THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND. SEPTEMBER 27, 1914.
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BY ROBERT H. MOULTON.
SO amazing; have been the Intel
lectual achievements of Winifred
Sackville Stoner, Jr., & 10-year-old
Pittsburg girl, that investigators
persuaded her mother and chief teacher,
Mrs. Winifred Sackville Stoner, to write
the whole story of the cTTild's education
tn a book.
The unusual little grlrl is already
prepared for college, in addition to
studying astronomy and some other
branches. She speaks eight languages;
she can recite a thousand poems, and
she has written nearly E00 poems and
Jingles herself.
Winifred plays the piano well. With
no lessons, except the game of "mak
ing up stories on the piano," she can
read over a page of Schubert's "Sere
nade," close the book and play it ac
curately and with much expression. She
can also hear a' difficult selection
played, and, so keen Is her concentra
tion, she can immediately sit down at
the piano and play it. Winifred draws
well and paints admirably. Like Brown
ing, one would Imagine she will hardly
know which to choose for her life work,
music, art or writing, but she is very
decided as to what she expects to do.
Winifred Is going to earn and buy and
be the editor of a great children's
magazine. '
In tracing Winifred's development
chronologically it may be said that she:
Used polysyllables in conversation
at the age of 1 year; read at the age
of 16 months; wrote her oa name on
botel registers and began keeping a
Siary at the age of J; learned the mu
sical notes and played simple airs oa
the piano, and amazed admits at spell
ing at 3; learned the Latin declensions
and conjugations as singing exercises
and received a diploma in Esperanto
at 4; wrote stories aiyl jingles for the
newspapers, spoke eight languages,
translated Mother Goose rhymes into
Esperanto, learned the waltz, two-step
and three-step' at 5; learned the out
lines of Greek, Roman and Scandinavian
mythologies at 7 ; composed a poem,
naming and locating all the bones In
the human body at 8; and was elected
president of the Junior Peace -LSague
of America at 10.
How can readers account for the
fact that Winifred is a perfectly
normal, happy chid, romping, singing,
loving and lovable, gay as the canary
she Is giving the freedom of the en
tire house and teaching to whistle and
to keep perfect time to all the music
that she whistles? Winifred has a
hundred dolls. As fast as she learns
anything she Imparts it to her dolls
and pets. She is ardently devoted, to
sports. She swims, races, plays ball,
dances and physically she is as well as
she is mentally. Her little muscles
are strong as armor bolts. She- Is as
large as an ordinary 12-year-old girl
and can walk five miles without the
least fatigue.
Winifred's father Is a Colonel and a
surgeon In the Marine Corps Hospital
Service of the TJnlted States. Now he
is stationed in Pittsburg.' From him
Winifred undoubtedly gets her splen
did physical care, and she is a perfect
ly well child. She Is practical, like
her father, and possesses all her moth
er's love of art and music and the gift
of writing.
No less remarkable is the little girl's
mother. Mrs. Stoner in - her book,
"Natural Education" seems to find
nothing In little Winifred's develop
ment that might not be attained in any
healthy, naturally bright child. If this
is conceded for the sake of argument,
it would have to be. admitted that very,
very few children would have the ad
vantages of the extraordinary clever
ness of a born teacher, such as Wini
fred's. In fact, Mrs. Stoner has em
ployed methods peculiarly her own.
It might be said that Mrs. Stoner has
given ten years of constant labor to
the education of her daughter, labor
that was not merely constant, but that
was intelligent and imaginative as
well. For the whole secret of Wini
fred's learning has , been the play
spirit. Whatever she was taught, it
came to her not as toll but as play.
She lived In a land of fairies, and
giants and gnomes.
In explaining her system, Mrs.
