The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-12-14
GREAT MEMORIES.
Phenomenal Powers Devel-
oped by Some Men.
Ordinary Abilities joined to Extraordinary
Strength Of Recollection.

If "all great people have great memo
%ries," & Sir Arthur Helps declares in his
delightful book entitled $50 cial Pres
sure" it by no means follows that all
those who are possessed of great memo
ries are 'tgreat people," Many ar i'll
stance might be cited to show that men
of very moderate intellectual capacity
may be endowed with a power of memo
ry which is truly prodigious. In adj
aition to this, there are plenty of we'll
authenticated examples of the extraordi-
nary power of memory displayed even by
idiots. In the Memoirs of Mrs. Somcr-
willie there is a curious account of a most
extraordinary verbal memory. "There
was an idiot in Edinburg," she tells us,
f'of arespectable family who had a re-
markable memory. HI never failed to
60 to the kirk Sunday, and on returning
home would repeat the sermon, saying,
"Here the minister coughed /; here he
stopped to blow his nose" "During the
tour we made in the Highlands"
she adds, eve met with an
other idiot who knew the
Bible so perfectly that if you'asked him
where such a verse was to be found he
could tell without hesitation and repeat
the chapter" These examples are suf-
f~iciently remarkable; but what shall be
said of the case cited by Archdeacon
Fearon in his valuable pamphlet on
''Mental Vigor 2" "There was in my
fathers parish" says the Archdcacon,
"a man who could remember the day
when every person had been buried in
the parish for thirty-ive years, and could
repeat with unvarying accuracy the name
and age of the deceased, with the mourn
ers at the funeral. But he was q CON-
plete fool. Out Of the line of burials, he
had but ono idea, aud could not give au
Ineligible reply to a single question,
nor be trusted to feed himself"
These phenomenal instances may be
matched by the Sussex farm-laborer
George Watson, as we find recorded in
Homes Table Book" Watson could
neither read nor write, yet he was wont
to perfor wondrous feats of mental cal
culation, and his memory for events
seemed to be almost faultless. "But the
most extraordinary circumstance" says
Hone, 'fs the power he possesses of re-
collecting the events of every day from
an early period of his life. Upon being
asked what day of the week a given
day of the month occurred he immedi-
ately m it, and also mentions where
he was and. what was the state of the
weather. A gentleman who had kept a
dairy put many questions to him, and his
answers were invariably correct"
Of similar kind is the memor for
which Daniel Mccartney has become
famous in the United States. The
strange story of this mans ACHIEVEMENTS
is told by Mr.. Henkle in the Journal of
Speculative Philosophy. Mccartney, in
1853, declared that he could remember
the day of the week for airy date from
January, 1s27-that is, from the time
when he was 8 years and 4 months old
AZ 1-2 years. He has often been tested,
and, so far as Mr.. Hcnkle's account goes,
had not failed to tell his questioner what
day 1t was, and to give some informa-
ton about the weather, and about his
W whereabouts and doings on any one
of the Is, 900 or more dates that might
be named. When Mr.. Henkle first met
this man or marvellous memory he was
employed in the Office of the Hon. T. X.
B~urkenbrod, editor of the Salem Repu6-
lican, where nothing better could be
found for Mccartney to do than 'turn
the wheel of the printing-prc two days
OF each week." On the first formal ex-
animation this man underwent, his an
swers were tested by reference to the file
OF a newspaper which gave the day of
the week along with the date. In one
case his statement was disputed, for the
day he named was not the same as that
giveT by the paper; but on further in
quirJ it was found that the newspaper
was wrong, for the printer had made a
mistake. Shorthand notes of the
conversation were taken at subsequent
interviews. The report of these is very
curious reading. Take the following as
a sample. "Question-Oct. 8, 1922
Answer Gin two ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
1t was cloudy and drizzlcd rain; 1 car
RED dinner to my father where he was
getting out coal. Question-Feb. FL,
1922 Answer(n two secondsl Saturday.