Mrs. Grundy. (Tracy City, Tenn.) 1903-1930, 1920-04-15
NOT true GENIUS
wonder Children" Merely Intel
lectualIy Precocious.
In Most Gases They Are Possessors OF
an AbnormaIly Rctentive Memory
DO Not Necessarily Die
Young.

A few days ago there appeared an
account of the doings of Samuel Resch.
evski, wonderful chess player, eight
years old who is confounding Berlin
with his uncanny knowledge and skill.
These "wonder children" always
arouse especial interest. and. as many
explanations are put forward to ac-
count for their apparent genius, there
are gloomy forebodings as to their
meeting with an early death.
There have been many wonder chill
dren" In the past and 1t Is strange,
though true, that quite large proper
tion have lived to the average age.
In recent wears there have been a
number Of child evangelists who have
Startled the world by their eloquence
and theology. In the United States
few years ago boy nine years old at
tempted to convert the whole country,
and when ten years old he was actual
ly appointed minister of church In
North Carolina.
In Great Britain there are records OF
a child twelve years old who preached
In Baptist church at Porthcawl, and
q small boy who. at the tender age Of
three, began preaching to crowded au-
diences and continued to do so until
well after ten years old.
In the case of such prodigies, their
talents consist chiefly in an abnormal.
retentfve memory and, provided that
Their temneraments are not emotional.
they stand the mental strain exceed
ingly well. though there is, Of course,
the danger attached to the excessive
physical strain which they frequently
undergo.
To this type belong those children
who learn rapidly by heart such things
as the tunes. words and numbers Of all
! hymns In the ancient and modern
hymn-book. 1t Is such children. with
a high development of one faculty, who
most often meet with early death, and
maybe. ii was In such cases that old
SAYING, "The wise die young" had Its
origin.
But the child chess player in Berlin
belongs rather to the type Of intellect
ual precocities, such as the learned
child Of Luheck of the early part o.
the eighteenth century. This chill
could recite the whole of the Old an,
| New Testaments before he was tw,
years old. and a little later he was al
| authority on religious history and dog
ma He mastered also ancient ant
modern geography and history and sew
eral languages before his death at tn
age of four years.
\ A contemporary of this wonderful
child was fluent In five languages he
fore he was FIVE. and translated tn
Hebrew Bible into Latin and Frencl
at the age of eight. He survived IN
til he was nineteen.
Historical and clinical evidence ar
both definite In showing that 'wonder
children" are no more liable than othe
children TO de young. nor is 1t foun
that children who assimilate know
edge readily and retain 1t show any ur
due signs of fatigue.
The great point In the case OF csii
dren marked by special brilliance Is t
avoid, any attempt at making the bri
lance apply to everything, for in s
doing the existing brilliance in the on
special direction may tend TO disaI
pear. In the same way those who ar
intellectually brilliant must not b
forced 10 become Industrious in
practical way, for such interference II
var,ahly brings on over-strain an
breakdown.