Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1922-06-03
Kansas Wonder Girl Is in Class
With Helen Keller and Will
letta Higgins.
FEELS" MUSIC WITH FEET
Baking Angel Food End WRITING on
Typewriter Among Her Other Ac.
plishments--Masters Diff
cult Classical Music,

Olathe, kan.-After - years in the
dlih world of these who are sightless.
deaf and dutb. Miss Helen May Mar
tn Is finding her way Out. She has
chosen The lenst reasonable" method
OF expression imaginable for one so af-
hicted. 1t is music.
Before ii large audience in the Meth
odisl church here. Miss Martin played
what is profanity the first plano re-
cltal in the history of the world 10
have been given by person with
neither sight nor hearing. Ii cannot
now be sud that she Is without speech
Tor She articulates even unfamiliar
names accurately and Understandings.
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 to place her
myers on certain of the piano keys
and press them down by note. but that
would not explain her ability to grasp
rhythm. nor whatever the sense Is that
tells her when she is about to make
mistake in time to avert 1t. She never
has heard. and as 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 travesty on sight.
"FeeIs" 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 ~;
Al the church, however. she did not
want to risk soaring the instrument
she was using, SO she got approximate
iy the same result by holding her left
foot under the soft" pedal.
Gounod's March Pontlfcal," the
don Giovanni" minuet of Mozart,
Morrisons familiar "NIedltation."
Lang's equally familiar Flower Song"
the first two movements of Beetho-
yen's "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 rtards.
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 1t too much for Miss Mar
tin. AT the end of her program. she
repeated the Flower Song" for an
encore.
Experiments with the piano were be-
gun good smany 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 Audrea
Granger. who sat on the platform with
Miss Martin, Is by coincidence her
first and latest teacher When Miss
Martin was small girl. Miss Granger
was with her for short period. and
now she Is completing the work begun
then.
Has Other Accomplishments.
In addition to repertoire Of 30
piano pieces. Miss Martin has many of
the accomplishments OF the average
girl. She reads Brallle, and now learns
her plano music by eadlng the notes
In point" for each hand separately.