THE SUNDAY OTlEGOXIAX, PORTLAND, MAR,CH 21, 1920
01 STORY STILL
SOME OF THE PLACES MENTIONED IN OPAL WHITELEY'S NOW FAMOUS DIARY.
haps the storm which has risen may
result in the presentation of this con
tributory proof of this strange tale,
if there is such contributory proof.
Atlantic, it' would seem, owes tlfat
much to its readers. Opal,lt would
seem, owes that much to her many
friends who maintain' that what she
says is fact as far as her own belief
goes.
Another Question liaises,. '
13
PERPLEXES PROBERS
Investigators Encounter
- Manner of Problems.
PICTURE EVIDENCE CITED
rhotojjraphs Seem to Disprove Con
tendon of Mjf-tic Writer-Psychologist
Troblng Case.
Continued From First Pap.
' to the grandmother. The complexion
of the children are remarkably siik
nr1 the resemblance of Opal to th
third child of the family Is tnougni
by some to be more striking man
that to the one so frequently photo
, rapneu wjiii iin.
front teeth of the upper jaw, a char
i.-teristic brought out In pictures
taken during young womanhood, are
.. ..v...M,.tAl-ictit ipm)in?4n Drove fam
llv ties from the Whiteley side of the
fimilv.
None who knew the mother presume
to think for a moment that any secret
woo kent from the husband or from
Mrs Whiteley's own mother, still liv
tt. .u- .i:..-fBt Hrto nnt stretch
tinrv that far. so that if any substi
tntinn Was made, it is known to the
i.awa At th family still living,
That much can be accepted as fact.
Psyrholiglst Probes Case.
In company with Dr. Conklin. pro
' ff ssor of psychology of the University
of Oregon. I have visited several
members of tie family, including the'
father and grandmother, also many
of the former chums of Opal. Dr,
Conklin has made a study of hundreds
of cases of foster parent fantasy and
Is more than usually inte'rested in this
peculiar case because it has so many
ancles so different from that of any
case of foster parent fantasy which
he has before studied. The further
the inquiry was conducted the deeper
. became the mystery, but not in
sinftle Instance did he- find what
weined to him the minutest evidence
of an attempt on the part of anyone
to hide a mystery from the world.
Seen separately, none told a stcry
that was at divergence with that told
bv others.
If we presume that the story of
Opal is true it necessarily follows that
we say that the relatives have woven
Into their lives a fantasy that has
become as deeply rooted and equally
. as fanciful as is this fantasy of the
prodigy diarist in the event we pre
sume her story not to be true.
InterrKtiiis Fact Cited.
Here is something that I have seen
no others call attention to: In an in
terview not over three years ago Opal
said. "One of my earliest recollec
tions is of pulling up wild flowers
w hen 1 was 3 years of age and plant
ing them in a bed my mother had
prepared for geraniums." In the in
troduction to her diary she speaks of
many things which took place before
the alleged adoption by the White
leys. She remembers that her mother
gave her the instructions often Riven
cub reporters, "Always get the what,
where, when, how and why." She re
members that the little cabinet of
drawers and the two little copy bookH
trpre given her by her parents. She
remembers other details of the things
that took place at that time. Why,
then, does she not remember what
her name was before she was taken
by the Whteleys?
A child's name, by which it is called
many times a day, which every child
usually has written many times before
It attains the age of 5, which such a
precocious child as Opal must have
been, regardless of whose daughter
she is, would be likely to have writ
ten hundreds of times, would bellike
ly to be more deeply impressed upon
the mind than the little incident about
the wild flowers, than the little inci
dent of walking through the fields.
Facts Gives in Diary.
" If th copy books referred to in the
author's introduction were given
Opal by her real parents for the
guidance of her future life, why was
there nothing in the cooks to give
any clew to Opal's real name and the
names of her parents? Barents in
making a present of this kind as a
rule insert a few loving words of
presentation.
