24ti 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



AlMilL 1. 



maimer. Finally slie turned from liiin to tlie doc- 

 tor wlu)ni she luid met in town, and, after a similar 

 Inspection, she opened lier mouth and touched with 

 her linger the cavity left by tlie tooth lie had ex- 

 tracted. 



Slie seemed to judgre the size of per.sions ty the 

 length of their feet; t)ut slie measured children by 

 their liei^lit from feet to head, and chose for 

 playmates those nearest her in size. She made 

 known her wants by sig-iis, and it was necessaiy to 

 give her a sign but once. When siie came in con- 

 tact with something beyond her comprehension slie 

 would make a great ettort to talk, uttering such 

 sounds as hah, ah, hah ! and once, about a j'ear after 

 her loss of hearing, she spoke the word mri as plain- 

 ly as she used to speak it. Such was Willie Kobin 

 when her mother brought her to the kindcrg-arten, 

 Dec. 20, 189U. 



She possesses great physical streng'th. and a will 

 that is equally strong. At first, liaving no language 

 with which to express her feelings, if she were 

 luged to do something- against her will, she re.sorted 

 to primitive means of ex'iiression, and wovild strike 

 and kick and even bite. On a few occasions, when 

 in a passi(jn, it has been very ditfieult to control her. 



The following tells us of her progress just 

 eleven days afterward: 



On Dec. 31, Willie's lessons began. Three words 

 were selected,— /(Ih. hat, and /iHf/,— and, provided 

 with the corresponding obj(M-ts, Miss Thayer seated 

 herself beside her little pupil, and begun work in 

 real ernest. She gave Willie a small fan, allowed 

 her to examine It and use it, then made the letters 

 f-cv-n in the child's hand. She gave her another fan, 

 again spelling the word, and, after showing her 

 several, of different styles, and spelling the word 

 each time, she took a hat and repeated the lesson 

 with that object. After a little wliile Willie grew 

 mischievous, and hid In hci' .-iiirdn the hand in 

 which her teacher had spelled tliese words to her. 

 In the gymnastic class she did not in the least un- 

 derstand the exercises, and was somewhat trouble- 

 some; but when, in tlii' afternoon, she received her 

 first lesson in kindergarten occu|»ations, she did 

 much better. With the help of her teaclier slie 

 wove a mat with splints, and then began to string- 

 alternately a cube and a ball. This she liked so 

 much that she was unwilling to leave it when the 

 bell rang for recess. 



The lessons upon these three words were repeated 

 day after day, and she was taught to fashion the 

 objects witli iiaper and witii clay. Januarys, her 

 teacher gave her a lump of clay, spelled h-a-t in lier 

 hand, and by signs indicated her wish that Willie 

 should make one. She repeated the spelling several 

 times, and then left the child to herself, and await- 

 ed the re.sult. To her surprise and delight, her little 

 pupil produced a liat. Yet slie could not be sure 

 that it was not by a iiappy accident that the child 

 had hit upon the right oliject. She wished to test 

 her. The day before, Willie had made first a hat 

 and then a fan, and Miss Thayer had already seen 

 that she was inclined to repeat things in theexact 

 order in which they were first learned. Tt) test her 

 knowledge of the word, therefore, she again called 

 for a hat, and again the little girl modeled a hat. 

 Then her teachei- spelled f-a-n, and Willie made 

 this, also, after a little hesitation. She was asked 

 to make it again, Init, having made two hats, she 

 seemed inclined to make two fans. 



Januarj' 7, her teacher's diary records that she 

 spelled the three words. January 9, she was given a 

 lesson in the actual use of language. She dressed 

 herself for a walk, except hi>r hat, which her 

 teacher had init out of her reach, so that she 

 might ask for it in finger speech. This she did not 

 seem inclined lo do, and even sought to avoid it by 

 pretending to be sick, by wanting water and other 

 things; but her teacher persevered, and at last, 

 finding tliat her pretenses were of no avail, she 

 yielded, and tried to spell hat. The next day she was 

 observed spelling the word in her own hand. Jan- 

 uaiy 12, she was taught the words bread and watrr, 

 and she was again seen spelling words in her hand. 

 In less than two weeks from her first lesson this 

 little girl was bi-ginning to lalk to herself by the 

 maiuuil aliihabet. 



The next gives us some idea of the questions 

 that naturally came into her little mind when 

 she began to discover that she could make in- 

 quiries and get answers. Is it not touching? 



