The Laurent Clerc Media Darling Page

Transcript: Memories of Old Hartford by Dr. John Hotchkiss, student of Laurent Clerc.

Courtesy of the Gallaudet University Video Archives

 

"I was on of the first to be given the honor because I am so old, that I am connected to the older school for the deaf that Gallaudet established in Hartford, Connecticut, quite a long time ago, nearly half a century ago. And when I was affiliated with that school, I mingled with, and learned, from several teachers of the deaf. Among those people was, you all know who, Laurent Clerc. 

 

This man live [in France] a long time ago but he left his home in France accompanying Thomas Gallaudet in order to help establish that first school. Indeed, when I was in school as a child, that man Clerc did not teach. He retired two years before I entered that school. But he lived in a beautiful, pleasant house near the school and we children would go to the house to see and talk with him frequently. Sometimes, he would visit the school. I have a very clear picture in my head of that male figure. He was old, medium-height, and had fine white hair. His face was shaved neatly. He was bent with age, but his body was still strong and showed its beauty during his youth. He walked with a cane. That wood cane helped him in two ways; first, it helped him walk, second, often it helped him call inattentive children by poking or hitting them. He wore a long black coat with buttons on the front, along with a tall black hat, which we boys called a 'stovepipe hat'. 

 

Once I remember, Clerc went to the institute and told a story to all the deaf about the utmost importance of them maintaining to read and write in the proper word order. He chose two sentences, first, 'we live to eat', and then the other, 'we eat to live'. And with these two sentences, he tried to explain through signing large and beautiful, some [explanations] were long, but ver exact and clear. He gave our children the understanding of how vast the changes were in understanding context, such as these two sentences when the words 'live' and 'eat' switch positions. He signed, "Do we strive to only eat? "No, it is not ""We live for better things than that." "But it is true we eat for strength so that we can live well."

 

Another time, Clerc summoned a little boy who was passing by his house and asked him "Please tell the steward of the institute to go and get wood for me." The boy nodded and said "yes" and he went away. But the boy forgot, focused on playing, the boy forgot to tell the steward and Clerc got no wood. A few days later Clerc met that boy again. He tapped the boy with his cane and held him by his shoulders. "You, I asked you to please tell the steward to bring wood, and you nodded and walked away, but it slipped from your memory! Darn it, you forgot!" He rebuffed him and walked away. Every day after that Clerc met that boy and told him the same "Darn it, your forgetful boy!" He rebuffed him and walked away. This continued till the boy got tired of being troubled by the cane. So the decide to go to Clerc and ask him to forgive him of his forgetfulness. Immediately, Clerc smiled brightly, and said, "Oh, it's about time! You are forgiven!" And he went away. 

 

Another time, Clerc was passing by and he stood and looked at the statue the Deaf of America had established to honor Gallaudet. That statue all of you contributed money fort a few months to restore the statue, to make it look original again. Clerc was looking at it when several boys approached and looked at him. They called "Hey, there will be a statue built for you, there will be." Clerc chuckled, "Oh, I don't know, maybe there will be one!" The boys asked, "Hmm, know the place should your statue be established?" Clerc shrugged and replied, "Oh, I don't know,  but I would like to be there beside [Thomas] Gallaudet's, right there. We were close friends throughout our lives, so I want to be beside him in death". Indeed, several years later deaf people from all over contributed three thousand dollars to build an elegant statue with his profile cast in bronze, and it was placed in that very area Clerc himself selected a long ago. After I left school I saw little of Clerc."