The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-08-02
WONDERS OF MEMORY.
10th Idiots and Geniuses Ger
tainly Exhibit Them.

If "al great people have great
memories" asSir Arthur Help declares
IN his delightful book entitled Social
Pressure, it by no means follows that
Ill those who are possessed Of great
memUscs arc great people. Many an
instance might be cited to show that
iacn Of very moderate intellectual CO.
paci,y may be endowed with a power
of memory which is traly prodigous.
In addition to this, there are plenty Of
wcl-auihenticated examples OF the
extraordinary power of memory dis
PLAYED even by idiots. In the Memoirs
of Mrs Somerville there is curious
account of most extraordinary verbal
mcmury. ''Thcre was an idiot in
Edinburgh she tells us, "ofa respect
able family who had remarkable
memory. He never failed to 20 to the
Kirk on Sunday; and ON returning
..o,pc, could repeat tho sermon, saying:
Here the minister cOnghed; here he
stopped to blow his nose During The
,onr we made in the Highlands. she
adds, 1--WE met with another idiot who
knew the Bible SO perfectly, that if you
asked him where such q verse was to
be found, he could tell without hesita-
tion and repeat the chapter These
rNam pies are sufficiently remarkable;
hut what shall be said of the case cited
hy Archdeacon Fcaron in his valuable
pant phlet on Mental Vigour? ''rhere
was IN my fathers PARISH" says the
archdeacon, - man who could remen-
Der the day when every person had
been buried IN tine parish for thirty five
Years. and could repeat with unvarying
accuracy the name and age of the de-
ceased, with the mourners at the
funeral. Bot he was q complete fool.
Out Of the line of burials, he had but
ono idea, and could not give an intel
lgible reply 10 single question, nor
he trusted to feed himself.
These phenomenal instances may be
matched by the Sussex farm-laborer
George Watson, as We lind recorded in
Homes Table Book. Watson could
neither read nor write, yet he was
won't to perform wondrous feats of
mental calculation, and his memory for
events seemed to be almost faultless.
'.But the most extraordinary circum.
stance" says Hone. sis the power hc
possessed OF recoliecting the events OF
every day from an early period of his
life. Upon being asked what day of the
week given day of the month oc.
CURED, no Immediately names it, and
also mentions where he was and wha,
was the state of fhe weather. A gen.
tleman who had kept a diary pu,
many questions to him. and his an.
Swcrs were invariably correct"
of similar kind il the memory fol
which Daniel NCartncy has become
famous in the United States. The
strange story of this mans achieve.
mcnss " t0ld by MIR. Henkle in the
Journal of SfAantatius Philosophy
Mccartney, in 1869. declared that he
could remember thcday of the week fol
any date from January. 1897, that 10,
from the time when he was nine years
and four months old-forty-twO and
. halfyears He has often been tested,
snd, so far as Mr.. Hcnkle's account
goes. had notfailed to tall his questionel
what day it WAS" and to give some
Information about the weather, and
about his own whereabouts and dOinSs
on any one Of the fifteen thousand q
more dates that might be named. Wher
Mr.. kenkle first met this man Of marv
elous memory, he was employed in the
Office Of Hon. I. X. Rukenbrod, editor
of the Salem Republicans. where moth
ing better could be found for Mozart.
new 10 do than ''turn the wheel of th!
printing-press on two days of eaef
week" On the first formal examina
ton this man underwent, his answer.