The Washington herald., 1912-06-09

door" day" and mill" The child
Is then given four groups OF sentences
to repeat after Miss Robey. The first
Is composed Of about twenty-four sylla-
bles. the second has twenty-six syllables.
the third is comprised Of twenty-eight
syllables. and the last Is composed of
about thirty syllables.
ST was passing through the woods
the other day." then said Miss Robey,
when I saw something hanging from
tree In a lonely spot. ran away and
told the police. What was it," 4,
"A snake" answered a youpgster sub
jected to the test last week.
Miss Robey pointed out the absurdity
Of her running to tell the police that
there was a snake in the tree, and the
youngster took several other guesses,
but finally gave up. Miss Robey an
nounced that It was a man VINO had
been hanged.
81 was passing up the street the other
day." continued Miss Robey, when /
noticed that something had happened
in one of the houses. saw a lawyer
and clergyman enter. What vas the
trouble?"
Somebody dead" answered the young
ster
The normal thirteen-year-old boy is
able to distinguish clearly between
pleasure" and "welfare:" between "evo-
luton" and revolution between
event" and prevent" between ''pov-
erty" and misery" and between pride
and ''pretension." A piece Of paper is
folded twice, and an irregular figure IS
cut out at one Of the corners. The sub
ject is asked to describe the paper as
il VIII look when folded.
Mind Ran to weapons.
1t is noticed that when the subjects
to name as many words as possible In
three minutes, the trend Of their minds
can be traced by the choice of words.
A dimlnutive colored boy was subjected
to the test few days ago. When asked
to name as many words as he could,
the youngster began: Razor. brick,
blackjack, gun, stone, knife" Then he
stopped short. Suddenly he received an
inspiration. and continued: "One, two,
three, four, five, six"
Hold on" shouted Miss Robey
That isn't fair
What d yer mean?" exclaimed the
youngster. Amt dem words?"
Several days ago a twelve-year-old
white boy was asked TO give some words
rhyming with spring
prtng-spring-spring," he said.
We'll" interrupted Miss Rober, you
haven't given any yet"
Sure l have replied the youngster.
opposite OF autumn; and then there is
spring-the kind that you put under the
mattress; and then there is spring-the
water that comes up out OF the ground"
1t is almost impossible to tell a feeble
minded person by looking at him. It is
necessary TO have him converse before !
the feeble-mindedness becomes obvious.
AS soon as a subject is brought before
Miss Robey, she looks at his toes. II
they are turned up, the chances are
the person is feeble-minded. for II has |
been discovered that the toes OF prac-
tically all weak-minded persons are thus |
deformed. II Miss RObey has good rea-
son to believe that the subject is feeble |
minded before applying the Binet test, |
she Immediately uses simple but most |
effective test for the disease. She places |
before the child a board out of which |
are cut figures OF various shapes-circles, |
semi-circles, diamonds, squares, and hex |
agons. These vari-formed blocks are !
taken out OF their places, and the child |
is directed to ft them in their proper |
places. The normal child can do It in |
fourteen seconds. The feeble-minded |
child will have great difficulty in per-
forming the feat He will try for ten |
minutes sometimes to ft a diamond
shaped block in a circular hole. and will |
push and hammer a circular figure into
a semI-circular hole. This is one OF the |
most certain tests Of feeble-mindedness.
The mind Of the feeble-minded person
never advances beyond that Of the twelve
child, so that the Binet system
s an accurate test Of feeble-mindS Sdness
regardless Of the. age OF the subject.
Feeble -mindedness is an incurable disease.
There is no hope Of recovery for a person
who has the misfortune to inherit It. The
disease cannot be contracted like diph-
iberia or scarlet fever or whooping cough.
L must be inherited. II is like insanity
n that respect. II may escape a genera
ion now and then, but it is sure to break
,ut sooner or later. The person who in
lerits the dread disease may not have
he symptoms Of It during youth or even
.arly manhood. but some sudden shock or
ome serious accident or mental stress
nay be sufficient to disarTange the cells
Il the third lining OF the brain and pre-
ipitate the weak-mindedness inherited
rom former generations. Children whose
PARENTS were weak-minded but who them
ielves showed no signs of the disease,
lave been known to become suddenly
eeble-minded by falling out OF chairs.
jumping their heads, or diving into the
water.
From generation to generation the or
pring OF weak-minded persons fail lower
md lower in the mental scale. They