But they held poor Beauty to it, though she chafed and lathered, and tried to throw herself down. Everywhere she met the weights, the straps and the cruel whip. At last she submitted to discipline and did as she was told. She clipped fully ninety seconds from her natural speed for a mile, but while she was forced to obey she had little respect for her trainer. Could my college professors have controlled their human colts with weights, straps and whips, it is more than likely that education would have established a new record. I found my teachers quite willing to give the list of references from which their lectures were taken, and with these in hand the deaf student may read in advance of his class and be fully prepared. As a rule, he does not stand high in recitations, but excels in his written work. The truth is that for work which requires study and research, deafness is something of an advantage. It enables a student fully to concentrate his mind on the subject. It seems to me that most of the world’s imperishable thoughts have been born in the silence, or, at least, in solitude. The fact is that the human ear, for all the joy, comfort or power it may give, is at best a treacherous and undependable organ. Perhaps I cannot be classed as an authority on a subject which involves accurate hearing, but I know that the greatest danger in my business is that we are sometimes forced to rely upon spoken or hearsay evidence. I will not use statements in print until they are written out and signed. Too many people depend for their facts upon what others tell them. The brain may distort the message and memory may blur it. The wise deaf man learns to discount spoken testimony, and will act only upon printed or written words. I have had people come to me fully primed for an hour’s talk of complaint or scandal; I hand them a pad of paper and a pencil, settle back and say: “Now tell me all about it.” That pen or pencil is usually as efficient as a milk-tester in determining the surprisingly small amount of fat which exists in the milk of ordinary conversation. You see, as I told you I should be likely to do, I have wandered away from the text. That is characteristic of the deaf, for we seldom hear the text, anyway. The woman I started to tell about managed to work through college and began treatment for her deafness. This promised some relief, when suddenly the great earthquake shook San Francisco. The shock and fright of that catastrophe destroyed her hearing entirely. I have heard of several cases where deafness came like this, in a flash. As one man repeated to me: “At twenty-nine minutes past ten I actually heard a pin drop on the floor of my room. At half-past ten it would have been necessary to prick me to let me know that the pin was there.”