Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-25
VALUE OF A GOOD MEMORY.

VALUE OF A GOOD MEMORY. Men Who Neysr TerEss . Tale or Fact.
 wonderfnl mSmorinme.
 Phil Armour, the great Chicago pork packer, issaid to have fszhafked that good memory is nscsssary to ono who wiahes to succeed. There is no lack o1 evidence to sup port the statsment. Armour himsek Is an example of what . good memory can do.
 He is as wonderful in his line a Cardinal Mezzofanh was in hia He is sad to carry the smaAeGt detail of his immense buGines in his head. He can renember the dats as well as of small business transaetionA He knows the names of pretty nearly aIl of hts army of employea After the building of the .addi- ton to his great estab blishment In Chicago hs astonished circle of friends by rattling of hand the number of bricks, car 1oads of sand, feet of timber. etc, that were used in the construction Armourb gift is . natural ona Re has never cultivated 1t, but the do mands of his budnen have unqpestionAhly kept bis powers of msnoey in Actlvs training.
 "Old Hutch, r" as the imper turbabls Chicago wheat manipulater is called, is another man giftad with an extraordinary memory. He needs no books to carry his transactous in, although, of course, hs usss them. With him, too, rstenhvsness is natural gift He sSs~A>s~~ASsAo member, but says frankly he doesnt know how he does 1t. He also possesses the gift of not remembering things h. does not wish to remember. But then that gift is not rare
 The professional memory men say that among public men and speakers for good all around rstsntivenea James c. RAfks leads au tho rsst, for hs can not only remember dates, ngures and authorities when debating, but in addition he, has . faculty for remsm- rbsring names and faces that | little short of the marvsloua, and many are the stories told Ot his exploits in this line. .....-.
 In the domain of figures Samuel J. Ran daI, when well, stood almost pre eminent His long service on those committees in con gress that controlled the finances of the nation gave him an immense knowledge of such mat ters, which he retained without an effort. It was no uncommon thing for him to make long speeches without using notes. He jug Cled figures running at ono time into millions of dollars and then Into fractions of . cent without tripping as most men, however able, would have done It was tho same faculty that made Gladstone 50 successful . chancel- Tor of the English exchequer .....
 Roscoe Conkling WIS 8 man of wonderful memory. Whether dealing in figures in legal argument or quoting from tho early English poets, he called forth, seemingly with out enort and without previous thought, the right thing at tho right time
 Congresnnan Sam Cox has also a remarka- ble memory, especially for thine1 literary, and this has stood him in good stead in dc bate in congress, for his opponents never know whcn the genial jester k not about to double them up with something from Shake speare, the Koran, Burns, tho Bible or some old hymn book. It is to his memory alone 1t Is duo, and of course his Wfso study. that he Is able to do this in running fmpromptu de- bate
 Among actors a retentivs memory, or . 'good study" Is, of course, important But 1t Is not % necessary now in tho Hme of con- bination. when tho same company Pl.y' the samo piece for . season. In tho old days of stock companies it was common to present . farce, a comedy and tragedy al in one night, and to change tho bill nightly. A good memory was an absolute necessity. No actor can succeed without 1t, for 1t was no uncom- mon thing for play to be put on st few hours notice. Lester Wallsck, In his recol- lections of the stage, attributes much of his success to tho fact that he possessed . remark able memory.
 Edwin Forrest was 8 wonder in his prime. He would read over page of . book and at once recite 1t o6 hand He did 1t frequently for amusement az well as practice In his later years he lost this faculty to soms extent
 Tho elder Booth studied everything and re- membered everything that he studied The only language that he was unable to conquer was Russian. The great actor did learn French well enough to play in the French tragedy "Oresid, 1" in Now Orleans soma time in 1851, and to do 1t in French, too.-Phila- delphia Times.