Letters From a Deaf Father To A Deaf Son
Dublin Core
Title
Letters From a Deaf Father To A Deaf Son
Subject
A column in The Silent Worker published by a Deaf printer in the format of letters to his Deaf son.
Description
In this series, James F. Brady, a Deaf printer and graduate of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, penned open letters to his Deaf son about his education and career goals. These letters served as advice for all readers on these subjects.
Creator
James F. Brady
Publisher
Gallaudet University Archives
Date
June 1924
Rights
This Item has been made available for educational and research purposes by the Drs. John S. and Betty J. Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center at Gallaudet University. This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You may need to obtain permission for your intended use if your use is otherwise not permitted by the copyright and applicable related rights legislation. For specific information about the copyright and reproduction rights for this Item, please contact the Schuchman Deaf Documentary Center: https://www.gallaudet.edu/drs-john-s-and-betty-j-schuchman-deaf-documentary-center.
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Letters From a Deaf Father To A Deaf Son
By JAMES F. BRADY
(Continued from last month)
Dear Son:
Your practical common sense is there all right. You wanted to know how you could support yourself while waiting for fame to claim you and for editors to fall over one another to get the exclusive rigths to your output. It looks like a stunner for papa, but he is ready to show you a thing or two.
At school you learned the printing trade and it is the only
vocation you have had any experience at. 1 suggest that
you take up linotyping for a living and do your writing as a side line. Your experience at the case plus your education will help in making you a good operator. The pay is good and there is a demand for linotypists. The best place for you to learn it is at the Trenton School and if you are agree- able, will get in touch with Superintendent Pope with a view of starting you there next Autumn. Under the tuition of Mr. Porter, whom there is none held in higher esteem by the deaf all over the country, you will master the mechanism and after you do it you will have to practice for speed* I do not doubt that you will get a place in a printing or publishing office very soon after you leave the school.
Affectionately,
FATHER.
Dear Son:
Mother and I will be at the Graduation Commencement next month and it will give us great pride to see our Jimmy doing his valedictory piece.
If was not so very long ago when you were put to bed by mother and adominished that if you did not go to Sleepland the bogey man would get you, and when you took the trips to Banbury Cross on my back. From a touseled head and a barefooted hoy to a dignified senior, looking the world in the face with confidence — all in the twinkling of an eye, as it were.
Your, record at college was clean and I see that there are no conditions against your record. So you mastered the studies up to trigonometry! Euclid was not the monster, after all, and Pythagoras a crony of yours?
Indeed, there is nothing like trying.
Affectionately,
FATHER.
Dear Son:
The position you have with the Acme Publishing Company as linotypist is good. You asked my advice if you should join the Typographical Union because the chairman of the chapel insisted on it. My unqualified answer is yes. The possession of a union card is a requisite in most of the good shops. A deaf man, no matter how good he is, will have to accept lower pay than is the scale in a given place if he has no pasteboard attesting to his membership in the Union. There are exceptions, of course, but every deaf printer knows the situation. There are employers who are fair and pay decent wages and there are others who have to be compelled to do so. Individually you can- not get satisfaction except in very unusual cases and backed by the Union you are safe; <}o ahead and sign up for membership.
Affectionately yours, FATHER.
Dear Son:
You are earning good pay and putting some of it in the bank. Need 1 warn you to shun “get-rich-quick” schemers? You should not buy stock of any kind till you have several thousands in the bank. All stocks are speculative and the most risky are copper and oil stocks. Your common sense will tell you that if a copper mine is really paying, advertising all over the country will not have to be resorted to. Local people who see evidences of money making will buy all the stock or the promoters will keep them and offer them to banks as collateral. If the banks refuse them it is a sure sign that there is something wrong. You will once, or several times, meet with a smooth gentleman who will tell you how your grandparents missed the opportunity of their lives when Standard Oil and Bell Telephone stocks were selling for a dollar a share and look at the price now. Life is a gamble but you see things with open eyes. Do not try to buck against a game w’herein the cards are stacked against you. Do not have your name on a “suckers' list” which is peddled from one group of crooks to another. Somehow my name was on such a list — though 1 will tell you that I never bit yet — and I receiv'ed a circular from an oil corporation in Texas which told about all the wealth that was coming to us if we had sense enough to rill out the enclosed blank and send along a money order for stocks. 1 neglected to be enthusiastic. In a few days came a telegram. The psychology of the thing was a “puller” and the bait was so tempting that I nearly fell. “Your last chance. Wire at our expense,” etc. But I did not have money enough to take a flyer. In a week the United States (Government arrested the whole bunch.
