The Children of Silence
(Each actor is doubled. . . one speaking and the other using sign) Mary Emma Rose Mitchell Totten Lynn Wellington Emily Burns Charles Laughlin Kyler Miller Mary Waldo Courtney Privia Paul Forbes Ben Stanberry
MARY: (entering R to Right side, checking the notes on her clipboard, as the crowd is still talking) Quiet! Quiet, please! (to an audience member) You there. Both feet on the floor. That’s better. (to another audience member) We will keep our hands to ourselves.
LYNN: (entering) Her name was Mary Emma Rose Mitchel Totten. . . the first Matron at the Deaf School.
MARY: Your attention, please! Welcome to our school.
LYNN: She was the youngest student to enter the first American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. The average age was 20. She was nine.
MARY: This will be your daily schedule. 4 a.m. . .rise and shine!
LYNN: When she moved to the New York Institution for the Deaf, no one could sign. . . not even the teachers.
MARY: 5 a.m. . . . study. 6 a.m. breakfast, 6:45 physical labor, and at 9 a.m. will be begin school each morning.
LYNN: So it was 10-year-old Mary who spread the gift of sign language to the entire school.
MARY: At 3:15 each day we shall meet for prayer followed by more manual labor at 3:45. Then at 6 we shall take our supper, attend chapel at 7, and 9 p.m. will find us all in bed. (directly to a member of the audience) All of us.
LYNN: She graduated at age 14 and they made her an assistant teacher. Five years before she’d never been to school, didn’t know a single word of English or sign language, and at age 14 she was a teacher.
MARY: Young ladies of the Deaf School! You’ve been required to bring these items. . four dresses, two bonnets, three changes of underwear. .
LYNN: She married into one of the most distinguished New York families and became Mrs. DeWitt Clinton Mitchell. She was a novelty. Few people had ever seen an educated deaf person. Sort of like the way this school got started. Senator Orville Browning was on a Mississippi riverboat and ran into a deaf man from Kentucky. .
MARY: . . . three pairs of winter stockings and three for summer. . .
LYNN: . . he’d never met an educated deaf person and decided that Illinois needed a school of its own.
MARY: . . . three pairs of shoes, two nightgowns and caps. . (to an audience member) Did you bring your sleeping cap?
LYNN: After her husband died she became Assistant Matron of the New York School and fell in love with a deaf teacher, Nathan Totten.
MARY: . . four handkerchiefs, one shawl, two pair of gloves, two hair combs. . one course and one fine. Now. . .for you boys. . .!
LYNN: Mr. Totten was the first permanent teacher at ISD, and Mary was appointed Matron. She was in charge of turning the girls into young ladies. . .sort of a mother, and that’s just how we all thought of her.
MARY: Boys! Three coats, three vests, three pairs of pantaloons, six shirts, six pairs of socks. .
LYNN: She taught sewing, cooking and etiquette.
MARY: . . .two hats and a palm leaf hat, two pairs of gloves, two wooden combs, two pairs of suspenders and three handkerchiefs. (going to a male in the audience) Perhaps in your case, four.
LYNN: There was no mention of underwear for the boys.
MARY: X to Left side You will have free time on Wednesday afternoons and that’s when you shall take your baths. . . boys and girls will walk on separate pathways to the bathhouse. There will be no contact at bath time.
LYNN: Her husband became very ill and the couple returned to New York. . .the whole school was saddened. We loved them very much.
MARY: We have separate playgrounds and hospitals for the boys and girls.
LYNN: But when he died Mary returned to our school. . . it was like our mother had come home.
MARY: Your hundred-dollars-a-year tuition covers board, washing materials, fuel, lights and books. Unless you’re from Illinois then you come for free.
LYNN: We were so happy to have Mary with us again. . . then he stepped in.
MARY: (speaking for the first time to Lynn) We shall not talk about that man.
LYNN: But Miss Mary, he’s the reason you’re leaving our school!