Stoner starts out with the assumption
that every child is born with a. distinc
tive tendency or talent and that this
will always bear fruit, if discovered
and cultivated in babyhood. It is the
mother's part to discover this in in
fancy and to try to develop It Just as
much as to keep its body clean and
see that it has the proper food. The
mother's obligation begins before birth
and Imposes upon her the duty of
keeping herself so healthy and serene,
both mentally and physically, that the
baby will not have to start out with
handicaps on Its very first day.
Not being able to sing, Mrs. Stoner
chanted the lines from Virgil's "Aeneld"
to put the baby to sleep and taught
the child's negro nurse te do the same.
She declares that the meter Is very
soothing and that she has seen many
another child yield to the somnolent
Influence of "Arma virumque cano,
Troiae qui primus ab oris."
When Winifred was six weeks old
her mother began reciting selections
from the English poets. The baby's fa
vorites seemed to be Tennyson's "Cross
ing the Bar" and Macauley's "Horatius
. at the Bridge." By the time Winifred
was a year old she could repeat "Cross
ing the Bar" and scan the first 10
lines of the "Aeneld," The mother In
vented a game in which she would roll
a ball to the baby and say "Arma."
Winifred would roll it back and say
"Virumque," and tn this way the Latin
words and meter were fixed In the
baby's memory.
From the very beginning the mother
would carry her baby about the house,
point out chairs, tables, etc, and pro
nounce their names carefully. She
found It was Just as easy to teach the
baby to say "train" aa to say "choo
choo car," and Just as easy to teacb
her to say "dog" as to say "doggie."
She surrounded the baby with colored
pictures. To teach her colors Mrs.
Stoner would take' a box of variously
tinted yarns. She would play she was
"Mother Red," and baby would be
"Mother Green." and they would look
into the yarn for their children, those
of green tints, of course, being the
babies of "Mother Green." -
Winifred's first toy was a red bal
loon, which was tied to her wrist,
where she could admire it. Each day
thereafter for several weeks there
would be a balloon of different color
and shape, until the child speedily
came to know whether a balloon was
light, round, red, green and would go
up and come down. She was never per
mitted to hear anything but the best
English, although the mother was not
finicky about vigorous, expressive
slang.
As soon as the child had learned to
speak English reasonably well her
mother began teaching her Spanish. By
the time she was five she had learned
to express herself in eight languages.
Mrs. Stoner declares, however, if she
nad It to do over again she would teach
Esperanto first. Throughout all this
preliminary instruction, Winifred was
encouraged to take all the outdoor ex
ercise possible, and soon was the peer
of the boys of her age in the neigh
borhood at wrestling, or throwing or
catching a ball.
From that time, Winifred's life be
came a prolonged play of the game of
"Let's Pretend." Sometimes she and
her mother would "be somebody" and
often each would be herself and an
alter ego. This Is, Mrs. Stoner would
play one minute that she was herself
and the next minute that she was her
dear friend, Nellie, and Winifred would
alternate between being herself and
her dear friend, Lucy..- In this way
they often could get up rather a size
able party when about to make some
new exploration Into the realm of
knowledge.
Perhaps nothing is more illumina
tive in Mrs. Stone's book than her ac
count of how she taught the' child
mathematics. Winifred had failed to
get any sort of grasp on the subject,
she says, until the mother was in
despair, fearing the child's mind might
be lopsided. At a Chautauqua meet
ing in New Tork, however, the mother
met Professor A. R. Hornbrook, a
woman mathematics teacher, who soon
put her on the right track.
Professor Hornbrook explained that
Mrs. Stoner had been- successful in
teaching music, art, poetry, history
and languages because she herself
loved those studies and. had failed to
teach mathematics because she had not
brought the "fairy interest" into it.
She volunteered to send weekly out
lines t work, which Mrs. Stoner was
to employ according to her own ideas..
Mother and child then began playing
games with small objects, such as
- beans and buttons. These objects
would be placed in a box and they
would take turns drawing them out to
see which could get the most at a
single grab. When helping the maid
shell peas they would try to see how
many peas there were in two or more
pods. In this way rudimentary lessons
in addition were taught. .
