The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1882-12-02

others. 1t describes MS first exhibition at
a public hall, in Antwerp, called the Bar
do. A large black board was on the stage.
One OF the audience, who Subscribed as q
mathematician of considerable force, wrote
on it lines OF figures, as they were called
out by the public, extending to trillions,
that Is, millions of millions, lnaudi's back
beng turned to the blackboard. Upon
these he performed stupendous operations
IN addition, subtraction, multiplication,
and division, before the other had time to
begin" upon them: lightning IS not
quicker" says the Precursor of Antwerp
The exact age Of some one in the audi
ence was then asked tor. One person lot
course not LADY, gave his age as 80 years
months and 2 days. In fifteen seconds
Inaudi announced correctly the number of
seconds he had lived. Let anybody figure
that out with slate and pencil. Another
person then announced his age with a
similar result
The exhibitor of Inaudi (called his
barnum with small b, that word having
become pretty well naturallzed In that
sense in the French language) then called
on the public for the figures on which he
should perform six different operations
Oh huNitioh huN u
subtraction running into trillions, q not
less arduous multiplication and division,
and two root extractiOns, the square and
cube roots. Inaudi simply heard the fig
ures announced, never throughout the
whole exhibition turning his face to the
board. He asked for Blk minutes for the
task, beginning, as usual, to repeat the fig
urcs as they had been announced. "llow
much time have left" he presently said.
Three minutes, was the answer. 81 have
DONE" he replied, and the correct results
of all the six operations ratified off from his
lips. And during the three minutes con
sumed in this inconcelvably gigantic labor
Of mental arithmetic he had been convcrs-
ing freely with the audience, and answer
ing all their questions. The Precursor
wonders that the ceilings and walls of the
Bardo were not brought down by the
storm of the applause.
Being four times recalled, at the fourth
time he offered to repeat in their order,
all the fast array of the figures which had
now accumulated on the great black beard,
none having been eflaccd, And he did 1t
within minute, playing with the mill
ions, billions, and trilliOns. No wonder
that the Antwerp journal exclaims that it
was "vertiginous." 1t almost takes ones
breath away to think of those six opera.
tions performed IN three minutes without
sight of the figures, and while conversing
with the public and answering all their
questions. The Precursor thus concludes
Jacques maud Is entirely selftaught,
and calculates after his own fashion. He
does not known how this science came to
him. 1t was an illumination. 1t seemed
he told US, that veil was torn aside in his
mind. He was then six years old"
The Precursor does not give the age Of
this youth or boy merely calling HIM "the
young Inaudl." But the manifestation of
the faculty seems to have begun suddenly
at the age of years II Is difficult to &C.
cept It's expression OF his mental facul.
ties" Surely 1t could not have been his
mind winch worked out the six formidable
operations simultaneously in three MN
utes, while at the same time he was con-
versing with the audience and answering
their questions Nor could there have
been any tricks of preparations in advance
or aid of a confederate, when the figures
were given to him on the spot and noted
down as they were called out by crowd.
ed, prOmlscuOus audience. II must have
been case of what the spiritualsts call
medlumshlp, in which an outside lntelli-
gence acts through the mind and organs
of the medium-analogOu to the numer-
Gus cases they record IN which totally un-
lettered mediums have spoken or written
in languages both modern and ancient, in
GLIDING Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Orien-
tai. On that theory 1t may well have been
the spirit of Zerah COlburn, or some of the
anterior lightning calculators, probably
themselves similarly mediumlstic in their
day, though none of them seems to have
equalled the performance of Inaudi. 1t
TALES well with this theory that they all
seem to have lost the faculty as they ad-
vanced in years, whereas matured mental
powers and long practice ought, then,
rather to have increased their ability. We
hope that young Inaudi's "barnum" will
bring him over to this side of the Atlantic,
and present him before an audience in the
Academy of Music.