The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-04-10
A MATHEMATICAL WONDER.
Astonishing Feats With Figures Performed
by an Ignorant Southern Negro.
II Y Wnrla


There died some time ago one OF the most re.
markable characters the Blue Ridge country of
Virginia ever produced. Old Tom Cubbage, as
he was known, was the mathematical wonder
and the pride of the Blue Ridge people. His
feats at figures and his calculations were indeed
wonderful, and like Blind Tom, the musical
prodigy, his powers were intuitive and innate
Old Tom did not know a figure or q letter, and
never went 10 school for an hour in his life. He
was rough, ignorant and untutOred native OF
the hills and yet he could solve, almost in g
moment, any problem read 10 him from the
textbooks or from the papers and give the cor
rect answer. DE would add a column OF fgures
OF any possible length, subtract multiply or
divide, and do il quickly as 10 surprise the
scholar who tested his remarkable powers.
His answers sometimes included G dozen
or more figures, and knowing absolutely moth
ing about the numerating Of them he would
give the figures beginning at the right and if q
mistake had been made or wrong figure intro
duced by the person taking down his answer.
old Tom would discover il at once and give the
correct one. He knew nothing of the notation
Of numbers, and his whole knowledge was linn
tied 10 the giving of his answers. figure by fg-
ure, as fast as they could be written from the
right TO the left. Persons of fair education.
who tested old Tom, say they could never
stump him, though they hunted for the most
difficult problems in the books, and believe he
could give the correct answer TO any possible
sum. Problems involving square and cube
roots, completing the square OF equations, were,
as readily solved by him as simple addition,
and yet were you to ask him what cube root
meant he would tell you he didn't know. No
one knew the way old Tom did these things.
Indeed he could not tell you himself He was
simply sui gefleris, and the only one of his kind
ever known to the people of the Blue Ridge.
Old Tom went once 10 the university of Win
ginia upon the solicitation OF some of his ad.
mlrers with view to his education there in his
particular line but after astonishing the profes-
sors by his great gifts and having done all the
sums given him by the students he declined all
proherS made him and returned to his hut in
the Old Rag and TO the company OF his dogs
and his rifle.
The greatest work of this strangely gifted
man was the calculations and computations for
a hundred-year almanac made entirely by him.
self and reduced to writing by one of his neigh
bOrs. This work was done by him mentally
and included all the eclipses as we'll as changes
of the moon, and was calculated specially for
the part OF the state in which he lived. 1t was
never published, owing to the outbreak of the
war at the time of its completion, but those
who have compared the manuscript with other
published almanacs say it is a perfectly correct
one.
How this unlettered man could understand
the movements of the earth and the heavenly
bodies is the strangest of all his surprising
achievements, and must remain one OF the mys-
teries known only to Him who created man,
fearfully and wonderfully, and breathed into
him the spirit of life. On one occasion he was
asked If he could tell the contents OF pile OF
brush by some person who thought TO rig him,
and his reply proved Old Tom to be at home
where figures were concerned.
EYES," said he, put it in water and measure
the water it displaces and you viii have the
solid contents"
His measurement of land by simply walking
around it. no matter what its shape, and max
ing his own calculations, has been proved to
be correct and there are those who would take
a survey made by Old Tom in preference to one
made by compass and a regular surveyor. Out
side of his peculiar gift, Old Tom Cubhage was
a sad failure, and he died as he lived-as poor
and shiftless as his mountain neighbOrs. He
did not even own the small piece of land upon
which his hut was built, save by the rights OF q
squatter, and work 10 him was an unknown
and an Unsolved quantity Yet he was a quiet
and a cOntented man, and was never better sat
isfed than when copiously supplied with apple
jack and mountain dew. He would do the sum
given him by way of pay for the liquor.