Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-06-26
SHE is WITHOUT HANDS.
REMARKABLE ACCOMPLISH
MENTS OF A CHILD.
She Has No Hands But Has Trained
Her Feet and Toes So ms to do
Almost Anything Usually
Done With Hands.

There is strange little girl over in
Saucelita, says the San Francisco Ex-
aminer. She lives in tiny house
among the green hills and she's just as
happy as the day is long. Seven
brothers and sisters, has this strange
little girl. Four brothers and three
sisters, SO she is never ierely. The
older children 60 to school. but there
is always baby TO keep her company.
She never goes to school herself.
though she is nearly years old.
There are good many reasons why
she stays at home from school. She
could not hold her books very well If
she went, and she hates to think she
cannot do everything quite as well as
any one else. Besides. the children
might tease her for being so differ
ent from the rest and she would find
out then that she ought to be quite
unhappy. For the poor little thing has
no arms. She has never had any.
The thing that Maryan most de-
lights in doing is TO help her little
brothers and sisters get ready for
school. She IS very quick and full OF
life, and she hurries around at "a great
rate. She makes them hurry, too.
She washes their faces and combs their
hair, and if they don't stand still she
knows how to give them lively little
box on the ear. How does she do it?
Why, with her feet, of course. She
laughs when people are astonished at
that.
Maryan does not believe that hands
are one bit more useful or convenient
than feet. Anyone who notices her
for awhile is usually "A convert TO her
way of thinking. too.
She just takes hold of towel be-
tween her toes. and she throws 1t
around her little brothers neck by a
dcxterous twist OF her supple ankle.
Then she dips her feet in the water
and she rubs that youngsters face till
1t shines again. Then she sits back
and looks at that round little red face,
just exactly as an artist looks at his
picture to see if he has achieved the
right effect.
When the face is as new looking and
fresh as brand-new tin pan Maryan
gives queer little satisfied sigh and
patters into the next room as fast as
she can-thats pretty fast, too, by the
way. When she comes out she has
something between her two first toes.
That something is a comb. She goes
up to her brother and then she sits
down.
Come here, she says in Portuguese,
or II it isn't ''come here that she says
il is "come here" that she means for
the little fellow leans obediently near
her. Swish! swish. goes the little
comb through the thick black hair of
little brother. Splash! goes the comb
in the water Swish! again, and there's
a parting Swish! once more, and
there's beautiful parting.
There, now" she says, cheerily;
that is. il she doesn't say there,
now" she means it. Surely she means
it. And so the little brother knows,
for he rises hastily and proceeds in a
business manner to follow the fashion
of boykind and get rumply and dirty
faced as soon as he conveniently can.
She can sew little, too can this
wonderful child and she likes to DO it.
1t is curious sight TO see her thread
a needle. She does it this way: She
takes the needle in one foot and the
thread in the other. She twists that
thread and rolls it TO make the end
stiff and pointed. and then she bal
ances herself in some marvellous way.
and. presto! her needle is threaded.
She can hold her knife and fork in
her toes, and she does it. How in the
world she manages to feed herself
without falling over is a mystery. But
she does feed herself, and very easily,
too il one judges from her appear
ance.
She holds pencil between her in
telligent little toes and scribbles away
finely. She grasps the handle of IL
duster in her firm, flexible clutch. and
my, how she can make the dust fly.
She can pick up n pin, or anything
else, for that matter. quite as well as
people who are blessed with ten
pickers and stealers. She almost talks
with those delicate toes, and they al
most seem endowed with separate
intelligence Of their own-an intelli-
gence as quick and nervous as that
of the brain itself.
She is sweet-faced child. with n
pair of great blue eyes that look ex-
actly like big violets They are never
sad, though, those big violet eyes.
She's light-hearted little creature,
and she apparently has not the faint
est idea that her lot is sad. Her
younger brothers are very fond OF her,
but she knows what is good for them,
and she is a strict disciplinarian