Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 February 1915 — LIKE HELEN KELLER [ARTICLE]

LIKE HELEN KELLER

Five-Year-Old Boy Displays Remarkable Powers. Deaf Mute and Almost Blind, He Is In Fair Way to Become Famous —Result of Care and Proper Treatment. ... - St. Louis.—Ernest Smith, five years old, deaf, dumb and almost blind, was taken from the city hospital three years ago, after his mother deserted him, s by the Missouri Branch International Sunshine society, and is in a fair way of becoming as remarkable as Helen Keller, according to medical authorities, specialists and instructors in the Missouri School for the Blind. The child, who three years ago was not expected to live and who was declared to be mentally defective, is an excellent proof of what care, the proper treatment and skilled attention will accomplish. At five he displays a healthy devotion to the sports indulged in by boys of his age the world over and an alarming interest in the carrying out of mischievous pursuits. Since an operation performed several months ago, which restored to Mb in a slight measure the use of his left eye, he has displayed a sense of touch and 'perception which'have set his elders wondering, and which has determined then to secure for him the best advantages obtainable to make of himself other than an ordinary mote T He recognizes color* readily; is able to distinguish his Sunday clothes from

those-of the every-day variety; he is quick to notice anything new in the wearing apparel or speech of the visitor in the home in which he is being cared for, and he makes known bis likes and dislikes in an emphatic manner, in everything running the gamut from foodstuffs to persons. In the opinion Of Mrs. F. W. Baumhoff, for 14 years president of the Missouri Sunshine society, and who resigned that post in order to devote her time wholly to canng for blind children under school age, the child’* powers of observation are nothing short of remarkable.