To make greater progress they
played parchesl with small dice and
got practice from adding up the spots.
First they used two dice, but finally
they used five, and Winifred was soon
able to add all the spots without con
scious efofrt. They played all sorts
of games which would require simple
addition and multiplication. In learn
ing subtraction they would have bat
tles with tin soldiers and marbles, and
whenever a "cannon shot" would top
ple over a given number of soldiers
Winifred was able to decide how many
were left standing without stopping to
oount. They worked out their own
multiplication tables. x
Cancellation became a battle, one of
them playing the numbers on one
side of the dividing line and the other
playing the other. There never were
any quizzes, because Winifred was
taught to get results and was not
taught rules. She learned the values
of money by the actual use of coins
and the values of market products by
going to market herself. To learn
pharmacist's weights and measures
Winifred playeaVat keeping drug store
and sold things to her mother. And
so it went through the whole subject,
until at last the girl became fascinated
with the funny doings of Mr. X and
got Interested .in algebra. Things she
could make with cardboard and scis
sors gave her a start Into the mys
teries of geometry.
Winifred never suffered the humili
ation of physical punishment. When
she did well, the good fairy Titania
would hide goodies under her pillow,
and when she was bad the fairy failed
to appear. If she was 10 minutes tardy
about, some task that meant 10 min
utes lost which had to be taken out
of her next recreation time. She soon
learned that offenses could bring about
their own unpleasant consequences,
while good behavior meant tangible re
ward. She was never permitted to stay
at a single task when the point of
fatigue had arrived.
A striking instance of Mrs. Stoner
methods, as well as an illustration of
the child's intellectual bias, is the
story of Winifred and the bumblebee.
In her seal to study the insect at first
hand she picked one up. The natural
consequences followed. While she was
yet suffering Winifred described hier
experience in these lines: m
Ooe day X saw a bumblebee humbling ea
a rose.
And as I stood admiring htm he stuns me
on the nose.
My bom in pain It swelled so larre it leaked
like a potato.
Bo daddy said, but mother thought 'twas
more like a tomato.
And now, dear children, this advice I hope
you'll take from ma.
And when you see a bumble bee Just let
that bnmble be."
m m m
Another poem of Winifred's, which
She describes as "a kind of solemn
rhyme," was composed last Summer
while down In the tunnel beneath the
Horseshoe Falls at Niagara. "The
words," she says, "came right out of
the splashing, roaring vaters as if
they were actually talking to me."
NEATH NIAGARA FALLS.
While standing 'nesth Nlaiara Fans,
A voice to me from heaven calls
And asks me In deep, thundering ton.
Mortal can yon stand alone?
Do you believe there la no God,
Who made these wonders at his nod?
Are works like these but tricks of earth T
Did nature only glva them birth.
irr was mere mn immortal nana
The roaring waters seem to say
"To God. our maker, homage pay."
Like her mother Winifred believes
in woman suffrage. She has written
several poems in behalf of equal fran
chise rights, which have been pub
lished in various newspapers and mag
azines. Her "Valentines for Suffra
gettes" are decidedly clever and have
helped the cause.
Sterling
Switzerland oTroubkclr
Condit ions on Con tmenL -
BY STERLING HE1LIO.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Sept. 1.
(Special Correspondence.) Refined
American women, with their pock
ets full of money and not sure of a
bed to sleep in.
Elegant American women, offering
wads of bank notes and not able to
buy a penny bun!
Sitting on their trunks and glad
to do It, because hundreds cannot get
their trunks through their husbands
run from bank to bank, and hotel t
hotel. The hotels are full, and the
banks refuse to honor their good
American letters of credit!
Such are the sights of the panic and
hoarding period that ushers in the
great European war and in a neutral
land at that!
