Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1881 — A Female Phenomenon. [ARTICLE]

A Female Phenomenon.

Il in not generally known, but it ra, nevertheieMt, a fact, that on Lower Willow creek, not many miles from Butte, reskies a woman different from Bn other* of her sweet sex. She is l>rolMibly the only woman in ancient or modern times who, possessing the natural feminine ability to talk, studiously alwtatns, with a perseverance truly admirable, from expressing herself on any subject. For fifteen years, except on one occasion,she has not uttered a word even to her nearest relatives.' - Her organs of articulation are Crfect, and the friends of the strange iy entertain not the slightest doubt ofher speaking capabilities were she disposed to exercise them. It is the Impression of those best acquainted with the history of this phenomenal woman that her absolute refusal to speak results from a disappointment in love, while she was yet in her teens. Fifteen years ago, In the classic state of Missouri, Miss M , then a beautiful and accomplished girl of sixteen summers, became the object of a young neighbor’s affection, which she reciprocated with the full strength of her impulsive soul. He told his love, and they became secretlv engaged. But the news was too good and fraught with too much future happiness to keep, and it was accordingly communicated to the young girl’s pareats. Then for the first time in her budding womanhood, a cloud arose to cast its shadow on her so far contented existence. The parents, for reasons which they doubtless considered gissl and sufficient, sternly and relentlessly withheld their consent for the proposed union of two loviug hearts. More than this, they ordered tlie young gallant to cease his attentions, and their decision was irrevocable.

Soon after this the family moved to Montana, and since the day of their starting the young lady, now grown to a woman of thirty years, but still comely in form and feature and apparently intelligent, has not articulated as much as hall a dozen words. Her long silence is attributed to intense and abiding indignation at the sup|»osed cruelty of her parents in reftising to permit her marriage, and proliably conceiving words to lie useless and inadequate- to express the poignancy of her suffering, she concluded never to speak again, a resolution which she has adhered to so far with remarkable pertinacity. Khe lives with her parents on Willow (,’reek, us liefore stated-, occupies a a room by herself, refuses to see strangers, and* to all intents and purposes is absolutely dumb. Iler me'mory is strong and accurate for. one who neither talks nor reads nor takes other Intellectual exercise. Through the partition of her rodni, she will sometimes listen to the conversation of those in the adjoining apartment, and occasionally, several days after it has taken placy, it will be found on Kt in her room written out verm. A severe mental exertion is necessary to accomplish this feat, and the fact that she is capable of such exertion is regarded as sufficient evidence of her entire sanity. It is reported that Several young ranchers on Willow Creek, (convicted of her determination never to speak again,' have made matrimonial advances, but have been spurned. On the whole, the caAe is an interest ingone, the more so as she is still young, licautiful and intelligent.