Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-08-05
WONDERS OF MEMORY.
Both Idiots and Geniuses Ger
tainly Exhibit Them.

If "all great people have great
memories" as Sir Arthur Help declares
IN his delightful book entitled Social
Pressure, it by no means follows that
all those who are possessed of great
memorses are great people. Many an
instance might be cited to show that
men of very moderate intellectual ca
pacity may be endowed with power
of memory which is truly prodigous.
In addition to this, there are plenty of
well-authenticated examples of the
extraordinary power of memory dis
played even by idiots. In the Memoirs
of Mrs. Somerville there is a curious
account of a most extraordinary verbal
memory. There was an idiot in
Edinburgh" she tells us, ''of a respect
able family who had remarkable
memory. He never failed to 60 to the
kirk on Sunday; and on returning
home, could 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, 1--WE met with another idiot who
knew the Bible so perfectly, that if you
asked him where such a verse was to
be found, he could tell without hesita-
ton and repeat the chapter These
examples are sufficiently remarkable;
but what shall be said of the case cited
by Archdeacon Fearon in his valuable
pamphlet on Mental Vigour? "There
was in my fathers PARISH" says the
archdeacon, ga man who could remem-
Der the day when every person had
been buried in the parish for thirty-tive
years, and could repeat with unvarying
accuracy the name and age of the de-
ceased, with the mourners at the
funeral. But he was a complete fool.
Out of the line of burials, he had but
one idea, and could not give an intel
ligible reply to 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 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 he
possessed OF recollecting 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 oe-
CURED, he Immediately names it, and
also mentions where he was and what
was the state of the weather. A gen.
tleman who had kept diary put
l.:
swers were invariably correct"
OF a similar kind is the memory for
which Daniel NJ Cartney has become
famous in the United States. The
strange story of this mans achieve
ments Is told by MIR. Henkle in the
Journal of Speculative Philosophy
Mccartney, in 1869, declared that he
could remember the day of the week for
any date from January. 1927, that is.
from the time when he was nine years
and four. months old-forty-two and
q halfyears. He has often been tested,
and, SO far as Mr.. Henkle's account
goes, had not failed to tell his questioner
-.what day it was" and to give some
information about the weather, and
about his own whereabouts and doings
on any one of the fifteen thousand or
more dates that might be named. When
Mr.. Kenkle first met this man of marv-
elous memory, he was employed in the
Office of Hon. T. K R1Lenbrod, editor
of the Salem Republican,, where moth
ing better could be found for M'Cart-
ney to do than turn the wheel of the
printing-press on two days of each
week" On the first formal examine
zion this man underwent. his answers