The morning journal-courier., 1908-01-17
TWO PRECIOUS CHILDREN.

The nonsense some journals print about successful men and s54ne Yer sons read without blinking'is is astonish- ing. The latest instance in which newspaper has thus made itself r!fjc- ulous is furnished by the New York Herald. and its victim is Coy. Hughes. In d biographical sketch of the gov- ernor which the Herald published the other day we find the following enter taining passage:
 Tine early anecdotes of MT. Hughes. as rule, have to do with his marvellous precocity. When g child many who came in contact with Him predicted remarkable future He could read when he was three and q half years old. At the age of five he complained to his father that he was making no progress at school, because the teacher went over and cver things he already knew, and he Sib- mitted to his father paper entitled Charles E. Hughes Plan of Study The paper contained a definite plan of study, with the subjects carefully divided and put down for fixed hours and days. Later, when at schoos he was permitted several times to pass from one class to higher grade without examinations or the confple- tion of his term, so obvious was his superiority"
 If Gov, Hughes displayed such su- periority as an infant it is remarkable that he was not years ago the Presi- dent of these United States and long since laid away in lavender If sthe governor reads that account ofAhis marvelus doings in his infantile wears he will, without doubt. pray to begde- l livered from his biographers.
 This chronicler of the extraordinary mental feats of the young Hughes seems to be aiming at the laurels won as a biographer by the famous Peter Farley and long worn by that worthy, i whose handbook of biography was,
 once upon a time, in almost every
 household But he has not made the 1 governor quite the equal of Peter Par
 ley's famous boy Christian Henry 1 Heinecken. Peter Parley's, biography 1 of that extraordinary parsonage is such choice bit of literature that we
 cannot refrain from quoting it here in
 it's entirety as a companion piece Gfor the Herald's account of the precocipus i infancy of Gov. Hughes. Here it is:
 'Heinecken, Christian Henry. was
 born in 1721, at Lubeck, and died in
 1725, at the age of four years and four
 months. So wonderful is the story told
 of this mental phenomenon that were it not supported by powerful evidence,
 it might well be treated as romance. He could talk at ten months old, at
 twelve could recite the leading facts
 in the Pentateuch, and at thirteen had
 acquired the rudiments of f6ncient his-
 tory, geography. anatomy and the use
 of maps. and knew eight thousand
 Latin words. At two years and a half
 geography and history and before his decease he had added his acquisi-
 tions divinity, ecclesiastical history | and many other branches of knowl- , edge, and spoke German, Latin, : French and Low Dutch. In his fourth year he harangued the king of Den , mark, to whom he was presented. On $ his deathbed he displayed the utmost I firmness and endeavored to console his 1 afflicted parents"
 7 It is not strange that Heinecken , died young Being so top-heavy. he s could not have been expected to grow e up. After reading the Herald's story 9 Eof the precocity of Gov. Hughes his 9 friends will be thankful that he wal : no cleverer. As it was. according. to 2 that narrative, he was almost too : smart to live.-Roetlester Union and Advertiser,