Indiana State Sentinel

Quickness of Sight.—A communication recently appeared in the Boston Transcript, stating that a deaf and dumb gentleman of Hartford, named Leclere, requested a writer to sit on the opposite side of the room in which they both were, and, without opening his lips, or using pen or paper, he (the writer) could communicate his thoughts to the deaf and dumb gentleman, and, by crossing the room, find them written on his slate, word for word. This was repeatedly done.

The following explanation has since been given:—”I was told by the gentleman to write my thoughts in the air, with my forefinger, as rapidly as I pleased. I did so, and they were accurately written on the slate. It seems that, from long practice in reading the telegraphic language of the deaf and dumb, this gentleman had acquired a quickness of sight which enabled him to read the evanescent writing in the air, made by my forefinger. That rapidity of sight was the most wonderful part of the feat."