The Philadelphia Times from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 20

20 SUNDAY MORNING. THE PHILADELPHIA TIMES. AUGUST 20, 1899. Youngest Preacher in the World and CHILD Youngest Inventor in the World and i His System of Wireless Telegraphy Youngest and Brightest Girl and Her Wonderful Vocabulary WONDERS Remarkable Religious Influence Hi I No. I MEMORY VIOLA ROSALIE OLERICH, of Lake City.

Iowa, Is the youngest and most wonderful scholar of the world, being a 2-year-old baby with more knowledge at her command than the average High School graduate. The precocity of this little prodigy vastly exceeds that of any other baby of her age. She performs marvelous feats of ortbeopy, orthography, reading, drawing, notation, VIOLA R. OLERICH, Tvvo Year numeration, calculation, geography, arithnie-tic, physiology, geometry, botuny, zoology, physics, ustrouoiny and- in numerous other sciences. Her memory testa, her keen power of discrimination, the wide range of her vocnhulury, the distinctness of pronunciation, the profundity of her reasoning, and the ease with which she performs, cub be believed only by those who actually see her execute these wonderful mental feats.

The extensive range of lu-r language is almost incredible, lly an actual examination held when Viola was 1 year, 11 months and 25 days old It was found that she knew over twenty-live hundred nouns by having either the objects themselves or the picture of them brought before her. Little Viola has not produced these eduoa tloual ntarvels by undergoing the usual pro cess of child training. She is the result of fclentifie experiment on natural methods of Instruction, in which her father, l'rofessor Henry Olerlch, has been working. Of his method Professor Olerlch ald in a recent Interview regarding his amazing infant that it rests on three prlncl pies, which he describes as follows: First, to awaken a keen Interest for educational work by the use of attractive apparatus mid playthings for the child. Second, to treat the child at all times with the greatest of kindness and equality.

THIrd, all educational works of the child should be an Interesting panic of play, purely voluntary. No element of coercion or even undue solicitation ghould ever be resorted to. "The sHret of such wonderful success in the use of the natural instruction," he said 'lies in tile fact that great interest means undivided attention aud close attention means retention. Kind treatment and voluntary learning continually Increase the delight for further inquiry. With all her precocity Viola has never studied a lesson In lier life.

She has only 'played' and she always wants to play longer. "Viola's home training hns been along the same line as her Intellectual instnic tion and the results are equally remarkable. We always treat her kindly and courteously. She is never whipped, scolded or teased. She never even had a loud or rude word spoken to her, and perhaps enjoyed a wider range of freedom than has been enjoyed by any other child of her age.

We always is His CHARLES FISHER, Boy ers of the gospel that the world has ever known. He has the ability to reach the people whom lie addresses and bring their religious sentiments uppermost in an unprecedented manner. Ills bright, sunshiny face has an earnest look upon it at all times, but when he Is delivering the word of (iod it assumes a dignity and majesty that one rarely sees In so young a countenance. Charlie Fisher was bom in Groveville in 1SD2. on August 14, and from his earliest days he displayed the most remarkable aptitude for memorizinig the chapters of the TORTURED WITH THE kNOUT "Soldiers, prisoners and peasants seldom escape corporal punishment for more than a I Jar 1 i lead and never drive, and she returns the same kind conduct toward us.

This kind treatment and freedom of action has developed an amiable disposition and the highest degree of order, which she displays in keeping her toys, books, clothes, in their respective places." Viola is a bright, healthy, well-proportioned, handsome blonde, with a remarkably fair complexion, brilliant eyes and hair as soft as silk. She is a merry, laughing babe, giving no sign until called upon that she Is far in advance of other children of her age. She was born In Des Moines, Iowa, Febru- OId Linguist nry 10, 1807, and was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Olerlch when she was eight mouths and four days old.

Her education has been conducted on the "sentence method," or the synthetic rather than the analytical system of teaching. The results have been most marvelous. The child can understand things which do not come Into the mind ordinarily until the age of 15 or 10 hns been reached. She knows by sight and can name the flags of twenty-five nations of the world; the portraits of over one hundred famous men and women representing nearly all schools of thought; the leaves aud seeds of a large number of plants; all the prominent colors, tints and shades; all the States and Territories of the tufted States and their capitals; nearly all the countries of the world and their capitals; all the prominent boives, organs and tissues of the human body; a large number of botanical terms; over live hundred pictures of animals In zoology; twenty punctuation marks; all Webster's diacritical marks; nil the money now coined and; printed by the Vulteil States, both coins and bills, except bi over one thousand dollars; the mm, planets and satellites of the solar system, when represented by an orrory; all numbers not over one thousand, and the pictures of over fifteen hundred common articles of life. This Infant has at least 3.0O0 nouns in her vocnhulury.

