The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-08-31
Child L|NGU|ST
RIVAL TO S|DIS
Eight Years Old, and Speaks and
Thinks in Many
Languages.
ALSO A WRITER OF VERSES
Mother Says Little Daughter Ac-
cumtllated Tongues in
Play.
ALSO A WRITER OF VERSES

San Francisco, August 30.--"Cherie
ish. Latin ard Esperanto said the
mother OF eisht-year-old Winifred
sackville stoney. Jr.; that is, she
can speak only those languages fluent
ly and think in them. She can also
speak Japanese, Russian, German.
Polish and Italian to the extent that
she can carry on conversation in
them. but she can't think in them"
While Mrs. stoner was talking the
child played about her homo at 465
Melville 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's only rival in infantila
precpcity, and the sole. reason that
her fame Is not yet so great as his
is that she is but eight years old.
while he is twelve. The girl prodigy
Palo Alto, and Will be to Stanford
University what William James Sldis
is to 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 poet
and has published book on her verses.
She Is a reader of the classics. and
would be perfectly at home at DR..
Eliots five-foot shelf of books IL she
We're tall enough to reach UP to the
row.
studious Languages ns Plny.
l,,o y rSatl hnr ~ ,n.
yesterday, lis not due to anything but
the way in which she was educated.
began with her when she was three
weeks old. developing her both men,
tally 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. started
from the first to teach the child the
best. TO cultivate her taste and to I'M
prove her mind. do not have her
show OH and 1 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
kiddies. 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." az her
mother calls little Winifred. is Colonel
j. 3. Stoner, OF the United States Ma
rine Hospital Service, at present in.
command of the United States Marine
Hospital at Port Townsend. Wash. IL
was from Port Townsend that the
mother and child came TO Palo Alto.
in search OF better climate. The
mother is daughter of Lord sackvilie.
West. British ambassador to the United
States during one of Cieveland's adj
ministrations~ Mrs. Stoner Is presi-
dent OF the Womans Esperanto Asso-
citation OF North America and Is an
authority on Esperanto. She also has
trained her small daughter to speak
the linguistic panacea, and little
"Cherie' not only speaks the language
but writes poems in 1t. The gift of
verse Is one of the child's most re-
markable charms.
Her One Book OF Verse.
It was as reciter of her own verses
that the child first appealed to a re-
porter at her mothers homo in Palo
Alto. Winirred is sturdy little girl,
with the bashfulness of child. She
came into the room half concealed be-
hind her mothers skirts. She appeared
| TO be bit larger than children OF
| eight usually are. Her eyes shone
| big and brown. She wore simple
| checked pianrore and a dainty gold
cnain and locnet about her throat. She
| had white stockings and sandals on
her substantial little feet, and she was
not still for moment. The book OF
"J!ngles," which Miss Winifred Sack
vile Slower published at the age OF
six, is a book Of SO pages and nearly
| 100 selections.
Throughout the country college pro-
| fessors and educators have taken the
utmost interest in little Cherries de-
velopment. Professor George Mac
closkie, of Princeton University, has
studied her and not only that, but
| shared the honors with the child at q
recital at the Esperanto Congress at
Chautauqua, N. Y, when the little miss
| was seven years OF age.
MEETc I'M cuATTANnnGA