Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-21
Stricken at Age of Three

When Emma was years old she
passed through cerebro-spinal menin-
gifts, which closed her eyes to all light
and her ears to all sound. For three
years thereafter her mind was dormant
and only her obvious physical wants
satisfied. DR.. e. w. Fiegenbaum Of
Edwardsville brought about her trans
fer to the Jacksonville institution,
where she was placed in charge of Mrs.
Helen r. Jordan, a little, round, joyous,
motherly Kindergarten.
Mrs. Jordan mas been in charge of one
similar case-Jessie Stewart of Edgar
county. For all her labor with Jessie
she obtained a small return. This child
was also a cerebal spinal meningitis
victim, but her affliction had come
when she was 10 months old, when-as
the scientific gentleman tells usher
"sense-perception" was nil and her
"imaging power undeVeloped.
Jessie was also deficient in taste and
smell, as well as being deaf, blind and
mute. Only one sense remained unim-
paired, the sense of touch. On this
slender base something might have
been built if Jessie could have had the
entire time of a skilled, devoted teach
er. AS this was denied her the con-
clusion of the experts who voted her
uneducable and sent her back to her
is no case on record of child as de-
ficient as Jessie Stewart being awak-
ened to intelligent life.
Her Teachers Task
With Emma Kubieck the task was
simpler though not without it's diff
culties. She was at years old devel-
oped not at all beyond the period Of
her illness. She was intellectually 3
years old with all of the spoiled"
traits of an only or afflicted child.
She was given wooden beads to
string. She evinced native intelligence
by stringing them all during the first
| lesson, whereas Jessie Stewart had
never got beyond the third bead.
Emma also evinced rebellious dis
position and the destructiveness of the
normal child by unstringing her beads
and throwing them broadcast about
the kindergarten.
Emma was not an angel child in
those days.
! A basket of toys was given her but
she found them uninteresting and
plucked them apart wantonly. Then
| ensued a painful contest at the end of
which Emma realized that throwing
things and breaking things was out
of order.
Incidentally she was given a ball and
her hand" in what is commonly called
the deaf and dumb or manual alphabet.
| The ball was taken away from her and
when returned the word was spelled
| into her hand again-that is, the fingers
of Mrs. Jordan. slowly moving, touched
| the palm and fingers of the blind-deaf-
dumb girl. The was repeated thou
sands of times, but to give variety,
doll was introduced and iron (hatiron),
| bag, Emma, etc. Repetition, patience,
/ tact won. She learned that BALL sig
nihed ball, learned to fashion the let
! ters herself learned that those letters
were component parts Of other names
/ for things and most wonderful fact of
| all, learned that every object in her
universe had a name.
Thlrsted for knowledge
! Her mind opened suddenly and she
] thirsted for knowledge Of words that
I she might communicate impressions.
From the beginning of their acqualnt-
ance Mrs. Jordan had noticed that mer-
ciful nature had abnOrmally developed
! the ehild's sense of smell. At first the
! fastidious refinement of the highly civ
| ilized woman warred with her peda-
| gogie philosophy.
Emma had not only a Hall-Braille
typewriter with raised dOtJ on thick
paper. symbOlizing in various combina-