When she was 1 year 11 months and 2t days old two teachers in the Lake City schools examined her, aud found that she kif'w 2,500 nouns. No. 2 THEOLOGY Special Correspondence of The Times. Trenton, August In. CHARLKS FISHER, a little boy of 7 years, Is responsible for one of the greatest outbursts of religions enthusiasm that has ever struck (iroveville, a suburb of this city.

So strong has been the religious revival that men and women for miles around have been coming Into town to hear the boy evangelist and take home some precious words of faith and comfort from Ills Hps. He is one of the most remarkable preach- THE WAY RUSSIAN PRISONERS ARE that advocates should rank with merchants of the first class. mmmmmmmmmtmmimmmmmmmmmmimmtimmmmmmmmmKmmmmmmmmmmimfmnr i )j 1 jtiW 'jgT V( -J. A XSSSSS j5 Jits- vrakA -XJBwwiihvis He called on all those who were present to repent of their sins and come to God. He told In words that were extremely eloquent of the beauties and comfort of salvation.

He pleaded with the people la an entirely new manner and he brought many a hardened old sinner to his knees before he completed his sddrera. The audience was electrified. They were stirred to the very deepest feelings of their hearts and from them started a movement fora religions revival that seems to be sweeping everything before it. As an exhorter old men and women said that they had never heard anything to equal the child. They went forth and told the people of the town and the country of what they had heard and urged them to come to hear likewise.

This the people have done and now the church where the youthful evangelist preaches is filled every Sunday with crowds aud crowds of the most earnest and repentant sinners that can be found in all of Jersey. There have been many children who have claimed the distinction of being the only original "boy evangelist," but Charlie Fisher makes no such claims. He says that he Is working honestly and humbly In his Master's field and that the harvest will be His not his. The boy's sincerity Is readily shown by the way that he answers a lot of godless youngsters who come to church from time to time to interrupt and ask him questions. His quiet dignity in replying to the noisy in-terruptlous shows that he thinks less of himself than of hls.niission.

His whole effort is to enlist the people under the banner of God and he lets them think of the minister who calls them as they chose. Even on days of the week when he can secure an audience of boys his own age or of those who are older than himself he will mount a box or a chair and tell the story of the gospel to all who will listen. No. 3 INVENTION TIIK youngest apostle of wireless telegraphy In the world and the most juvenile disciple of Marconi is a- ItS-yenr-old New Yorker, Edwin 0. Don-uell, who lives at 152 Lenox avenue.

Quite apart from his scientific attainments young Donnell has some title to fame lu being the great grnuduephew of the Illustrious Horace Greeley. "Eddie" Donnell can construct electric motors, Induction colls, a pocket telegraph aud the apparatus for operating the Marconi system of wireless telegraphy, and all this from the crudest materials to be Imagined, any odd bits of brass which he happens upon about the house or along the street, which, by patient sawing and filing day after day will In the course of time be marvelously transformed into the 'mechanism peasant will never return In kind. Sometimes a maltreated workman, artisan or he desires. This remarkable Inri tha nhu day gave an Interesting account of his labors and achievements, In the course of which lie "It Is about three years ago that I bs-gan to pick up electricity, but I did not do anything much with it until a year ago. Before then, of course, I made all kinds of things, but they were like, any other school boy's work, stuck together with tack and pieces of tin, when they ought to be screwed and bolted tight and made of Iron.

"The first piece of apparatus which I mads was a rough motor ringing an old nventor From a photograph. bell and a pfeee of Iron. I filed out the Iron In the form af a Maltese cross. It took me two weeks to make the motor. Great was my disappointment when I found that It would not work.

But I was not discouraged. The disaipointment passed away In a few hours. "I next tried my hand on an Induction coll. This was supposed to worry the cats in the neighborhood, and It did. I connected a battery with the coll and put both on the shed, where the cats collected, and found it worked finely.