It is(a fact that a trip was taken
a. about the time the alleged sub
stitution is said to have taken place;
It is a fact that the Whiteley's came
to Lane county from Washington by
train at that time and the substitu
tion Is said to have taken'place on a
train; it is true that the diary de
scribes truthfully in minutest detail
many of the events in Opal's life
which took place at the age between
5 and 6; is it possible that a whole
family has woven a fabric of decep
tion so perfect as to defy all efforts
at finding a weak spot? But we can
not believe this unless we believe
that a child would forget, its own
name while remembering things that
took 'place before that name "was
' taken from it.
Much, Apparently Fiction.
There is so much in the diary that
Is known to be fact and so much'that
might be pure fiction that the .correct
solution only seems further away as
the investigation into the mystery
progresses. The place where the road
goes three ways is still there; the
lane that went to. the house-oh the
bill is still there; the girl "without
seeing" is identified; the Sadie Me
Kenzie is identified. All of these
events must have taken place, if they
took place at all, not over 16 years
ago, yet the Jean and Larry, whom
God furnished a baby on such short
notice, cannot be identified; those
who lived at the time and around
the place where Jean and Larry are
supposed to have lived can place no
Euch persons, the Uncle Caleb and
Bob Ryder and equally mythical per
sons' so far as those who have known
cvry person who ever has lived in
that vicinity are able to recall. Mi-
' chael Angelo' Sanzio Raphael, the fir
tree with an understanding soul, can
hot be identified. Not even a stump
of such a tree can be found near the
old barn, which still stands. None re
member such a tree. Facts and Ac
tion seem strangely mixed, but one
is told with the same embellishments
of plausibility as the others.
How much, is fact and how much is
met?
" Why does she not remember her
i.n'rmci iiciiiic, aiiitwugn cuo iiau a I -
jived at an age when it would seem
that one so precocious could not so
qiiickly forget something so impor
tant now?
Diary Hardly Complete.
Why is not the story of the substi
tution told in the diary, or do the
references to THE mamma, THE
papa. THE grandma. THE Uncle Ca
leb 'nfer, that they were not of her
blood? '.
; If there has been a substitution,
how remarkable that at the moment
of the death of a daughter another of
the same age should have appeared
-heariTiir all the .i liaracteri.'ttcs of
V l!" of the family, one havi
"r.."r.-..- precocity for writing, one
k f " " -V
Bastes? . ' -m? wm
"JT"
Top (Left) Portrait of Opal, showing the prominent front teeth, said to be a Whiteley characteristic, and (right)
barn from which "out sets such sood, wide view of the world." Middle "The singing creek, where the Will
lams Rrow." Below (Left) Lane where "caterplllnra anad beetles bo walking-," and (right) house once occupied
by Whiteley family. -
ing the same inquisitiveness for ex
act details of every little event that
the father remembers in the other
child.
On the other hand, where did those
copy books, which had stich an in
fluence on her life, come from? Why
have they so mysteriously disap
peared? Are they and their disappear
ance pure fabrication? How are we to
account for the fact that this fantasy,
known to have existed several years
ago, has been carried way past the
adolescent age, when all other chil
dren with a similar fantasy have
dropped it?
Atlantic Duped Perhaps.
We who know Opal well, who know
the innocently sincere way In which
she tells her stories, who know of her
deeply religious nature, who know of
her love of God and his great out
doors, who have often seen the face to
which deceit and hypocrisy would
seem strange companions, can easily
understand why the editor of Atlantic
would believe whatever may have
been told him -when, as the editor
himself says, he drew out the fostei
parent story and the fact of. the ex
istence of the diary on an occasion
when their author came to see him
on an entirely different mission.
Plainly the author had no intent to
capitalize this alleged incident in her
life; plainly she had never thought
of using the diary to gain the literary
fame which she craved, to get inside
the covers of Atlantic, a longing
which every author has. In the pleas
ant relations that followed while the
diary was being pieced together in
order that Its value as a literary doc
ument might be judged, a friendship
ripened, there was a mutual' meeting
of minds and souls. The stage could
not have been purposely and studious
ly better set for the reception without
question by even so scholarly a man,
so expert a. judge, of human, nature,
as the editor of Atlantic, of the story
Opal told.
