The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-02-22
A Precocious Southern Boy.

Master Clement Thomas Maddux, a
native of Tensas parish, who has recently
come with his parents to reside in this
city, is a young gentleman still in his
first decade, who at the early age of five
began to "lisp in numbers, " albeit not
of the poetic variety. A youth of that
age who looks upon exercises in mental
arithmetic as a pastime is perhaps as rare,
however, as an infant Byron or Shake
speare. The young Clement smiles at
mathematical difficulties that paralyze the
faculties of many older heads, and finds a
deep and satisfying joy in g fractions"
At seven he had absorbed the whole of
Davies series of arithmetics, including
the university, and stood ready to take
in algebra with equal avidity, but by the
advice of "a prominent educator this branch
was postponed. Precocious as he is, Mas
ter Maddux has none of the painful pecu-
liarities so often seen in phenomenal chill
dren. He is bright healthy boy, with
ruddy cheeks, clear blue eyes, and a
physique that seems quite equal to the
demands of the large brain. He has all
the fondness for boyish sports proper to
his age, and carries into everything the
same quickness of observation and I'M
Outstanding that distinguishes him in
his studies. His remarkable talent for
arithmetic is not blind intuition nor a
remarkable feat of note learning. He
knows perfectly what he is about, and is
able to explain his methods fully and
satisfactorily. These methods are the
result of a clear understanding of
the properties of numbers, and seem
to have been devised by himself
rather than acquired from others. They
have all the simplicity and directness of
those employed by experienced account
ants, and supplemented as they are by
very unusual ability for carrying on men
tally complex processes of calculation,
they enable him to solve, without the
aid of slate or pencil, problems that in
volve considerable ciphering for ordinary
people. He will estimate with sur
prising quickness and accuracy the ag-
gregate value of crop sold in separate
lots and at various prices, and is especial
ly delighted if these prices are expressed
in fractional parts of dollars and cents
or he will give with equal facility the
superficial area of the walls of your room,
or the solid contents Of your wood-pile.
In geography, which ranks next to
arithmetic in his favor, he shows the
same facility of combining and general.
ling his information. Names are more
to him than words. Each one calls up 6
concrete image of the object referred to-
with all its surroundings. Thus the
mention of an isthmus suggests not only
the two continents united by the narrow
neck of land, but the two seas separated
by it, as well as the possibility of cana
which might sever the continents anC
unite the seas, and bridge which
might place them again as they were
Master Maddux is entered as pupil il
one of the public schools, where he viii
pursue the regular course, his fathe
wisely preferring that he should become
versed in all branches of knowledg
rather than pose as youthful prodigy il
mathematics. Though only nine year
of age, it is impossible to look into thu
bright, intelligent face, at once modes
and self-reliant. and note the dome-lik
structure of the head, without INDUCING
in brilliant forecasts for the ripened flu
ture of so much childish promise. Ne,
Orleans Times Democrat.