"Then I tried to make a galvanometer, which came out very successfully. Then I made a pocket telegraph. I used an old telegraph key. I made the screw ont of pieces of brass. It took many hours of hard work to make all the apparatus connected with the.

lnstument, but It passed the test? splendidly, and that satisfied me. "My latest success Is the wireless telegraph, which is very simple. I first saw the apparatus at the Electrical Exhibition last year, hut did not understand It until the winter. I made my own instruments, but not knowing their exact construction they were rather crude however, they work very well through the house, including all the partitions between the rooms. "I got the principle from the electrical papers, but on January 18, 1899, I attended a public lecture, jvhlch gave me an Insight Into several details.

The next at half-past 11 o'clock, I was ready to try It. I separated the transmitter from the receiver twenty-six Inches, and the receiver responded almost the same as If a wire had been used. Then I Increased it and put the receiver In the parlor; then they were separated by four rooms and a short passage. This was as far as I could separate them, but the signals were transmitted almost the same as before. "The Instruments worked all right.

Most of the Iron In them were parts of the car fenders! but they looked far from It when I had finished. The brass was mostly parts of old quarter-Inch embossing dies, which I could sometimes get. "I have not mnuy tools nor material to make my instruments, and they ail were niliile by hard work from things that I found around machine shops and parts of other Instruments. small merchant will sue his tormentor, but In nine cases ont of ten the Judge will decide that the gentleman or lady served hliu right. "Poor Jews." sayi the report, "are worse off than even soldiers and peasants, for all classes of Russians, Including soldiers and peasants, think they have a right to beat them.

As a particularly atrocious case, the affair of a County Conimisloner named SIo-pelnskl is cited, who knouted a Jew to death merely because he was a Jew." In the cities, ofllclalcudgelings are less frequent than In the villages, but every merchant and artisan boss can have his apprentices birched by the police for the asking. or he can do the birching himself if he feels like it. Jn numerous rural districts, say the commissioners, wholesale canlngs are in order whenever the tax-paying season arrives. The commune is responsible to the Treasury for the taxes of every peasant belonging to It and, of course. Is Interested in speedy col lections being made.

Therefore, the village Council gives the collectors general authority to whip laggards. From the effects of such official blows a peasant died in Jusan a little while ago, but the tax-gatherer went unpunished, for he bad glreu orders "to whip the men only on the soft parts of the body. Often the bead of the village Council attends the tax- collector on his rounds and whips the peasants who don't pay up. In and In 18C5 the abolishment of the knout was again proclaimed to the sound of trumpets, but Dr. Lobas discovered a month ago that it still reigns supreme in the prisons of Siberia and Sachalln, visited by hitn In the Czarina's name and vested with supreme authority for Investigation.

Only they call it "pletj" now, and Instead of a single thong of thick leather it has three. Each of these thongs is as thick as a finger and cut in triangular form, tapering off at cue end and broad at the other. The thongs arc about a yard long and often consist of braided leather, which increases their ca pacity for inflicting ragged wounds. The executioner holds the renamed knout in both hands, dragging the long thongs upon the ground between his legs. At a given signal he raises it toward the top of his head by a vigorous movement aod then Instantly draws it down towards his knees.

The thongs fly whistling through the air, and, descending on the body of the victim, twine around It like hoops of iroa. The sufferer is always naked save for a pair of linen drawers, and lies prostrate on his stomach on a frame diagonally Inclined, while bis hands are fastened to one end and bis feet to the other end. "By these means his body Is so drawn oat that he Is absolutely Incapable of making a single movement," ys the physician, "yet when the fearful whin toucnes Dim the poor wretch bounds up as if strock by a powerful electric current. counts the overseer. There fol lows a splashing noire.

Blood hns been drawn. The executioner retraces bis steps and goes through the same movements again, and again, and again to the sound of the monotouous etc" Preacher From a photograph Hlble that were read every day at family prayers. He would hear a chapter read and then a few days afterward he would repeat whole lections of it to his astonished parents. When they came to see how great was his uuiierstauding of the religious questions bound up In the Rook they began to tench hliu to read it, and as soon as he was able to spell out the words for himself he began to spend whole days poring over it. Then came a day when he was taken to a public prayer 'meeting by his father ami mother.

