The Sneedville news. (Sneedville, Tenn.) 191?-19??, 1922-06-09
Kansas Wonder Girl Is in Class
With Helen Keller and Viii
letta Higgins.
FEELS" MUSIC WITH FEET
9aking Angel Food and Writing on
Typewriter Among Her Other Ac-
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES Diff
cult Classical Music.

Olathe, Kan.-After % years In the
dim world Of those who are sighlless,
deaf and dumb, Miss Helen May Mar
tin is finding Ler way out She has
chosen the least reasonable" method
of expression imaginable for one SO af-
fiicted. II is music.
Before "a large audience In the Meth
Odist church here, Miss Martin played
what is probably the first piano re-
cital in the history of the world TO
have been given by person with
neither sight nor hearing. 1t cannot
now be said that she Is without speech,
for she articulates even unfamiliar
names accurately and understandingly.
The intricacy of the method by
which person whose sensations are
practically limited to those of heat and
cold, pain and taste enters whole
new world is not comprehensive to
the normal person. Mis- Martin might
possibly have been taught 10 place her
fingers on certain of the piano keys
and press them down by note. hut that
would not explain her ability To grasp
rhythm. nor whatever the sense Is that
tells her when she Is about to make a
mistake i'm time 20 avert Ii. She never
has heard. and ms never been able TO
recognize objects. For a few years
after birth she was able to distinguish
between light and darkness. but never
more For 20 years there has not even
been that trayesty on sight.
Feels" Her Music.
Miss Martin Is able to feel" her
music best by placing the ball of her
foot against the bottom of her upright
piano her mother. Mrs. Helen May
Martin. says.
AT the church, however. she did not
want To risk soaring the instrument
she was using so she got approximate
ly the same result by holding her left
foot under the soft" pedal.
Gounods March Pontifcal." the
Don Giovanni mInuet of Mozart,
Morrisons familiar Meditation"
Lang's equally familiar Flower Song"
the first two movements OF Beetho-
VEINS moonlight" sonata. and Carrie
Jacobs Bonds "A Perfect Day" were
the numbers used. The precision with
which the young woman picked her
notes out of completely blank space.
struck them. and managed ritar,ls.
dynamics. and pedal were marvellous.
All the pieces were taken deliberately,
of course. but the distortions that
would have been evident had she
learned entirely by rote were absent.
In the second movement OF the
sonata the rhythm is not simple. But
neither was IL too much for Miss Mar
tin. Al the end of her program. she
repeated the Flower Song" for un
encore
Experiments with the piano were he
gun good many years ago by the
young woman's mother. but only in the
last few years have they been pressed.
Never has there been available
teacher who understood both the
methods used FOR the sightless and
those for the deaf. Miss Andrea
Granger who sat on the platform with
Miss Martin, Ii by coincidence her
first and latest teacher. When Miss
Martin was a small girl. Miss Granger
was with her for short period. and
now she is completing the work begun
then.
Has othe. Accomplishments.
In addition to repertoire 81 20
piano pieces. Miss Martin has many of
tie accomplishments Of the average
girl. She reads Braille. and now learns
her piano music by eading the notes
in point" for each hand separately.