The money disappeared' by magic
One day we were proudly demanding
gold in-chango for our English, French
and American bank notes; and the ob
sequious shopkeepers took back their
current Swiss ti and $10 bills and gave
us the yellow metal, all we wanted.
The next day, they laughed at our
paper money; and no shop in Lausanne
would change even a German 100-mark
note. A day later,, the banks them
selves refused to change them and we
had the astonishing spectacle of Amer
icans full of good money, yet unable
to buy a shoestring!
We had stuck up our noses at silver
dollars (B-francs or lira pieces, current
all over) ; and there had been a mo
ment when the banks gave them out in
bags, in place of gold. Now, anyone
who has gold hoards it against some
great need; and we hug silver dollars
and 40-cent pieces as our best friends.
We don't dare spend them lightly. In
stead of taking tea of an afternoon,
;we buy a cake! .
In the" greatest tea-rooms of Lau
sanne we saw three gentle American
tourist women enter, extenuated, ready
. to fall. "Tea and toast for three,"
they ordered, and added: "Can we haye
an egg?" The waiter girl, herself worn
out by strain, troubles of her own. and
the fatigue of doing men's work since
the Swiss, German and Austrian mo
bilisation took so many .waiters, wasn-
ers, etc, away, replied snapplly: "Have
you pieces?" (meaning silver or nickel
money). Now, as you cannot have
even nickel money without getting it
in change for silver, nor, silver with
out getting it in change for gold or
notes, the American ladies' plight was
evident. "No," they answered proudly,
"but we have Swiss J4 notes."
"No good," said the girl, "I cannot
change them."
"But I must have my cup of tea,"
faltered the more elderly American
lady. Tears ran down her cheeks, be
cause she had been through a lot
quitting Germany In panic, without her
trunks, because all the baggage cars
had been requisitioned for the mobil
ization. (Later, the passenger cars
also).- She had also quit her automo
bile, which the - German army had
seized but that is another story. . I
Jumped up. "Madame," I said. "I am
rich; listen" and I jingled a pocket
ful of nickels. We' are fellow Amer
icans. Permit me to offer you all three
a cup of tea!" It cost me 30 cents; but
what did I care?
The ladies asked me what they were
to . do.' "You have only to wait five
more days," I explained to them, "and
the Swiss government will issue one
and two-dollar bills. These, it is cal
culated, will bring out the small silver
. again, or- at east the delightful, pre
vious nickels: Tou are lucky to have
Swiss bank notes."
"But we only have $40 worth," they
faltered, "and all the hotels, are full."
I got them into the Beau-Sejour, not
by offering big prices, not by flourish
ing a roll of bills with the Swiss ones
outside, but Just by working on the
sympathies of Monsieur Pasche, the
proprietor. "I don't know how I'm
going to get men to serve them," he
said dubiously, "my porters, room and
hall valets, sub-chefs, washers, furnace
men, life men and dining-room waiters
have left me in quantity to go to the
mobilization, mostly Swiss, but some
Austrlans, Germans and Italians."
(Most of the Italians 'are staying, so
far). It is not food that lacks, at
present. I could feed the clients I have
for four months but am I to pack my
bedrooms and hallways with, refugees.
yourself," replied the Mayor to her; "ws
are on the point of requisitioning all
those thn gs of yours to divide equally
among all the families of the com
mune. Mrs. O. herself, who arrived with
hand-satchel, small trunk and masses
of wonderful Jewels on her hands and
neck, was allowed to draw out Just $100
from her ample account in the Morges
bank.
It is the hoarding period and nobody
knows what is to come. They talk
about 10,000,000 combatants being
thrown on the fields of war and 10.
000,000 more reserves armed, from Boy
Scouts of 15 to old territorials of 60.
Eighty million dollars per day may
be spent in transports, equipments,
armaments, powders, soldiers' food.
Red Cross work and the destruction
of towns, farms, fields, growing
crops. ...