Railroad, public utility and manufacturing bonds are more safe, but there are risks. If you want your money to earn more than four per cent, buy bonds or mortgages. But do not overstep yourself. Leave your money alone and it will grow through compound interest. There may come a time when you can invest it as outlined.
Affectionately,
Father.
Dear Son:
In my last letter to you anent stocks I overlooked one good investment — the best for people like us — and your money will earn from six per cent to nine per cent. It is Building and Loan stock. You take out, say, five shares and you pay $5.00 a month for eleven years and a half. At the end of that time you will get $1000. If you take out 20 shares you will pay $20.00 a month and at maturity get $4000. A Building and Loan Association is a co-operation and it loans money only on real estate and is subject to the laws and scrutiny of the State. It is reasonably safe. If you wish to buy a house through the Building and Loan Association you can pay off the mortgage and principal each month. To illustrate; A house costs $5000 and you have $1000 to put down as first payment. The B. & L. A. will investigate the property and if it is found a good investment it will pay the $4000 and you will pay monthly $40 to the Association — $20 for interest of six per cent on $4000 and $20 to reduce the principal. Of course the Association will hold title to the property till you pay off and if you fail to do so the mortgage is foreclosed and the Association pockets the $4000 and interest and turns over to you the balance, if any.
By means of the Association thousands of people have purchased houses which they would not do through other channels.
[399]
May I suggest that you take out 20 shares in the Association to which I belong? You never will miss the money and it will come back to you twofold.
Affectionately,
Father.
Dear Son:
Of course, I have had your life insured, but because you were deaf I had to pay higher premiums than called for on the contracts. You and I are poor risks. The insurance companies did not know about us and they classed us with the blind, and the cripples and the insane. They evidently are changing their minds now because some of them are putting down the bars and the agent representing Blank Insurance Company told the truth when he said that the company accepts deaf people on par with others. It is all right. What caused the change? The establishment of the Fraternal Society of the Deaf and its continued growth is the answer.
1 am sending you a copy of the Frat and I want you to study the statistics in the Annual Statement. $500,000 surplus in the Reserve Fund and $50,000 in the Disability Fund! And all in less than 25 years! A grand bunch of officers and the best to be found in the country looks after the management. It has passed the experimental stage and is built on firm foundation.
To show you how much faith I have in it, I want you to become a member and get a certificate for $2000, naming mother as beneficiary. I will pay your dues.
Affectionately,
Father.
Dear Son:
I am proud of your spirit of independence. You have joined the N. F. S. D. and want to pay the dues yourself. It is true that you owe mother a whole lot for the many' sacrifices she made in your behalf, but please do not consider that I have done anything but what all fathers should do. I have simply shown you the way and filled you up with advice and I am happy because you are making good. I am now receiving divi- dens for all the time and money I spent on you — and they take the form of satisfaction and contentment.
You have not yet succeeded in making a name for yourself in the writing field, receiving a few dollars here and there. Rome was not built in a day, remember. Keep on. You have y'our trade to sustain you.
Affectionately,
Father.
Dear Son .
The check for $200 you sent mother for her to take a vacation anywhere with me filled us both with gratitude, and 1 suspect you worded it so that it will not appear as a payment to us for the money we expended on your behalf at college.
Who is that wonderful little lady that you now and then mention in your letters? I agree with you that she is the most beautiful, the most cheerful, the most divine little girl that God ever made. It does not matter if I never saw her. You have good judgment and good taste. You must bring her to us to see and to kiss and to fondle. ,
Who am I that 1 should write you anything now' that you receive the most beautiful sentiments that can escape from a lady's heart? What interest can I have for you?