The idea that Opal has hut recently
Invented the foster parent theory for
literary purposes is as untenable as
the charge that the staid and respect
able old Atlantic has done something
of that sort. No person familiar with
Atlantic tbinks such a piece of deceit"
could come from it. None who knows
Opal well doubts her sincerity in her
claims. Her relatives, her father,
scout such an Idea.
Is it not possible that Atlantic had
what it deemed more positive proof
of the foster-parent claim that any
presented in Opal's own introduction?
bucn proof might as easily be ex
plained away as some, of the other
statements that seem untenable, yet
ii is priyauie mat sucn proot is not
only such as to explain why this
fancy of Opal's, if such it is, lias re
mained with her past the age when
others have dropped it,' but also .suf
ficient to convince Atlantic that there
was no need to investigate the state
ments made by one so apparently sin
cere as Opal and apparently, so in
capahle of deceit or hypocrisy. Per-
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ine ciaim mat so much or the diary as
has been printed Is the literary effort
of a child of six, there ae many in
cidents to make this claim seem much
more than probable.
It would seem unlikely that a cliild
of that age could spend so much time
in writing and still keep her literary
efforts hidden from her parents; it
would seem unlikely thai a child of
that age would be so secretive; but
parent, relatives and friends remem
ber "that . Opal was not an ordinary
child; there are those who knew her
in' her babyhood-who say she was a
lery odd youngster; that at the age
of six she talked like a grownup; that
she had few companions.
I have foufd no one who ever saw
the diary, but it is remembered that
the child spfnt much time in .forming
words and writing. Even at thege
of three the one. whom' we may. pos
itively call the real Opal coui-d tell
most of the letters ami could form
words from a copy book. As the other
children grew older they learned that
Opal kept a diary., but none were per
mitted to see it except as the author
read to them from It. S
Evidence .Not ConeluNive. ...
There is. therefore, no . positive
proof that the diary being printed is
the one written by six-year-old Opal.
but Atlantic Monthly's editor should
be a good judge and he has'atcepted
it as such. That page of the diary
of which a fac simile has been pub
lished certainly indicates the work
of a child of very tender years. Be
ing printed in capital letters would
indicate that it was written before
the child learned to make pot-hooks.
and she started to school at six. Any
who believe that Opal in later years,
during the time she was cramming
her head with her lore of the. great
outdoors, took time to write 150,000
words (wlvich Atlantic says the dity
contains) and in doing o to. imitate
the painful and labored print of a
child, to imitate the oddly mispelled
words and peculiarly twisted- Kng
Iish, probably is wasting time in some
prosaic occupation when he should
be writing the best sellers in fiction.
If the diary was polished up in lat
er years, why such words still re
maining as "screwtineyes," "new
monla," "rownd," "wood" for would,
"dus" for does, and- "wus" for was,
while such words as "untangle" and
"silken" are correctely spelled.
(To be Concluded Tomorrow.)
VOTERS REGISTER SLOWLY
Indications Are Total Will Be I-os
Than Hundred Thousand.
.With fhe closing of the registration
books exactly a month away, the daily
limber of registrants at the court
house Is increasing, but even at the
present rate will be 15.000 short of the
100,000 mark. ,
At present the total is 79,573. yes
terday's registration beingv236 and
the total for the week 1586. With
250 a day the total by April 21 will
only be around 85.000, less by more
than 10,000 than at the last presi
dential campaign. .
County Clerk Beveridge Is main
taining a full force in the office in
the courthouse. It is open every day,
except Sundays, from 8 A. M. to
5 P. .11.
.-.AH voters must register who have
not voted in the past two years or
who have moved from the precinct in
which they last voted. The present
totals are:
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