MARY: (seeing someone enter at the rear He’ll enter back Left, behind audience…you end up a left side of group) Charles! Charles, you’re tardy. (Charles runs to the front with the others.) (addressing the audience) Students, since you’re new here today, I want to introduce you to Master Charles Laughlin.
CHARLES: Hello.
MARY: Charles is from Quincy. A bright young man.
LYNN: While he was in his final year here he also became a teacher at the school.
MARY: But the interesting part of Charles’s story took place before he came to us. . . at age 10.
CHARLES: I went west.
MARY: Don’t be so modest, Charles. Tell them.
CHARLES: On a wagon train.
MARY: And?
CHARLES: . . .they hired me. I could speak to the Indians with my sign language.
MARY: Isn’t that remarkable, children? Some wagon trains hired deaf persons to interpret for them to the Indians. They had many signs in common.
MARY WALDO: (entering from the rear of the audience You X to R side of group) Charles! There you are!
MARY: Mary Waldo! You’re interrupting!
MARY WALDO: (as she runs to the front) Sorry, Miss Mary.
MARY: Another Mary. Mary Waldo, children. (moving close to the audience) May I tell you a secret? Mary was to become our first valedictorian at the Deaf School. . . she lost her hearing to Scarlet Fever at the age of two. . . and would you like to hear one more secret? (turning to Mary Waldo and Charles) Turn around, please! (they do) These two fell in love and got married. . . and both went on to teach at ISD. (tapping one on the shoulder) You may turn around now.
MARY WALDO: What was that about?
MARY: You’ll find out in about two years.
MARY WALDO: (to Charles) Did you tell them about the wagon trains?
MARY: He was just about to . . .
MARY WALDO: Charles led the wagons all the way to California!
CHARLES: I didn’t exactly lead them.
MARY: Mary Waldo, perhaps if you’d let Charles tell his story.
MARY WALDO: He’s my hero! Doesn’t he look brave? And handsome!
MARY: (to the audience) If she only knew what was coming. (to Charles) What was it like, Charles?
CHARLES: (acting all this out) Well, I fought off about a hundred tribes of fierce Indians, then I swam across all the rivers to make sure the wagons could cross, then I climbed the Rocky Mountains to find a way through, then when we got to California I started digging for gold and came back a millionaire!
(a long beat as they all stare at him in wonder)
MARY: Charles is very creative. Now would you like to tell them the real story?
CHARLES: Beans, bacon and coffee.
MARY: Excuse me?
CHARLES: Every day for months at a time. . .beans, bacon and coffee.
MARY WALDO: But he faced the fearsome Indians and fought his way to California!
MARY: Really?
CHARLES: Uh. . no. I mostly asked the Indians which way to go. We got lost a lot. They were always friendly.
MARY WALDO: He saved an old lady’s life!
MARY: I’d not heard this one.
MARY WALDO: She was a witch!
MARY: Mary Waldo, I’ll have no talk like that in front of these people!
MARY WALDO: Tell her, Charles! You saved the witch’s life!
CHARLES: Well. . . it’s sort of like that. Her name was Pamelia. . . she was traveling with our wagon train just west of the Missouri River. A group of Indians came into our camp one night and this old lady was sitting by the fire. They sat down beside her.
MARY WALDO: A witch!
MARY: Mary!
CHARLES: She was eating stew and she offered some to the Indians so they sat down and ate with her. But the soup had bones in it. The Indians spit out the bones and kept on eating, but old Miss Pamelia just opened her mouth, took out her dentures, licked them and put them back in her mouth. The Indians had never seen false teeth. They thought she was a witch.
MARY WALDO: And they burned her at the stake! This is so exciting!
CHARLES: Actually, they took one look at her and took off screaming. We never saw them again.
LYNN: But that sounds so dangerous, Charles! An interpreter to the Indians!
CHARLES: It was a 2000-mile trip, but I only went with them through Indian Territory then I’d catch a ride with the next group coming east.
LYNN: Wasn’t it scary?
CHARLES: Lots of people got shot.
