Los Angeles herald., 1906-04-09
PLAYS WITH SKULL
IN PLACE OF TOYS
YoUNGSTER ENJOYS VISITS OF
PLEASURE TO MoRGUE
Parents of Little Six-Year-old odin
Thomas Believe In Culture on Ma
ture's PIan-Chlld Knows Nothing
of Fear
Special to The Herald.

Special to The Herald.
NEW YORK, April Sand where
shall we go walking today, my SOM"
Let us go to the morgue, mother
May 1 take the skull with me?"
Mothers club members are exclaim-
ing today over the liberal lines upon
which the educa ton of 6-year-old Odtn
Thomas is being ordered, according to
the stories narrated before the club
at its meeting in the Murray Hill hotel
yesterday by Mrs. Thomas, the wife
of Dr. Julian Thomas of West Nenety-
seventh street.
Odin Thomas favorite plaything is
human skull; he does not care for
blocks, mechanical toys, choo-choo cars
or any Of the kindred delights which
attract the average child.
The boy has been taught to gaze
with unmoved nerves and placid fea-
lures at the faces of the dead in the
morgue at the foot Of West Twenty
sixth street. That is to cause him to
regard death without fear and con-
slider proximity of a corpse with as
much Indifference as he would that OF
a kitten or a puppy.
"Odin is absolutely a fearless, happy
and healthy child" said Mrs. Thomas.
I'VE thought to give him a treat at the
him to the morgue and showing him
the bodies of the victims. There was
nothing morbid about it. We simply
wanted to teach him to regard death
as a natural change, without horror
or repugnance.
He prefers to play with the skull
of a man which we procured for him,
rather than with anything else. He
knows what it is-that it is portion
f,f he fr nf n
life has departed.
I'VE have tried to make him under
stand that some time he will die and
his skull will be in the same condition
as the one that he plays with. think
he understands this fully and 1t
arouses no sensation of fear in him.
He Is fearless, proof against the ter
rors which beset children, and for that
matter grownups, as well"
Odin is a raw-food baby He is a
demonstration in the concrete of GER
tain principles of diet and habit which
his father and mother, who are both
enthusiastic vegetarians, regard as in
fallible. Since his birth he has been
brought up as unlike the ordinary child
as can be imagined.
Vegetables, cereals and nuts, all nu-
cooked, are fed to him unsparingly.
When his parents think that his sys-
tenn needs saccharine matter they give
him, instead of candy, bit of sweet
potato. He chews on this with the
same gusto with which his playmates
discuss piece of taffy.
When he was six months old the
boy could hang by his arms from a
trapeze. His physical organization is
perfect. He is like a young bear in
his agility and strength.
1--WE believe in developing the orig
inal side of his character" Mrs. Thorn
as told the mothers, who did little
but gasp as she recounted anecdotes
of her remarkable boy. He does as
he pleases. 1 don't believe he has ever
been crossed. He is as near young
animal as human being can be, and
yet he is not brutal, and his mental
development has kept pace with his
physical expansion"
Thinking that the boy required the
softening influence of feminine COM
panionship. Mrs. Thomas hired girl
of II years to walk and talk with him.
The experiment went along swimming
ly until little Odin hurled a missile
at the girl and broke one of her knees.
He is still unsoftened.