The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-01-17
A Senator's Curious Faculty.

Talking about peculiarities of mems
minds, I heard United States Senator
Beck, of Kentucky, tell queer story"
said a gentleman to some friends, the
other night. "We were all discussing
the same subject that is up now, when
Senator Beck remarked that he thought
popularity of his brain had done him
q great deal of harm in his life. I first
noticed it, said the Senator, when | was
q boy going to school in Scotland. l
had q strict old teacher for a tutor, and,
with a number of other boys, went to the
parsonage to be educated. One night /
was very sleepy, and still had long Latin
lesson to get off. I tried hard to learn
it; but almost before I was aware l
would be duzing. At length read the
exercise through in half:dreaming con-
dition, and with the Latin all in jum-
Bile in my head, I went to sleep. l
awoke the next morning with my brain
thoroughly clear, and, strange to say, all
the antiquities of my difficult lesson
were made plain, and I read the Latin
without balk. The same thing hap.
pened second time, and / again found
that when went to sleep with confused
idea of my lesson, learning it while half
doing, I awoke with all the knotted
points unraveled. 1t became my custom
after that to read my task over just be-
fore going to bed, and I never failed to
have them in the morning. My strict
old tutor saw that never studied, and
thought one of the other boys was help
ing me. At length he gave me page
of Livy to translate, and told me if I did
not have it for him the next morning he
would fog me. Then he forbid any of
the bows 20 come near me and watched
nv actions. I read the lines as usual
before going to sleep, and sure enough
the next day had them pat as you
please. He nsver troubled me after that.
We'll, the year passed by, and began
to put too much faith in it, and depended
almost entirely upon my mysterious help
er. Some time ago phrenologist came
to examine my family's heads, and they
went wild over him. paid no attention
to their talk, though my wife urged me
to give the man trial. One day, how.
ever, he met me, and was so persistent
that at length I sat down to him. He
said that he would examine my head
for So and give me chart for S.. l
told him So was all I would throw
away, and he began to name my charac-
teristics. At length he said: "You have
one faculty that is fully developed. 1t
is spirituality. You haze that faculty
developed to marked degree. You
would have made fine medium. Your
mind is capable of working separate from
your body-that is, it can perform men.
! tai labor while the body is at rest and
knows nothing of it. You sometimes
solve difficult problems while you are
asleep, and wake up in the morning
without knowing that you have been at
work." "Here is FIVE dollars" said I :;
"a man who knows as much as you do
deserves it." "My strange faculty." con-
tinued Senator Beck, whether it is
spirituality or not, is growing weaker
l can hardly explain the action of my
mind during these abnormal spells.
see the lines and words before my minds
eye, and, without knowing the process
or indeed, being aware of any process,
work on the problem m."-Courisr Journal