The San Francisco call., 1910-08-29
Eight Year Old Maiden
Speaks Ten Languages
Girl Prodigy Is Esperanto Expert and Has
Published Book of Verses
Continued From Page 1

reporter yesterday at her mother
home in Palo Alto.
Winifred Stoner is a sturdy little girl,
with the bashfulness of a child. She
came into the room half concealed be-
hind her mothers skirts. She appeared
to be a bit larger than children of
usually are. Her hair was cut
in the square edged fashion acceptable
to mothers at the present. Her eyes
shone big and brown. She wore sim
pie checked pinafore and dainty gold
chain and locket about her throat. She
had white stockings and sandals on her
substantial little feet and she was not
still for a moment.
She is fuller of vitality than of
learning" said Mrs. Stoner proudly.
First Cherie had to say good after
noon" in as many dialects as she had
at the tip of her pink tongue. She
greeted her visitors with CONNIE yous,
porte vous, buenos dias, vie gahts,'
and other international salutations,
English, French Spanish. Latin, Japa-
nese, Russian, Italian, Esperanto and
around the world She was more pro-
ficient than a guidebook to foreign
lands-and she is years old.
Tale of BumbIe Bee
viii you recite poem?" suggested
Mrs. Stoner.
Little Miss Poetess chose one of her
own efforts. She was not quite at her
ease, but she would not refuse the re-
quest. This was her verse:
One day I saw humble bee bumbIng on
And l stood admiring him he stung me on
the nose.
My nose. in pain, it swelled so large it looked
like potato,
So daddy said, though mother thought twas
more like tomato.
And now, dear children, this advice / hope you'll
take from me;
And when you see a humble bee just let that
humble be.
She wrote that after she had been
Stung, but the pun was not Intentional
1 think" said Mrs Stoner, who would
limit the scope of her daughters talent
This poem on the humble bee is one
of the pieces published in the book of
"Jfngles,' which Miss Winifred Sack
Vile Stoner published at the age of g.
This is book of 50 pages. and nearly
100 selections many OF which were con-
tributed to the Evansville. Ind, Courier
and the book is Illustrated by Karl
Kae knecht, the artist on that paper.
While most poets and authors, in dedi-
eating this work, select one particular
friend for the honor of being cited in
the dedication, Cherie was far more
generous and inclusive. She devoted
two pages of her book to a list of the
names of her dear friends to whom
with her relatives, the work was in
scribed.
Autobiography in Verse
The child's most precocious and auto
biogra phical poem is the second in the
little book. 1t is called "A Great Sur
prise and was Written for Mother
and Daddy"
1t follows:
On the nineteenth day of August, in the year
of nineteen two
Most kind and gracious Madame Stork right over
Norfolk flew
And brought to my dear mother there a won.
derful surprise,
a little red brown baby girl with large black
Now, mother she had asked the stork to bring
to her much joy
And drop bundle at her door containing wee
boy;
But when the stork made mistake and
brought just little me
She thought that / was better far than apy
boy could be,
And wrapped me in blanket which she'd
planned for my wee brother,
And which my dear Ma Mie'' had knit to help
my busy mother,
And changed the of Lionel to little
Winifred
And all the things for brother planned she
gave to me instead.
That tells of the arrival of little
Winifred at Norfolk, Va. eight years
ago this month. 1t practically gives
the date when her education began
When did you first start to teach
Cherie?" was asked
AS soon as she was born" replied
Mrs. Stoner. That is the secret of her
training Children's minds are like
wax, subject to any impression. IN her
nursery / placed beautiful pictures on
the wall and reproductions of beauti-
ful statues-not expensive works of
art but the models of the best
Read Best Literature
Then, from the first, she was ac-
customed to the best literature We
did not recite the silly nursery
rhymes to her, but only the best In
stead of telling her the usual stories
that are told children / related to her
the stories from the bible and from
mythology. She had Latin from the
cradle.
Her old negro mampy, Martha
Johnson, knew 10 lines of Virgil
she was an ignorant old woman. and
| don't know how she learned that,
but still she knew those 10 lines and
crooned them as a lullaby
when Cherie was months old
[ would read to her from the Latin
writer's. ! would recite for her such
poems as Crossing the Bar"
Cherie was in the room at the time
she fluttered in and out as her
mother talked of her-and Mrs. Stoner
caught the child.
'Recite that poem which you love-"
said the mother.
Little Cherie perched on her moth
er's knee and spoke the numbers of
Tennyson's noble dirge
Who wrote that?' Cherie was
asked.
Alfred Lord Tennyson," she replied.
Who was hep" asked the mother.