The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-06-04
KNOWS NOTHING OF GOD.
A LITTLE DEAF, DUMB AND BLIND
GIRL TO BE TAUGHT RELIGION.


OF the Authorities at the Perkins In
stitute-An Interesting Experiment.
Abandoned-aist of the Child's
Case and the Development OF Her
Intelligence.
From the Net0 York World
Washington l. Theyer, OF No. II Brook =
| Ign avenue, Brooklyn, yesterday gave re-
porter news Of Willie Elizabeth Robin, the
8-year-old girl who has been deaf. blind and
speechless from infancy and whose case has
attracted so much attention because Of a
remarkable experiment begun by her pres
ent teachers. The little girl is in the Per-
kins Institute for the Blind, Boston. All
her time is spent In the company Of Miss
Effie Thsyer, daughter Of Mr.. and Mrs.
Thayer OF Brooklyn, and in the two years
that they have been together the afflicted
girl has made remarkable progress.
The unfortunate child is the daughter of
Texas ranchman, who came to this coun-
try from Sweden and married his wife in
the mountains OF Tennessee. She is the eldest
Of three sisters. The other two are we'll
developed, healthy girls. When Willie
Elizabeth was fifteen months old she had an
attack Of spinal meningitis, which left her
without knowledge or means Of commune
cation with the rest of the world except by
the sense Of touch When she was taken
sick she had learned only two words
mamma and papa. She soon forgot these
and confined her vocal utterances to loud
cries of pain and anger.
She learned two signs. When she was
hungry she opened her mouth and placed
her fingers in il. When she was thirsty
she crossed her arms upon her breast, put
ting her clinched hands against her should
ers.
She could not see, she could not hear, she
could not speak. She had never learned to
think. Her mind was a blank, and she
lived almost like an animal. The most COM
plicated thing she ever learned was to wipe
| dishes. She followed her mother from place
to place around the house. and was keenly
sensitive to the presence of living things in
mails Of all kinds. AT times she had strange
freaks of passion and viciousness.
HOW SHE LEARNED HER FIRST WORD.
At years OF age she was taken to the
Boston institution. The doctors found that
her optic and auditory nerves we're COM
pletely paralyzed. To Miss Thayer was
given the almost hopeless task of establish
ing communication with this strange being.
The first word she taught the child was
hat
She took Willie upon her lap, caught
hold or her right wrist and made her little
fingers feel a dozen hats of different kinds.
Then she placed them upon her head. After
feeling each hat Miss Thayer would make
the deaf and dumb alphabet letters for hat
against the palm of the little ones hand.
Then she would form Willie's fingers into
the shapes of the letters. At last Willie
understood, and the first ray Of light from
| the outside world had penetrated into the
| darkness of the child's mind.
For ten days the teacher repeated these
| lessons again and again. At the end of that
| time Willie comprehended the idea of hat,
fan and ring. She grasped the abstract
| thought that objects had names. She be-
came eager for knowledge. She CROPPED
| about for objects and wanted to learn the
| name for each. Miss Thayer taught her
| verbs by acting, She would press the let
| ters for sit down" against the child's palm
| and then force the little one into q chair.
| Frequent repetitions of this and similar ac-
| tions had their effect. Willie began to I'M
derstand verbs.
Now she has a vocabulary of nearly 1000
words. She is passionately fond of read
| ing She has a book with simple stories
| about ''see the wet hen" in raised letters,
and she is so fond of this that she takes 1t to
bed with her. She asks questions. Once
she propouuded this:
"Does Mrs johnson keep her mouth CLOSED
when she eats9' This is the longest and the
! deepest question that little Willie has yet
| asked but she is growing more and more in-
| terested in the common things of life about
| her. She has overcome her antipathy to
| animals and plays with dog in a silent,
| undemonstrative way that is very pathetic
| She smiles softly to herself once in a while
| as she sits stringing beds with marvellous
| dextsrity. She does not laugh, but she has
had the phenomenon Of laughter explained to
| her and is much interested in it, She knows
her own name.
| WOULD SHE ASK ABOUT GOD?
Little Miss Robin and her teacher spent
| last Thanksgiving day in Brooklyn. It
was then that, aside from the interest
which her remarkable progress in intelli-
gence had excited among all who knew of
| her case, the religious and the scientific
| world became greatly interested in most
| remarkable experiment which 1t was an
nounced Supt. Anagnos, of the Perkins In
| stitute, was making.
Several times before this experiments
| have been made with blind or dumb chill
dren to see whether the idea of a divine be-
| ing is innate. But all these experiments
have been unsatisfactory, because a deaf
child will see something and blind child
| will hear something in spite Of every pre-
| caution, and their acute minds will at once
seek and secure an explanation of some sort.
II was seen that in this child there was a
chance to make positive addition to knowl-
| 6dk0 VI lnhdtS Auodbs
The child was smitten at an age when It
was impossible for her to have had any
ideas beyond hunger and thirst. She has a
mind of remarkable quickness and acute
ness. All religious ideas have been kept
away from her She has never had the
word "God" or "Jesus" or Sunday" or ire
liRion" or hymn" orany other word which
would lead TO inquiry upon religion. She
knows the word church, and she
has been to church, but she does
not know what church is for
or why people 60 there. She simply has the
word church.
IL was proposed that this ignorance
should continue. No more about God, re-
ligion or hereafter was to appear IN her
reading or in any conversation with her. In
few years the world would begin to ar
range itself TO her and she would get many
abstract ideas. She would begin to reason
about things, to ask questions. Then il
would be known whether a human being,
with no aid from other human beings, could
rise to the thought OF God.
= THE EXPERIMENT ABANDONED.
The announcement of this experiment
caused great deal of discussion. Nothing
like IL had ever been attempted before.
There had been no such opportunity. But
now comes the announcement that the ex.
pertinent has been abandoned.
tin a few months little Willie will begir
to receive religious instruction." said Mr..