The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1874-08-06
A MISSOURI BOY AS A READYiRECk'
CNER.

A correspondent of the st. Louis
Republican, writing from Tabo, Mo-,
says: We have quite marvel OF a
man in our community, natural
mathematician. His name is Reu-
ben Fields. Having heard of him
frequently through farmers and 9TH
ers, who got him to do their count
ing, l determined a short time ago,
to make him visit, and to ascertain
for myself if the remarkable stories
told of him were true.
am free to confess that at first 1
was fully as incredulous as many
readers of this paragraph will be, in
fact, wonld not have believed state
ments made concerning him had not
the authority been undisputably
good.
Proceeding to Fayetteville, the
small village in which he lives, l in
quired for "Reub,' and was told
that he was in town, and was shown
to his residence, toward which l
made my way. When nearly there
1 met young man apparently about
twenty FIVE years of age, walking a
little lame, and seemed to be leisurly
and vacautly gazing about, and ao-
costed him with "DOes Reuben
Fields live in that house yonder ?"
"Yes, sir" "Well, I've heard that
Reub was great calculator, and l
must go and see him." and I started
forward, whom he stopped me with
"I'm him."
swell, Reub," said I, 81 have a
few questions l would like to have
you answer, and will make it worth
your while to do So"
Gazing around, he answered :
"That's all right and remarked
that he could "count" anything he
could understand.
I may here remark that he can not
read or write letter or figure he
says if he could he should lose his
gift. He cannot explain anything,
but says he has numeration table
away on "beyond the books. He
remarked : "You commence at the
bottom and work up-I commence
at the top and work down it is cas-
| ier falling out of a tree than climbing
one." "He frequently observes Il
| could read and write, / shouldn',
know any more than you do" 1t il
said he never makes mistakes. o.
all the questions l gave him, he
made but one, and he corrected tha
on recounting. The following are
some of the questions asked him:
| If. to the time past noon, there bt
added its J, ! and 2-5, the sum vii
be equal to l,6 of the time to mid
night what is the hour2 sg
Divide Sl1.5O between two per
sons so that one shall have Is cents
more than the other. tasfa
A tree 1876 feet long fell and wa
broken into two pieces two. third
of the longer piece equals three-quar
ters of the length of the shorter
what is the length ofeach piece !?
| What is the interest of cent for
/ day at 3 per cent. per annllm. 1e.
19a What is the exact length of on,
j side of q square acre ? sr.
j These questions were all correctl,
answered, his answer to the last be
j ing, sit can't be told" lI
/ then said ''Reub, / hear yo
can tell what day of the week an
tgiven date was, or, will be ; is tha
so pp eyes, SIR" 09H =. JE bl
4 "What was July lst, 1868 ?
"Wednesday." "Correct. Wha
was the 22d of January, 1s4s.
/ "Sundsy." "What day will the At
of July come on this year ?" "Sat.
"New Years ?" ssFriday." "All righ
II Ihave also heard, Reub, that you ca
] tell the hour at any time Of day {
. night. Is this so ?" eyes, sir.