Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-09-09
ANOTHER MoNpHR CHILD,
Twelve Year Old Girl With Astonish-
ing accomplishments.

Twelve Year, Old Girl With Astonish-
ing Accomplishment.
Providence Journal.
Another wonder child" has been
discovered, this one in the village of
Windham, N Y. For the past year or
two all these juvenile prodlgies seem
to have been girls. 1t may have been
merely within of chance, but it looks
as If some of the recent prodigious
energy of femism may have taken eff
feet. A well-authenticated boy
prouigy has not been reported since
Master Willie Sidis matriculated at
Harvard at the age of twelve. He was
ALREADY wonder of gilt-edge intellec-
tual attainment, and twice since that
| the has he again loomed large in
public attention. Once was during
his freshman year, when he addressed
an assemblage oi learned professors
and evealed some of tho abstruse n1ys-
teries of the Fourth Dimension, which
he had discovered all by himself, and
the other time was two or three
months ago, when having attained the
comfortable middle age of seventeen
years he solemny announced that he
should never marry and that the charm
of woman had no appeal for him. Hav4
ling declared himself with this fatal
oluteness, it may be expected that
he will hereafter relapse into the per-
manent obscurity of uninteresting
bachelorhood
The most recent wonder children
have been girls. One that shattered
newspaper space with whole columns
OF text and double-column portraits
| several months ago came from Pitts
burgh. Winifred SackviIle Stoner is
a product of natural education, and
she herself is already an educator OF
some distinction, besides being mis-
tress Of a score of accomplishments.
She speaks and writes half dozen
languages, including Esperanto, and
her versatility is remarkable. Thelma
ArnolA of WindhanN seems tp be
chiefly product Of that admirable
organization known as the Camp Fire
Girls. Where Winifred Sackville
Stoners education was wholly mat
IRA" Thelma Arnold's has been very
special. She has just attained the dis
junction Of being the first girl Of her
years to win the grade of Fire
Maker" which among the Camp Fire
Girls Is very great honor indeed
Ialthough as a routine domestic ac-
complishment it is not so highly es-
teemed. Thelma qualified for this SUI
perior rank with fine list of diversi-
fed accomplishments.
She can tie a square not without
hesitation five times in succession she
can tie a bowline, sheepshank, a
clove-hitch, two half-hitches and q
bowline on a blight; she can recite the
Declaration of independence without
fa!tering; she can point out seven diff
ferent heavenly consultations; she
can operate without help an automo.
bile for four hundred miles; she car
recite "Mary's Little Lamb" forward
and then backward without an error
and she can make three different
kinds of cake.
All this may seem Of only casual in.
terest, but 1t does no harm to empha,
size the fact that in this degenerate
age there are new housewives who
can boast of this versatility, especially
when. it comes to reciting the Decla-
ration of independence without hest
tating and doing "Mary's Little Lamb
forward and backward. A clever AMI
capable wife will Thelma be, with hel
recitations, her old sailors ability In
knot-tying, her knowledge of constel.
lations and automobiles and her skill
with three kinds of cake
A peculiar fact with wonder Chill.
dren is that they always seem to be
IL years old. Young Master Sidis was
IL when he entered Harvard, little
Miss Sackville Stoner is 10 and little
Miss Arnold is IL. This may be only
chance, or it may signify that twelve
is the conventional age of arrival
with juvenile prodigies.