(Sign language) is, in the hands of its masters, a most beautiful and expressive language… It is impossible for those who do not understand it to comprehend its possibilities with the deaf, its powerful influence on the moral and social happiness of those deprived of hearing, and its wonderful power of carrying thought to intellects which would otherwise be in perpetual darkness. Not can they appreciate the hold it has upon the deaf. So long as there are two people upon the face of the earth and they get together, so long will signs be used.

j. Schuyler Long