The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1914-10-31

prepared for college, In auultiOn I
studying astronomy and some other branches. Sh
speaks eight languages; she can recite a thousan
poems and she has written nearly hve hundre
poems and jingles herself.
Winifred plays the piano we'll. With no lesson
except the game of,"making up stories on the piano
she can read over a page of Schuberts "Serenade
close the book and play 1t accurately and with muc
expression. She can also hear a difficult selectio
played and so keen is her concentration she ca
Immediately sit down at the piano and play i
Winifred draws well and paints admirably. Like
Browning, one would imagine she will hardly
know which to choose FOR her life work, music,
art or writing, but she Is very decided as to what
she expects to do. Winifred is going to earn and
buy and be the editor of a great %children's maya
zine.
In tracing Winifred's development chronology
cally it may be said that she:
Used pClysyllables in conversation at the age
of one year; read at the age Of sixteen months;
wrote her own name on hotel registers and be-
gan keeping a diary at the age of two; learned
the musical notes and played simple airs on the
piano and amazed adopts at spelling at three;
learned the Latin declensions and conjugations
as singing exercises and received a diploma in
Esperanto at four; wrote stories and jingles for
the newspapers, spoke eight languages, translated
Mother Goose rhymes into Esperanto, learned
the waltz, two-step and th~ree-step at five; learned
the outlines of Greek, Roman and Scandinavian
mythologies at seven; composed a poem naming
and locating all the bones in the human body at
eight; and was elected president OF the Junior
Peace League of America at ten.
How can readers account for the fact that
Winifred is a perfectly normal, happy child, romp-
ing, singing, loving and lovable, gay as the ca
nary she is giving the freedom Of the entire house
and teaching to whistle and to keep perfect time
to all the music that she whistles? Winifred has
a hundred dolls. AS fast as she learns anything
she imparts it to her dolls and pets. She Is
ardently devoted to sports. She swims, races,
plays ball, dances and physically she is as well
- Il q, rAanfoIu Hor 1ittIa mneclaS are strong
as armor bolts. She is as large as an ordinary
twelve-year-old girl and can walk five miles with
out the least fatigue.
Winifred's father is a colonel and a surgeon In
the Marine hospital service of the United States.
Now he is stationed at Pittsburgh. From him
Winifred undoubtedly gets her splendid physical
care, and she Is a perfectly well child. Sne Is
practical, like her father. and possesses all her
mothers love of art and music and the gift OF
writing.
No less remarkable is the little girls mother.
Mrs. Stoner in her book, Natural Education"
seems to, find nothing In little Winifreds devel-
| opment that might not be attained In any healthy,
naturally bright child. If this is conceded for the
sake of argument, it would have to be admitted
that very, very few children would have the ad-
vantages of the extraordinary cleverness of a
horn teacher, such as Winifred's. In fact, Mrs.
Stoner has employed methods peculiarly her own.
II might be said that Mrs. Stoner has given ten
wears of constant labor to the education of her
daughter. labor that was not merely constant, but
that was intelligent and imaginative as well.
For the whole secret of Winifred's learning has
been the play spirit. Whatever she was taught