LYNN: Indians?
CHARLES: We hardly ever saw an Indians. We’d always have our wagons full of loaded guns and if you got shot it was usually one of your own guns going off my accident. The main danger was heat and snow and hail. . and drownings. Lots of folks drowned crossing the rivers. But the worst was the diseases. . smallpox, cholera, typhoid and mountain fever. Somebody would die and we’d quick scratch out a hole. . . never marked the graves. You marked a grave and the animals would see them and dig them up.
LYNN: (to the audience) So at age 10, Charles Laughlin came to our school after a career as an Indian guide. (to Charles) And you never got any of those diseases?
CHARLES: Nope. And I drank out of the same bucket as the mules.
MARY WALDO: Your lips touched the. . (a recent memory hits her, her hands go to her mouth) Oh no.
MARY: What’s that?
MARY WALDO: Nothing, Miss Mary.
MARY: We do not drink from mule buckets at the Deaf School, Charles.
CHARLES: No Ma’am.
MARY: And Mary Waldo, we shall be careful what our lips touch!
MARY WALDO: Yes, Miss Mary. (to Charles) You didn’t!
CHARLES: The mule was healthy.
MARY: Our school for the deaf has strict hygiene requirements. . . one bath a week! Required!
CHARLES: Yes Ma’am.
LYNN: (to the audience) As the number of kids grew, so did the diseases. . (pulling out a paper) Here’s the School for the Deaf medical report from 1910. “410 cases of spinal meningitis, 213 sick with scarlet fever, 141 with brain fever, 82 cases of measles. . . “
MARY: And above all! Safety!
CHARLES: (taking the paper from Lynn) Here’s the accident report for that same year . . . (reading) “5 kids injured by blows to the head. .
MARY WALDO: Oh my goodness!
CHARLES: I didn’t do it. (reading) “1 burn, 2 burnt with lye, 1 injured by drinking lye. . “
MARY WALDO: Drinking lye? That’s worse than drinking after mules!
CHARLES: “Sixty-one falls, 2 children scalded, 3 struck by lightening, 1 sunstroke, 5 injured by fright. . “
MARY WALDO: Injured by fright?
CHARLES: Boo!
MARY WALDO: (screams)
MARY: Charles!
CHARLES: Sorry. “One sunstroke, 1 neck sprain, and 1 child injured by washing in a cold stream.”
LYNN: What?
CHARLES: See? Taking baths is dangerous!
MARY: That will be quite enough, young man!
PAUL: (entering, , from the rear) Miss Mary!
MARY: Paul! It’s nearly time for prayers! What are doing here?
PAUL: (as the two girls have run to the front) Miss Mary! Is it true?
MARY: Is what true, child?
PAUL: You’re leaving?
MARY: I . . . This is neither the time nor the place. All of you. . .let’s hurry on to our prayers.
PAUL: We want to know.
MARY: (a long beat as she looks at the children, then the audience, then to the audience) The Main Building. . . the place where you’re sitting now was built in 1851! That was before the Civil War!
CHARLES: Is it true, Miss Mary?
MARY: Of course it’s true! And they completed the North Wing in 1853.
PAUL: We mean about your leaving.
MARY: Governor Duncan was our first board president and David A. Smith was on the board. They paid $975 purchase the land from Mr. Smith and Mr. Lockwood. This whole area was nothing but trees and meadow.
MARY WALDO: You’ve got to tell us, Miss Mary.
MARY: In 1871 they tore down the portion behind you and rebuilt it.
CHARLES: We’re not leaving ‘til you tell us!
MARY: (a long pause, then) (You X Left) Children. . .the Deaf School has been my life . . some of my greatest friendships have been formed right here in Jacksonville. . . (looking at the kids) . . .right here in this building.
PAUL: It’s Colonel Dunlap, isn’t it?
MARY: There are names I do not allow to pass my lips, Paul.
