Then a more than usually familiar passage was signalled, and a broad intelligent smile passed swiftly across the faces of the congregation, and they nodded and looked towards each other comprehendingly.
Then for the first time one realised that the flying fingers playing rapidly above the reading desk, flickering now high and now low, like the figures in a kinetoscope picture, meant something; that the gestures, the graceful swaying of the body, the marvellous play of the features, all had their meaning; that each little movement was intelligible to the watchers as the word of a spoken sermon, and infinitely more expressive.
As the utter novelty of the scene became more familiar, I found myself trying to interpret the drift of the sermon, and it was little short of marvellous how intelligible a great number of the gestures were, even to one untrained and unused to sign language.
The acting and gestures in many sentences were so obvious, that it was almost as though the words were rather the equivalents of the signs than vice versâ. It was, indeed, an astonishing revelation of the possibilities of human expression. When the faculty is combined with a system of word signs intelligible to the merest child, it will be understood how much may be done in this way, without recourse to the more tedious method of spelling out each word separately, although this is necessary where the sign imagery is so subtle as only to appeal to highly cultivated imaginations.
As a matter of fact, Mr. Gilby has a marvellous faculty in this direction, that has been fostered and perfected by life-long study. So much is this the case, indeed, that I doubt if he could be equalled in this direction by any one of our greatest actors.
Presently the service was at an end. There was a little desultory silent conversation, and the congregation dispersed, just as it came, without a sound. Three or four stragglers, clean and intelligent-looking, but obviously poor, remained behind, and presently made their way up the altar steps, and into the tiny vestry.
JOINED TOGETHER IN ONE HEART AND ONE MIND, IMITATING CHRIST UNTIL THE CHURCH IS COMPLETE."
I followed them, and when each had stated his different wants and difficulties, and received relief and comfort, I persuaded Mr. Gilby to assist me in the preparation of this article, illustrative of his remarkable work.
It will be readily granted by those who examine our interesting series of photographs, that my demands on his good nature were by no means moderate. Those who object to being photographed almost as much as they dislike the necessary visit to the dentist—and Mr. Gilby is one of these—will appreciate Mr. Gilby's feelings when our photographer desired not only one siting, but a dozen. However, Mr. Gilby will be more than compensated if this article is the means of attracting public attention to the afflicted ones that are his especial charge.