The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1910-09-09
WONDERFUL
CALIFORNIA Child
Speaks Eight Languages at
Eight Years of Age.
Mother Started Training Child
When Only A Baby and
Made Play Work.

says.-"Cherie can speak only Eng
lish, French Spanish, Latin. and Es-
peranto," said the mother of eight
year-old Winifred Sackyille Stoner,
Jr., that is she can speak only
those languages fluently and think
in them. She can also speak Japa-
nese, Russian, German, Polish and
Italian TO the extent that she can car
~ 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 Melville street Palo Alto, talk
ing to her dolls, frisking from room
to porch and from porch TO room,
like any healthy child of eight with
but one language 10 its credit.
Little "Cherie" Stoner is william
James Sidis' only rival in infantile
precocity, and the sole reason that
her fame is not yet 50 great as his
is that she is but eight years old,
while he is twelve. The girl prodigy
Is now living with her mother in
Palo Alto and will be to Stanford
university what William James sidis
is 10 Harvard.
Not only is the child a linguist
with a stock OF tongues in her head
that surpasses the vocabulary of the
most assiduous savants, but she is a
poet and has published book OF her
verses. She is a reader OF the
classics and would be perfectly al
home at DR.. Elliott's five-foot shelf
Of books If she were tall enough 10
reach up TO the row.
Her advancement" said her
mother yesterday, lis not due 10
anything but the way in which she
was educated. ! began with her
when she was three weeks old, de-
veloping 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 training OF William
James Sldis, the Boston lad.
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 fathre 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. II was from Port Townsend
that the mother and child came to
Palo Alto, in search of better eli
Lord Sackyille West, British ambas-
sador 10 the United States during
one of Cleyeland's administrations.
Mrs. Stoner is president of the Wom-
ems Esperanto association of North
America, and is an authority on Es-
peranto. She also has trained her
small daughter to speak the lin
guistic panacea, and little "Cherie"
not only speaks the language, but
writes poems in II. The gift of
verse is one of the child's most re-
markable charms
1t was as a reciter of her own
verses that the child first appealed
TO World reporter to-day at her
mothers home in Palo Alto. Wini-
fred is a sturdy little girl, with the
bashfullness of a child. She came in
to the room half concealed behind
her mothers skirts. She appeared to
be a bit larger than children OF
eight usually are. Her eyes shone big
and brown. She wore a simple
checked pinafore and a dainty gold
chain and locket about her throat.
She had white stockings and san
dals on her substantial 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 81
pages and nearly 100 selections.
Throughout the country college
professors and educators have taken |
the utmost interest in little Cherries
development. Prof. George Macios-
kie. OF Princeton 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 little
miss was seven years Of age.
The Road to MatrimOny.