The Cedar Co. news-letter. [volume] (Tipton, Iowa) 1853-1853, 1853-11-19

she was occupied about the house; and
her disposition to initiate led her to re-
peat every thing herself. She even learn.
Ell to sew little, and to knit.
"At this time was so fortunate as toI
hear Of this child, and Immediately has
tened to Hanover to see her. / found
her with well formed figure, a strongly
marked nervous-sanguine temperament.
a large and beautifully shaped head, and
the whole system in healthy action. The
parents were easily induced to consent to
her coming to Boston, and on the 4th Of
October, 1887, they brough, her to the
institution.
For while she was much bewildered,
and after waiting about two weeks until
she became acquainted with her new To-
|cality, and somewhat familiar with its in
mates, an attempt was made to give her
"a knowledge Of arbitrary signs, by which
she could interchange thoughts with 9TH
ers. There was one Of two ways to be
adopted: either to 60 on to build up a
language Of signs on the basis Of the
natural language which she had already
commenced herself, or to teach her the
purely arbitrary language in ccumon
use; that is, to give her sign for every
individual thing, or to give her knowl-
edge of letters by combination of which
she might express her idea Of the exist
ence, and the mode and condition of ex-
istnce, Of anything. The former would
have been easy, but very Intellectual; the
latter seemed very difficult, but if accom-.
Iplished very eiIec,aal. l determined there.
fore to try the latter.
"The first experiments were made by
taking articles in common use, such as
knives, forks, spoons, keys, &C., and
|pasting upon them labels with their names
printed upon them in raised letters
These she fel. very carefully, and soon
of course, distinguished that the crooked
lines spoons differed as much from
the crooked lines ksy, as the spoon diff.
fered from the key in form. Then small
detached labels, with the same words
printed upon them, were put into he,
hands; and she soon observed that they
were similar to the ones pasted on the ar.
ticles. She showed her PERCEPTION Of
this similarity by laying the label ke,
upon the key, and the label poonup'
on the spoon. She was encouraged her,
by the natural sign Of appreciation pa.
ting on the head. The same process wa:
then repeated with all the articles whiel
she could handle; and she very easil,
learned to place the proper labels upon
them. twas evident, however, that tht
only intellectual exercise was that of i'm
ltation and memory, Shs recollected tia
the label b o k was placed upon book
and she repeated the process first from
imitation, next from memory, with onl,
the motive OF love Of appreciation, bu
apparently without the intellectual per
cep,ion Of any relation between til,
things.
i After a while, instead of labels, tn,
individual letters were given to her OIL
detached bits Of paper; they were ar
ranged side by side, SO as to spell b k
k y, &C.: then they were mixed up il
a heap, and q sign was made for her I,
arrange them herself, so as to express tn
words booS. key, &c. and she did So
Hitherto the process had been mechani
cal, and the success about as great a
teaching q very knowing dog variet,
of tricks. The poor child had sat in NUT
J lamazement, and patiently initiated ever,
j thing her teacher did; but now the trutl
began to flash upon her; her intellee
J began to work. She perceived that her
was way BY which she could hersel
make up sign OF anything that was il
/ her own mind and show it to anothe
mind and at once her countenance light
, ed up with human expression. l! va
, 10 longer a dog or parrot; it was an in
mortal spirit eagerly scizlng upon ne,
link Of union with other spirits! l coul
! almost fix upon the moment when thi
r truth dawned upon her minds and sprea
4 its ligh. upon her eountenance; | sa,
4 that the great obstacle was overcome
. land that henceforward nothing but patief
$ and persevering, but plain and straight
!. forward efforts were TO be used. The re