He had already been a diligent The Czarina Vows the Czar SHALL Abolish Knouting month at a time," says the report, "though laaaHMaMaBaaHMvHHisiHHaasiaHMiafSjisaB 'Jill V'M Hut numerous ukases ordain that army men shall I ou 1 1 I llJA-" "'The cruel sub-officers 'and officers, crnv- I "jT JaWsSStl taken for The Sunday Times student at the Sunday school and had won for himself a splendid name for piety and fervor. Hut the people were ill-prepared for what followed his entrance to a prayer meeting of his elders. He sat quietly through the proceedings until the minister asked if auy one wished to testify as to their salvation. Then Charlie Fisher electrified the whole assemblage by rising to his feet and deliv ering one of the most enrnest and touching addresses that has ever been heard In (iroveville. ileged to occasionally fall upon some poor native with stick, riding whip or flsts.

The FLOGGING A PEASANT BECAUSE Special Correspondence of The Times. St. Petersburg, August 13. UFOX my bended knees, if necessary, I will beg his Majesty to abolish corporal punishment in our holy Russia." With these good words the Czarina sent away the commissioners appointed by her to Inquire into the abuses of the knout, the rod and the switch In het husband's empire. Later she registered a vow with her father confessor to make her promise good.

lira. Ibankow, Buschujew and Lobes, three cf the foremost physicians of St. Petersburg, and the great writers Tolstoi and Dostc-jewskl collected the evidence for Alexandra- Feoderovna. The report of these gentlemen Is a horrible Indictment of autocratic rule. The Incident that moved her Majesty to Employ the services of these distinguished gentlemen In her campaign of civilization Is almost too revolting for publication.

Mme. Tschechow, a political prisoner in the penal colony of Lutoga, Siberia, was treated to the rod In spite of her delicate condition and the poor woman was taken from the torture platform a corpse. I Count Tolstoi, who enjoys the unusual privilege of addressing his sovereign lady without Interference from secretaries and "courtiers, was able to bring this atrocious crime to her Majesty's attention and the empress not only promised tt prompt Investigation, but gave Tolstoi leave to form a committee to Inquire into the method and extent of corporal puulshment throughout the empire. Abolition of the laws permitting punishment by rod, switch and other brutal menus was promised If the findings favored such radical reform, her Majesty offering to do all in her power to influence her husband to that effect If circumstances warranted action on her part. The physicians nnnwd and the novelist Dostejewski thereupon constituted themselves into a traveling commission for hunting up testimony, while Tolstoi Invited victims of official and private brutality throughout the empire to send In well-authenticated reports of their sufferings.

From these recitals and the direct and circumstantial evidence gathered by Ibankow and his col. leagues the report finally submitted to the Czarina was made up. At the outset the paper establishes the fact that a hundred and twenty-five millions of Knssians out of a total of one hundred and thirty millions may be lawfully spanked, linked, blrebred, caned or knotted, as, outside of septuagenarians, only nobles, officials above a certain rank, ministers nud honorary citizens are exempted from that mode of punishment. Those enumerated are "privileged" persons, but may lose that character by decree of the court in the same way as titles are, revocable. Tolstoi names a reputable lawyer of the Moscow tar was switched In the Judge's private room after his clothes had been removed.

This lawyer had had the temerity to refer in the course of an argument to Jaw whereby Catherine the Second decreed 0AlipM are "Imply placed Into the "second SZTiSi 1 ff Wftfym class" and a second class soldier may be ill- WT 17, f4ll a soldier's dejradation It is but necessary "J52I 'if 1 1 Egjgjiafe fr a petty superior to state that the man CS I iFX "Every peasant, his wife and children may I SiKi. I WbOtf I rSJsssl be sentenced to fifteen blows by the village I SES. I I XrSSifc-. I I ConuclL while the higher Imperial official. I n-A Kg I ZfesssSTK.

fJJSTrW I may lick them as much as they like. In a 1 --aSC: Hz tV I -ATv 4J single district l.KM peasants were lawfully I V.x-X SK "V-si. I -WsA caned last year. How many received beat- I g-k rNCSr3 5 t. 1 II '6 -f-' Jf I Inps offhand, that was, of course, Impossible I S-Ti T' I v-iiAiiw There are foifr classes of beatings, "ordl- I 1 narv.

extraonllnarv. administrative and Hie- I I Vl niV' i r'-J TI There are foifr classes of beatings, "ordinary, extraordinary, administrative and Illegal beatings." The village Council and Imperial officials may decree ordinary extraordinary and administrative cud-geilngs are dealt out In the event of rlot, strikes, etc. The worst is, perhaps, that every man. or woman either, wearing European clothes thinks himself or herself priv HE CANNOT PAY HIS TAXES.