Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1886-07-29
WONDERS OF MEMORY.
Doth Idiots and Geniuses Ger
tainly Exhibit Them.

If call great people have great
memories, as Sir Arthur Help declares
IN his delightful book entitled Sofia.
Pressure, it by no means follows that
all those who are possessed of great
mcmorses arc great people. Many an
instance might be cited to show that
men of very moderate intellectual ca
pacity may be endowed with pow or
of memory which is truly prodigous
In addition to this, there are plenty of
Northumberland examples of the
extraordinary power Of memory dis.
played even by idiots. In the Memoirs
of Mrs. SomerviIle there Is curious
account of most extraordinary verbal
memory. There was an idiot in
Edinburgh" she tells us, ..ofa respect
able famil., who had remarkable
memory. He never failed to 90 to the
kirk on Sunday; and on returning
ho:ne, could repeat the sermon, saying:
Here the minister coughed; here he
stopped to blow his nose During he
tour we made in the Highlands" she
adds, "wc 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-
ton and repeat the chapter These
examples are sufficiently remarkable;
but what shall be said of the case cited
by Arctdcacon Fearon in his valuable
paEphlet on Mental Vigour? There
was in my fathers PARISH" says the
sea /
Der the day when every person had
been buried in the parish for thirty-fivc
years, and could repeat with unvarying
accuracy the name and age of the de-
ceased, with the mourners at the
funersi. But he was complete fool.
Out of the line of burials, he had but
one idea, and could not give an intel
lligible reply 10 a single question, nor
be trusted to feed himself
These phenomenal instances may be
matched by the Sussex farn-laborer
George Watson. as we find recorded in
Hcnc's 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.
stance" says Hone. ''is 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 given day of the month oc-
CURED, he immediately names it, and
also mentions where he was and what
was the state of the weather. A gen
tieman who had kept diary put |,
many questions to him, and his an
swcrs were invariably correct
Of a similar kind is the memory for
which Daniel Mccartney has become
famous in the United States. The |
strange story of this mans achieve
ments Is told by Mr. Henkle in the
journal of Speculative PiioSOphn. |
Mccartney, i'm 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 |
half years. 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
MIR. kenkle first met this man of mary
elous memory, he was employed in the
Office of Hon. T. X. Rukenbrod, editor
of the Salem Republican, where moth
ing better could be found for M'Cart-
ncy to do than turn the wheel of the
printing-preSs on two days of each
week" On the first formal eXamina-
ton this man underwent, his answers
were tested by reference to the file of
newspaper which gave the day of the
week along with the date. In one case
his statement was disputed, for the day
he namc4 was not the same as that
given by the paper; but on further in
9uiry, it was found that the newspaper
was wrong. for the printer had made a
mistake. Shorthand notes of the con-
versation were taken at subsequent in
terviews. The report of these is very
curious reading. Take the following
as a sample: Observation-Disclosures s,
1928? Answer lin two seconds)-Wed-
nesday. 1t was cloudy and drizz!ed
rain. l carried dinner to my father
where he was getting out coal Cues