Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-07-18
SIDIS, THE BoLSHEVlST.
Boy Wonder Turns Out Disappoint-
nsnt to Practical Folks.

Boy Wonder Turns Out Disappoint-
msnt to Practical Folks.
Fond parents who were shocked a
few years ago at reading Of the grad
uation from Harvard Of William James
Sidis, son Of Prof. Boris Sidis, a psy-
chologist at the age Of Is, and later
| Of his lecturing learnedly on mathe-
matics before a group Of greybeards,
stunning them all with his prodigious
| knowledge, have now something new
to say about precocity. The boy wonder
was said to be a normal child except
his tremendous brain, but that any
child could so outdistance his fellows
was rather reflection on the O'Reilly
and McGillicuddy offspring who had
| started even with him.
When it was reported shortly after
his entrance into Harvard at the age
| Of II that he had been taken i'll a
chorus of 81 told you SOS" went up
from the press and public: 1t was
commonly held that no child could be
healthy who was encumbered with
such an overdose of gray matter.
1t was true that as a small child
Sidis did not like to play; but that, it
developed, was due to fear Of dogs. He
felt that whenever a dog approached
he must take hold of his mothers
hand, and as his mother could not
constantly be out playing with him
he preferred to stay indoors. Teachers
were annoyed in his elementary school,
ing by his impatience with the things
they were laboriously driving into the
polls Of his less nimble minded COM
panions. II knew that before. Why
do you keep saying it?" was his con-
slant plant.
Now He's a BoIshevist.
Sidis now at the age Of 81 is So
cialist and an avowed advocate Of
Bolshevism. He carried a red flag in a
May day riot at Roxbury, Mass, and
May 13 was sentenced to eighteen
months in the House of Correction,
the judicial allotment being divided
between one year for assault COM
mitted upon a police and six months
for rioting. Justice Hayden sitting
in the Roxbury court asked him if he
believed in the Soviet form Of govern
mcnt, and his reply was affirmative.
do you believe in God?" asked the
justice Of the prodigy.
Not in the kind of God that is the
boss of Christianity" Sidis answered
do you believe in the American
fagT
in certain ways
To another question he said he be-
lieved in the American form of gov
ernment ITO the extent Of the Decla-
ration of Independence"
The witness stated that the Soviet
ideals do not necessarily imply vio-
lence. Political Socialists, he said. be-
lieve mainly in the ballot and the Boil
shevilti in control Of industry. The
red in the red flag, Sidis asserted,
stands for the common blood Of hu-
manity, as it does in the American
flag.
Sidis was then put through a cross
examination and admitted that he
claimed exemption from the draft be-
cause of conscientious objections. In
redirect examination he said he does
not believe in force. He denied that he
had said, ITO hell with the American
flag" adding that he never used such
language.
After sentence had been pronounced
the young prodigy appealed his case
and was held in $4,000 bonds for the
Superior Court.
Prof. Boris Sidis, who claimed full
credit for the unusual mental develop
ment of the boy which he began when
his son was years old in 1911. pre-
pared an attack on the whole educa-
tional system. He argued that the
school system should be abolished and
with it the 'phychologizing educator,
the schoolmaster and the school
ma'am." because he said they were re-
strcting rapid development and put a
damper on the spirit Of inquisitive-
ness" by which child learns most
rapidly. He went further and attacked
the environment Of the homo as tend
ing neither to inspire nor educate the
child.
Structures on Our Homes.
THE father works in some busi-
ness" he said, cor at some trade and
loves sports and games. Not spark
Of refinement and culture, not a re-
deeming ray of love, Of knowledge and
of art light up the commonplace and
frivolous life Of the family What
wonder that the child Of 10 and II
can hardly read and write are little
brutes, and waste away their precious
life Of childhood in close, dusty over
heated rooms Of some elementary
school? Commercial mediocrity is
raised at home and cultivated in the
school,"
There is no reason to doubt that
Prof. Sidis still holds to these views
whether or not he sympathiZes with
the present predicament Of his prodigy.
1t is quite likely, however, that many
American parents will still prefer to
raise their little ones in the cheerful
ness IF tho family circle that Prof