The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1897-07-16
SEX In BRAINS
A Woman Not Afraid of
Her Subject
HELEN GARDENERS WORK
HER LIFE DEVOTED TO THE
REPUTATION OF FALLACY
A Pen Picture of the Interesting
Woman Who Lectures at Unity
Church This Evening

In her pleasant rooms at the Van Nuys
hotel yesterday afternoon, her fingers
caressing some beautiful pink carna-
lions that had just been sent to her,
Helen H. Gardener presented as bonny
dainty and unassuming a picture of
graceful femininity as ever tackled the
serious and vexing questions of sex in
brain cells, the modification Of heredi-
tary traits or the various sociological
problems with which she has COPIED so
successfully as to command the respect
of the most noted scientists of both con-
tinents.
Shortly after her birth, in Virginia
about 80 years ago, her father, Metho-
dist clergyman who had inherited slaves.
set them free and moved with them and
his family into Indiana. There the
daughter early showed signs of having
a clear, reasoning, logical brain, and
she was ncknamed by her brothers
Robin" because her eyes and mouth
were always wide open. She saw ans
heard everything that went on about
her, and her busy brain applied the
knowledge in ways unusual to childhood
She never cared for the society of chill
dren of her own age, but rather that
of older people.
When she was IA she was visiting in
the home of prominent newspaper man
in Cincinnati, where a little coterie of
writers met periodically, read articles
in the scientific magazines and held in
formal and impromptu discussions 1t
was at one of these, Mrs. Gardener
says, to which by special request she
was allowed to be present, that she
heard discussion on the relation of
woman hto crime, and that set her brain
which was mature beyond her years, into
an active train of thought which has
kept pace with her growth and actuated
her in her work along the various lines
in which she has now become so potent
a factor for good.
In appearance Mrs. Gardener Is any,
thing but new" or strong minded"
woman, as such terms are generally I'M
derstood. She is short in stature, slight
of build, with an oval, refined, intellec-
tual face, deep, thoughtful but very
clear brown eyes and dark hair that
waves naturally away from a broad
high forehead and jaw which indi-
Gates determination, which is sympa-
thetic rather than obtrusive, and
mouth sensitive-almost sad in repose-
lights up the whole face with joyous
mirth when she smiles.
In answer to the direct question as to
why she had taken up the lines of work
she has been and is following, Mrs. Gar
dener said: 1.-The suffering and pair
and sorrow that see about me on all
sides that is so absolutely unnecessary,
troubles and moves me all the time, and
my one aim is to so popularize scientific
facts that anybody can see and under
stand them; to try and present in fair
and reasonable way the discoveries of
science that the unnecessary suffering
in the world may be avoided more than
Il is. Do you know there are 700 900
detectives in the United States-why,
our standing army is only $4,000. Just
think of it, and the rule of the race will
be hopeless mediocrity as long as this is
allowed to go on.
After the incident in the family of
that newspaper man in Cincinnati that
I told you of just now 1 thought and
read every article or book L could get
hold of that bore on that subject, and
had been writing unsigned articles in
one of the scientific magazines for some
time, when the editors asked me If I
could inform myself and reply to an arti-
Gle that had just been published by Dr.
Hammond on the sex of the brain. l
went into Spitzler's laboratory and stud
led under him. I read and studied all
the noted anthropoogists and finally l
answered him and the offer was made to
him to have public test in Chckering
ho1 in N.avry nfIy 1
furnished, and he to prove his claim
there publicly that the female brain
could be distinguished from the male
brain by the inferiority in the size and
quality of brain cells etc Mr.. Hammond
refused. That is one of the incidents or
accidents that shows how my attention
was directed to one of my lines of work
and the others have been opened up to
me in just such unexpected ways.
All my essays, my lectures, and my
stories have been written with a pur-
pose, the one 1 mentioned just now. of
popularizing scientific fact, putting
them so far as I could into readable and
understandable form, but nothing l have
ever written has beendone without thor
oughly testing the facts first; 1 always
prove my theories on mental peculiari-
ties and other points or conditions be-
fore | write them, because I don't want
to make any mistakes or mislead any
body; and the consequence is, my stories,
are translated into foreign languages.
AMI l have enough stuff collected now
which has been sent in to me by special
lists and mental alienists to keep me
busy writing until I am 80 years old.
have attended all kinds of cases and
operations have studied right in the la b.
oratories of famous specialists that l
might be thoroughly informed on every
step take in any direction"
Mrs. Gardener stated that she came to
California as a guest to the Woman's
congress in San Francisco, and now She
and her husband expect to spend several
mopths in the mountains back of Sar,
Diego enjoying a much needed rest and
vacation. Her book AN Unofficial
Patriot" is being dramatized by James
A. Hearne and viii be produced al the
Fifth Avenue theater New York next
fall with Mr.. Hearne in the title role.