What annoys the deaf man most is the suggestion that he is being used as the butt for ridicule. We can stand abuse or open attack with more or less serenity, but it is gall and wormwood to feel that there are those who can make sport of our serious affliction. I once worked on a newspaper where one of the editors was absolutely deaf, unable to hear his own voice. He was a big man, naturally good-natured and reasonably cheerful. The foreman of the composing-room was a man of medium size, and a great “bluffer.” Sometimes he would try to impress strangers in the office by using the big deaf man as a chopping block for courage. He would get out of sight behind, shake his fist over the poor fellow’s head and roar out his challenge: “You big coward; for five cents I’d lift you out of that chair and mop up the floor with you. Step out in the street and I’ll knock your block off!” It was very cheap stuff, though quite effective. The deaf man, of course, didn’t hear a word of it, but kept on with his work, and many visitors considered the foreman courageous for calling down a much larger man. But one day the editor chanced to see the reflection of that fist in his glasses. He looked up suddenly and caught the foreman right in the act. The deaf think quickly and accurately in a crisis, and in an instant this man was on his feet, pulling off his coat. He did not know what it was all about, but here was a man taking advantage of his affliction. There is something more than impressive about the wrath of the deaf, and the foreman ran behind a table, took a piece of paper and wrote the following: “I cannot fight. I promised a Christian mother that I would never strike a cripple, or a deaf or a blind man!” The deaf man read the communication and made but one remark: “I am under no such obligation!” The way he polished off his tormentor was a joy to us all. He could not hear the foreman yell “Enough!” and we did not notify him until the job was perfectly done. However, the deaf man will be wise if he keeps out of quarrels. When they arise suddenly he cannot tell which side he ought to be on. I have taken part vigorously in several sudden and violent battles only to find when it was all over that I had been doing valiant work—on the wrong side! Likewise, “bluffing” is taboo. Few men can ever escape with even the wreckage of a “bluff” unless it is safely mounted on skids of sound. We all learn these things by hard experience before we discover the limitations of the silent life.