lectures in the pantomime of the Institution.

The three last days of August, 1867, will long be remembered by these silent brethren as the national convention of deaf-mutes, held at the New York Institution. Four hundred of the former pupils of the Institution, and over one hundred graduates of others, assembled, and took part in the interesting exercises. Seven of these national conventions have now been held. More attention than formerly has recently been given to the matter of articulation. This, the Principal believes to be an accomplishment, and a matter of decided value in certain cases, though of little service to most congenital mutes, and a system that can never supersede the more enlarged and cultivated language of signs. To keep the Institution, as it has long been, in the forefront of this benign movement, Mr. Engelsman, a German expert in this system of instruction, has been employed, and such semi-mutes and others as by experiment exhibit talent for articulation are placed under his instruction. This class at present numbers over fifty students.

A new brick building, one hundred feet by thirty, and three stories high, has just been erected for the better accommodation of the mechanical department. In addition to a good education, the students, unless wealthy, are taught trades, so that maintenance will not be a difficult problem when they return to the outside world. Shoe-making, cabinet-making, tailoring, dress-making, printing, bookbinding, and engraving, have been taught with success, in addition to horticulture and gardening.

Less than twenty per cent. of the whole number, but nearly forty per cent. of the adult deaf mutes of the State, marry and rear offspring, not more than one in twenty of whom inherit the infirmities of their parents. The Institution is free from sectarian bigotry, the minds of the pupils being wisely directed to the Bible, without which there can be no complete culture of mind or heart. Prayer is offered by one of the teachers in the sign language every morning and evening in the chapel before the whole school. On the Sabbath a sermon suited to their capacities is delivered in the same manner.

At table, when all are seated, one tap of the drum, the vibrations of which none hear but all feel, calls the vast family to silence, after which a blessing is invoked with signs by a teacher standing in one of the aisles, and at the close of this another tap is the signal for turning plates and beginning the dinner.

The sanitary condition of the Institution is all that can be secured in our day, less sickness and fewer deaths occurring in it than among the more hardy population around it.

The library contains about two thousand volumes, three hundred of which are rare books on deaf-mute instruction. About two thousand two hundred pupils have been educated since the opening of the Institution. The professors have always ranked among the best educated men of the State. Half of those now employed are graduates of the Institution. Dr. Harvey P. Peet was called to the office of Principal in 1831, and filled this position with great ability for thirty-six years. He is the author of many of the textbooks in this and other American institutions. Weary with the toil of years, he resigned his position at the close of 1867, and was succeeded by his son, Isaac Lewis Peet, A.M., who had been the Vice-Principal for fifteen years, and who bids fair to attain to the celebrity of his excellent father.