CHARLES: Like drinking behind a mule? Let’s be honest, Miss Mary. Colonel Dunlap and his friends want to replace you with their own people. When kids tried to escape they stole their trunks and had them arrested. Some got whipped for trying to run away.
PAUL: The children were crying last night.
MARY: I know that.
MARY WALDO: My friend Mary Louisa . . .
MARY: Governor Duncan’s daughter?
MARY WALDO Yes. She cried with me last night. They must move from their home across the street. Much sadness, Miss Mary . . . I’m afraid.
MARY: Much sadness, Mary. But this place . . . this school will survive. Mark my words. Four brave children walked through these doors in 1846. They were afraid, too. (The children huddle around Mary and hug her as Lynn addresses the audience.)
LYNN: This was a strange, new idea. Only five schools like it in the nation. The people of Jacksonville raised over $900 to buy these seven acres then they built this building. . 3 stories high and an attic, 32 rooms. . . And in a few years those four students grew to 100. Then from 4 students and one teacher, it became 500 students and 42 teachers. Miss Mary did well.
MARY: Things are good children. . .and they will get better. Our school has weathered many worse storms than this.
CHARLES: My mama told me about the big snow…..
MARY: Yes, that was the year the school opened. We had to delay for two months.
MARY WALDO: Two months?
CHARLES: Nobody could get to Jacksonville! The temperature dropped sixty degrees in three hours!
PAUL: My papa said that deer were frozen in their tracks. . . and the wolves. . .the wolves would just come up and start eating on them!
MARY WALDO: That’s terrible!
CHARLES: These two guys . . out east of Jacksonville. . .got trapped in the storm. They killed their horses and crawled inside the bodies to get warm. The found one dead and the other guy lost all his fingers and toes.
MARY WALDO: Can we talk about flowers?
PAUL: A guy in Beardstown took his daughter out to feed the cattle in the barn and they found them both the next day, frozen to death when they couldn’t get back to the house.
MARY WALDO: . . .or maybe birds. Birds are pretty. Let’s talk about birds.
CHARLES: And did you hear about the Jacksonville guy who was riding his horse to Springfield to get his marriage license? The storm hit and the reins froze to his hands. The horse kept going at when he got to the New Berlin tavern he was frozen to his saddle. They had to carry him and the saddle inside to pry them apart!
MARY WALDO: Does anyone know a poem? Maybe a poem about warm weather?
MARY: So it was two months. . . two months before we could open school.
MARY WALDO: (as she takes Charles’s hands) Maybe a love poem?
LYNN: Hold it a moment! (the others onstage freeze) Please don’t be embarrassed by Mary Waldo. Love has been very much a part of the ISD story. We come together from all over the nation and find those with similar . . . “gift” . . . yes, that’s the right word. When the Deaf School opened for its second term in 1846 it had 14 students. Five of them ended up marrying someone from ISD. Did you see the fountain in the little room as you entered? Take a look as you leave…It’s the John and Mary fountain. . . a couple who met here where you’re sitting. (to an audience member) So be careful.
MARY: (as the group unfreezes) One day. . . one day, children, this school will cover the entire block.
PAUL: Really?
MARY: Mark my words. It will no longer be a school for those who are different. . . but simply a school.
PAUL: That’s wonderful, Miss Mary
MARY: You were once called “the children of silence.” No more. Deaf children were once assumed unable to learn. No more.
PAUL: We were thought to be slow and dim-witted. . . .unable to feel emotion like others. . . No more.
MARY WALDO: We were sometimes abandoned. .
CHARLES: Put in the back room like a pet. . .
MARY WALDO . . . .an embarrassment.
PAUL: No more.
MARY WALDO: No more.
CHARLES: No more.
MARY: (a long, loving look at her children) It’s time we prepared for bed. . . (gently moving Mary Waldo and Charles apart) . . . along separate paths. (to the audience) Thank you all for coming. . . the story of ISD continues, but for tonight, our story is. . . (looks at Charles)
CHARLES: No more.
(The cast says goodbye to the audience as they exit ISD’s Main Hall.)