Willie manifests so -strong an inclination to talk 



that her teacher has already t:iuglit her to articu- 

 late a number of woids, sucli as mamma, ma)i, mill, 

 mot), arm. Turn. Her voice is so natural that it is 

 difficult to believe that she can not hear. In some 

 way she caught the idea that we talk into iieople's 

 ears; so one day she put her mouth close to the ear 

 of her teacher, and said mamma! She was delighted 

 when she found that Miss Thayer heard what she 

 said, and put her own ear close to her teacher's 

 mouth, that she might speak into it. She asked if 

 Tom could liear. Her teacher told her thai neither 

 she nor Toni could liear.— that when slie was a little 

 baby she was very sick, and that made her deaf and 

 blind. Many ijuestions fnllowi'd. She asked about 

 Edith and Helen, Dora, Katie, and several other 

 cliildren who bad lieen her companions, and was 

 told that Helen, Edith, and Tom were blind and 

 deaf like herself, and that Dora and Katie were 

 blind, l)ut they could hear. She was interested in 

 wliat she was told, and probably understood it. 

 Doubtless it is weli that slie has learned the fact so 

 eaily. and will have amijle time to become familiar 

 with it liefore slie is able to realize its significance. 



We now come to Tommy Stringer. 



On the 8th day of April Tommy was brought to 

 the kindergarten by the nurse who had taken care 

 of liim at the hospital. He was then four years and 

 nine months old, in good health, and physically well 

 developed. Mentally, however, his sickness, its re- 

 sults and his subsequent environment had retai-ded 

 Ills growth, and left him a pretty child, with liaby 

 face and manners. At every friendly touch he 

 would turn with arms outstretched to encircle the 

 neck of any stranger. He showed no preferences 

 among persons, and would go to one as readily as to 

 another. He walked but little, and, if left to him- 

 self, would drop upon the fioor and l)egin to creep. 

 He inunifestt'd a happy disposition, his face was 

 generally lighied by a gentle, placid smile, and in 

 his whole appearance he was a remarkablj' .sweet 

 and winning child. He had no signs to express his 

 wants e.xcept those of early infanc.v. He would cry 

 lustily if deprived of something he wanted, and 

 struggle vigorously I o go in the direction he wisli- 

 ed. In creeping he iisuallj went liac-kward, -prob- 

 ablj- because he li;id learned by ex)>erieiice that his 

 feet suttered less than his head in encountering ob- 

 stacles-. His favorite plaything was a bunch of 

 keys, and with this he would amuse himself for a 

 long time. 



His attendant in the hospital was a night nurse, 

 and Tommy had been accustomed to sleep much 

 during the day and to be wakeful at night. The 

 fii-st efforts at the kindergarten were directed 

 toward reversing this habit, and it was not long be- 

 fore lie slept at tlie usual hours of healthy child- 

 hood. A special teacher was provided for him, and 

 the same methods have been employed as with the 

 other children, but as yet he has not learned tlie 

 iifime of any object. Day afti-r day he passivelj al- 

 lows liis fingers to be put in position to spell the 

 name of some object which is shown to him, but he 

 makes no attempt to form the letters foi- himself, 

 and they are evidently meaningless to him. He has 

 given up creeping, and now walks i)erfectly well; 

 he examines olijects with som(> skill, and there 

 seems no lack of intellig-ence in the little fellow. 

 As yet, however, it is only passive, and we all await 

 with eager interest the awakening of the dormant 

 mental powers. 



The following, from our little friend Helen 

 Keller, whom we feel somewhat acquainted 

 with by this time, tells us in regard to Tommy's 

 progress a little later: 



South Boston, M.a.ss., Dec. 2it. 1891. 

 3/;/ Dcm- Mr. Bo(»f.-— The money that you sent for 

 Tommy came on Christmas daj', and I thank you 

 for all that has been done, through y(nir paper, for 

 my little friend Tommy. 1 saw him Christmas, and 

 I do not belie^■e there was a haiipier liltle boy in 

 all tlie land than "baby Tom." He was sitting on 

 the Hoor, in the midst of what seemed to be a wil- 

 derness of blocks, stutt'ed animals, steam-engines, 

 and all sorts of toys. He .•ipi)eared to like the 

 blocks best. He has learned to weave [japer very 

 nicely, and to heli> himself in many ways. But he 

 does not learn language quickly. He can sjiell 

 bread, hotit, and miiij. and he knows that they are 

 the names for the olijects. but lie does not like to 

 ask for the things with his fingers. Teacher says 

 lie does not see the necessity for words yet. He is 

 like a little bab.\-. just beginning to notice things. 



