Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-30
Winifred Stoner, 8 Years Old,
Knows Ten Tongues.
CAN THINK IN FIVE OF THEM
Able to Garry on Conversation in
Five Other Languages.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Mother Says Daughter Learned ct
Play as Sdis Did His
Mathematics.

SAN FRANCISCO. August 3O.-"Cherie
can speak only English, French. Spanish,
Latin and Esperanto" said the mother Of
eight-year-old Winifred Sackville Stoner.
jr. THAT is. she can speak only those
languages fiuently. and think in them.
"She can also speak japanese, Russian.
German. Polish and Italian to the extent
that she can carry on a conversation in
them. but she can't think in them"
While Mrs. Stoner was talking the child
played about her home at No. 465 Mel
Vile street, Palo Alto. talking to her
dolls. frisking from room to porch and
from porch to room. like any healthy
child of eight with but one language TO
its credit.
Little "Cherie" Stoner is William James
Sidis' only rival In infantile precocIty.
The sole reason that her fame is not yet
so great as his is that she is but eight
years old. while he rs twelve.
The girl prodigy is now living with her
mother in Palo Alto. She will be to San
ford University what William James Sidis
is to Harvard.
Not only is the child. a linguist, with a
stock of tongues in her head that sur
passes the vocabulary Of the most assidu-
Gus savants. but she is q poet. and has
published a book of her verses. She is q
reader of the classics. and would be per-
fectly at home at DR.. Eliot's fve-foot
shelf Of books IL she were tall enough to
reach up to the row.
Studies Languages as Play.
Her advancement" said her mother
yesterday, rs not due to anything but
the way in which she was educated.
began with her when she was three
weeks old. developing her both mentally
and physically. and the effect OF the
teaching and methods Is apparent.
The method used IS the same that was
employed in the training Of William
James Sidis. the Boston lad. l started
from the first to teach the child the best.
to cultivate her taste and to improve her
mind. ! do not have her show off, and
know that she is as normal as any
other child of the same age.
But / would like to have her work
known for the benefit of other Riddles.
for any child may be trained the same
way with the same probable result. The
secret is to make their training play for
them"
The father OF little "Cherie." as her
mother calls little Winifred, is Col. j.
B. Stoner Of the United States marine
hospital service. at present In command
Of the United States Marine Hospital at
Port Townsend. Wash. 1t was from
Port Townsend that the mother and
child came to Palo Alto, In search Of q
better climate.
The mother Is a daughter OF Lord Sack
vile West, British ambassador to the
United States during one OF Cleveland's
administrations. Mrs. Stoner Is presi-
dent of the Women's Esperanto Associa-
tion of North America and Is an author
ity on Esperanto.
ter to speak the linguistic panacea. Lit
tic "Cherie" not only speaks the lam
guage. but writes poems In it. The gift
Of verse is one of the child's most re-
markable charms.
Her One Book of Verse.
It was as a reciter of her own verses
that the child first appealed to a re-
porter at her mothers home in Palo
Alto. Winifred is 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 eight usually are. Her eyes
shone big and brown. She wore Q simple
checked pinafore and a dainty gold chain
and locket about her throat. She had
white stockings and sandals on her sub
stantial little feet, and she was not still
for a moment.
The book of "Jingles,' which Miss
Winifred Sackville Stoner published at
the age of six. is a book of ffty-two
pagcS and nearly 100 selections.
Throughout the country college profess
sors and educators have taken the ut
most interest in little Cherries develop
ment. Prof George Macloskie OF Prince
ton University has studied her and not
only that, but shared the honors with
the child at a recital at the Esperanto
Congress at Chautauqua, n. Y, when the