I know the symptoms, for I went through them and can readily forglve your state of mind.
Affectionately,
Father.
Dear Son:
Now that you are married and have a new boss, 1 surrender the office as guide and adviser. Mother and I will not butt into your affairs unless you and the wife wish for information that is necessary for all married people to know.
With the best wishes for a blissful and eventful married life. I now conclude this series of letters.
Affectionately,
Father.
By JAMES F. BRADY
(Continued from last month)
Dear Son:
Your practical common sense is there all right. You wanted to know how you could support yourself while waiting for fame to claim you and for editors to fall over one another to get the exclusive rigths to your output. It looks like a stunner for papa, but he is ready to show you a thing or two.
At school you learned the printing trade and it is the only
vocation you have had any experience at. 1 suggest that
you take up linotyping for a living and do your writing as a side line. Your experience at the case plus your education will help in making you a good operator. The pay is good and there is a demand for linotypists. The best place for you to learn it is at the Trenton School and if you are agree- able, will get in touch with Superintendent Pope with a view of starting you there next Autumn. Under the tuition of Mr. Porter, whom there is none held in higher esteem by the deaf all over the country, you will master the mechanism and after you do it you will have to practice for speed* I do not doubt that you will get a place in a printing or publishing office very soon after you leave the school.
Affectionately,
FATHER.
Dear Son:
Mother and I will be at the Graduation Commencement next month and it will give us great pride to see our Jimmy doing his valedictory piece.
If was not so very long ago when you were put to bed by mother and adominished that if you did not go to Sleepland the bogey man would get you, and when you took the trips to Banbury Cross on my back. From a touseled head and a barefooted hoy to a dignified senior, looking the world in the face with confidence — all in the twinkling of an eye, as it were.
Your, record at college was clean and I see that there are no conditions against your record. So you mastered the studies up to trigonometry! Euclid was not the monster, after all, and Pythagoras a crony of yours?
Indeed, there is nothing like trying.
Affectionately,
FATHER.
Dear Son:
The position you have with the Acme Publishing Company as linotypist is good. You asked my advice if you should join the Typographical Union because the chairman of the chapel insisted on it. My unqualified answer is yes. The possession of a union card is a requisite in most of the good shops. A deaf man, no matter how good he is, will have to accept lower pay than is the scale in a given place if he has no pasteboard attesting to his membership in the Union. There are exceptions, of course, but every deaf printer knows the situation. There are employers who are fair and pay decent wages and there are others who have to be compelled to do so. Individually you can- not get satisfaction except in very unusual cases and backed by the Union you are safe; <}o ahead and sign up for membership.
Affectionately yours, FATHER.
Dear Son:
You are earning good pay and putting some of it in the bank. Need 1 warn you to shun “get-rich-quick” schemers? You should not buy stock of any kind till you have several thousands in the bank. All stocks are speculative and the most risky are copper and oil stocks. Your common sense will tell you that if a copper mine is really paying, advertising all over the country will not have to be resorted to. Local people who see evidences of money making will buy all the stock or the promoters will keep them and offer them to banks as collateral. If the banks refuse them it is a sure sign that there is something wrong. You will once, or several times, meet with a smooth gentleman who will tell you how your grandparents missed the opportunity of their lives when Standard Oil and Bell Telephone stocks were selling for a dollar a share and look at the price now. Life is a gamble but you see things with open eyes. Do not try to buck against a game w’herein the cards are stacked against you. Do not have your name on a “suckers' list” which is peddled from one group of crooks to another. Somehow my name was on such a list — though 1 will tell you that I never bit yet — and I receiv'ed a circular from an oil corporation in Texas which told about all the wealth that was coming to us if we had sense enough to rill out the enclosed blank and send along a money order for stocks. 1 neglected to be enthusiastic. In a few days came a telegram. The psychology of the thing was a “puller” and the bait was so tempting that I nearly fell. “Your last chance. Wire at our expense,” etc. But I did not have money enough to take a flyer. In a week the United States (Government arrested the whole bunch.