They fear all fartorles will be closed,
the countryside deserted and commerce
paralyzed in the great European coun
tries. Banks risk breaking, ."govern
ments will go bankrupt, railway trains
will stop, ports be closed and great
cities lack food.
No wonder little Switzerland Is ner
vous! Both" France and Germany, nave again
solemnly guaranteed Swiss neutrality,
They swear they will respect it, and
they doubtless mean it, or they would
have said nothing. Switzerland Is also
the road to neutral Italy.
It Is a problem." (He is a tender
hearted gentleman.)
The Swiss government has forbidden
the sale of certain products useful to
the army candles, petroleum oil and
essence, and colza oil, burned in small
hand lamps, but good for any. Well,
having to buy a half-pint of olive oil
for an American lady's night lamp, I
was refused in four groceries, although
olive oil Is not on the government's
list at all.
And this is why so many grocery
stores are closed half the day and more,
and have a squad of soldiers at their
doors when open to business. "The
grocers could have stopped the run
themselves by simply raising their
prices," said one native lady, to me.
"but the government closes them when
they try it. Tou understand, monsieur,
they would just as soon." She means
they would rather keep their stock
than sell at "normal" prices. "But the
government won't let them Tefuse to
sell." So, between getting their doors
closed and, opened twice a day by gov
ernment, they put in their sales hours
by. the aid of disputes, misunderstand
ings, hagglings over change and exas
peratlngly slow transactions.
Tet the common Swiss are better off
than in normal times. An elegant
American lady of perhaps 45, in black
for the lose of her son in an Alpine
tragedy,, sat lonely, after dinner. In
the lounge of the Beau-Sejour. She
looked so sweet and sad, I spoke to her,
She was Mrs. O. , of Cleveland, liv
ing in her sumptuous villa at Morges
(on the lake Just below Lausanne),
with her daughter, who is married to
a wealthy young Swiss, an officer in
the landwehr. Just as the daughter
went to a Lausanne clinic to have her
first baby, the young husband was or
dered out in the Swiss mobilization. He
had to go. And the clinic, crowded
with similar emergency cases, had no
room for the young wife's mamma.
Pasche admitted her to the Beau
Sejour, though I cannot imagine where
he found a bedroom for her. And the
prospective grandma, so young and
sympathetic an American lady abroad,
very much alone In spit of her beau
tiful villa, sat mopping her eyes furl
tively in the hotel lounge.
I say I spoke to her and introduced
her to the group of American women
who hold together here in a beautiful
manner from my own mother, their
doyenne, to Mrs. G. 's little ones,
and a lovely young Russian girl, tem
porarily adopted by Mrs. R. because
her mamma is in a Lausanne clinic and
her father and brothers are Russian
officers at war. Sorrow and trouble!
Well, Mrs. Qv says that, before
quitting her Morges villa, she wanted
to give the considerable stock of live
chickens and pigeons and a great gar
den full of vegetables, to the worthy
poor ef Morges, "No need to trouble
The Maximum Profitable Rfide..
The report on cost of individual pas
senger transportation in Boston, ap
stracted elsewhere in this issue, ar
rives at the conclusion mat a iive
cent fare will permit a four-nUVe ride
for each passenger and just cover op
erating expenses, interest and depreci
ation. Thi3 rate of 1 1-4 cents a mile
applies, of oourBe, only to th con
ditions existing in Boston, and this
rate could not be safely applied to any
other set of conditions because of the
effect upon the result of variations In
the determining factors. If the aver
age passenger is transported for his
four miles In a badly under-loaded car.
for example, it Is hardly likely that
the fare of 5 cents will prove profit
able, and the same condition will exist
if the schedule speed Is unduly low,
thereby limiting the effective work
obtained from both car and crew. As
a matter of fact It is probable that
the latter possibility exerts a more
potent Influence upon profitable haul
than the former, and for this reason
the time, basis really serves better for
calculations and comparisons than the
distance basis used, in this case, for
Boston. Electrio Railway Journal.