The New York herald., 1922-05-06
Had Failed Examinations
After Desperate Effort to
Reach High School.
HEIGHT WAS RIDICULED
Dose of Atropin Proves Too
Mild and Irene Is Going Back
to School Again.

Irene Handranyi just couldn't stand
longer. Nearly II years old and still
year TO go before she might attend
high school like the little Silverberg
girl. who is only II. And Irene was
teachers praise the little Silverberg
girl and very weary of hearing every
body say:
whats the matter with you? Look
at the little Silverberg grl-three
years younger than you and in high
school. Gee, you're getting so big that
they think you are taking your chill
dren to school when you come along
the street with the girls"
TO make things worse some Of the
teachers In Public School No. q talked
about her as backward and a little dull
Then came the examinations last week.
II Irene could pass them she would
be almost ready to follow the little
Silverberg girl to high school and In
high school her height and her seven
teen years would not be so noticeable.
but Irene Jalleu 10 pass the SAdihi-
nations She had tried hard enough. The
school report, signed by Mathilde Red
lein, the principal. gave her In de-
pertinent and application but c in gen.
eral work. The other girls jeered--
great big Irene Handranyi, II years
old. going on IS. sitting with little girls
of IA and looking foolish and hopeless
while they snapped their answers to
the teachers questions and kept on
moving up while she stuck in the mud.
Called "a Dumb bunny"
And as though all that wasn't quite
enough, one of the little girls who bad
pa ssed her examinations last week and
who won't be Is until next September,
howled to Irene:
Gee but you're dumb bunny. Your
mother will have to take you out Of
school and put you TO work. Do you
know what the teachers are saying?
They say they will put YOU back In the
delinaucnts' class If you don't show
come speed soon"
Irene decided that she would show
them just how terrible ii Is 70
goad girl who has tried hard tc
have her lessons and who somehow
couldn't quite get going. Shed make
them sorry She'd die right In the class
room; right before their very eyes.
So yesterday morning just before leav-
ing home, 3a5 East Eighty-fifth street.
she went to the bathroom and took the
bottle of atropin that the doctors at
clinic had given her young brother Paul
last July for his eyes. 1t was only
per cent. solution, but Irene didn't
know that. All she knew was that there
was q red label on the bottle and the
word Poison was on that red label.
At the end of the half past 10 recess
she went off by herself and took large
swallow OF this atropin. Nothing hap
pened to her at once, although she hur-
ried back into the classroom TO fall
dead right before the eyes OF everybody.
She was very scared but very deter
mined. She took her seat wondering
when It would happen. She was waiting
TO fall out of the seat. Maybe she hoped
she would hear the teacher and the
girls crying and calling to her not to
die before she lost consciousness.
But she didn't die. She didn't even
fall down. The teacher asked her sew
eral questions. but she was so intent
upon what she had done and what she
expected to happen that she just shook
her head dumbly and the little girls tit
tered Finally. about noon, Irene's nerves
would stand 1t no longer. She couldn't
understand why she didn't die. Maybe
she hadn't taken enough. She couldn't
take any more because they would all
see her.
Breaks the Poison Bottle.
Bewilderment mental anguish and
something OF disappointment overcame
her and she slumped forward upon the
aonlr her face in her arms She hegan