Railroad, public utility and manufacturing bonds are more safe, but there are risks. If you want your money to earn more than four per cent, buy bonds or mortgages. But do not overstep yourself. Leave your money alone and it will grow through compound interest. There may come a time when you can invest it as outlined.
Affectionately,
Father.
Dear Son:
In my last letter to you anent stocks I overlooked one good investment — the best for people like us — and your money will earn from six per cent to nine per cent. It is Building and Loan stock. You take out, say, five shares and you pay $5.00 a month for eleven years and a half. At the end of that time you will get $1000. If you take out 20 shares you will pay $20.00 a month and at maturity get $4000. A Building and Loan Association is a co-operation and it loans money only on real estate and is subject to the laws and scrutiny of the State. It is reasonably safe. If you wish to buy a house through the Building and Loan Association you can pay off the mortgage and principal each month. To illustrate; A house costs $5000 and you have $1000 to put down as first payment. The B. & L. A. will investigate the property and if it is found a good investment it will pay the $4000 and you will pay monthly $40 to the Association — $20 for interest of six per cent on $4000 and $20 to reduce the principal. Of course the Association will hold title to the property till you pay off and if you fail to do so the mortgage is foreclosed and the Association pockets the $4000 and interest and turns over to you the balance, if any.
By means of the Association thousands of people have purchased houses which they would not do through other channels.
[399]
May I suggest that you take out 20 shares in the Association to which I belong? You never will miss the money and it will come back to you twofold.
Affectionately,
Father.
Dear Son:
Of course, I have had your life insured, but because you were deaf I had to pay higher premiums than called for on the contracts. You and I are poor risks. The insurance companies did not know about us and they classed us with the blind, and the cripples and the insane. They evidently are changing their minds now because some of them are putting down the bars and the agent representing Blank Insurance Company told the truth when he said that the company accepts deaf people on par with others. It is all right. What caused the change? The establishment of the Fraternal Society of the Deaf and its continued growth is the answer.
1 am sending you a copy of the Frat and I want you to study the statistics in the Annual Statement. $500,000 surplus in the Reserve Fund and $50,000 in the Disability Fund! And all in less than 25 years! A grand bunch of officers and the best to be found in the country looks after the management. It has passed the experimental stage and is built on firm foundation.
To show you how much faith I have in it, I want you to become a member and get a certificate for $2000, naming mother as beneficiary. I will pay your dues.
Affectionately,
Father.
Dear Son:
I am proud of your spirit of independence. You have joined the N. F. S. D. and want to pay the dues yourself. It is true that you owe mother a whole lot for the many' sacrifices she made in your behalf, but please do not consider that I have done anything but what all fathers should do. I have simply shown you the way and filled you up with advice and I am happy because you are making good. I am now receiving divi- dens for all the time and money I spent on you — and they take the form of satisfaction and contentment.
You have not yet succeeded in making a name for yourself in the writing field, receiving a few dollars here and there. Rome was not built in a day, remember. Keep on. You have y'our trade to sustain you.
Affectionately,
Father.
Dear Son .
The check for $200 you sent mother for her to take a vacation anywhere with me filled us both with gratitude, and 1 suspect you worded it so that it will not appear as a payment to us for the money we expended on your behalf at college.
Who is that wonderful little lady that you now and then mention in your letters? I agree with you that she is the most beautiful, the most cheerful, the most divine little girl that God ever made. It does not matter if I never saw her. You have good judgment and good taste. You must bring her to us to see and to kiss and to fondle. ,
Who am I that 1 should write you anything now' that you receive the most beautiful sentiments that can escape from a lady's heart? What interest can I have for you?
I know the symptoms, for I went through them and can readily forglve your state of mind.
Affectionately,
Father.
Dear Son:
Now that you are married and have a new boss, 1 surrender the office as guide and adviser. Mother and I will not butt into your affairs unless you and the wife wish for information that is necessary for all married people to know.
With the best wishes for a blissful and eventful married life. I now conclude this series of letters.
Affectionately,
Father.
Citation
James F. Brady, “Letters From a Deaf Father To A Deaf Son,” DeafPrinters, accessed April 20, 2024, https://deafprinters.com/items/show/103.