The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-15
QUEER AIDS TO MEMORY.
Some of the Remarkable Devices Used
By Men to Stimulate Recol lection.
From the st. Louis Post Dispatch.


From the St. Louis Post Dispatch.
There arc probably nine out of every ten
persons in the world who have at some
period in their lives suffered from tempo
rary loss of memory. How many of you
labor vainly at times to recall the name,
for instance, of a certain person, place, or
thing! And how many of you have had
your memories quickened by the sight of
some object-animate or inanimate-con-
nected, perhaps remotely, with the thing,
place or pers N you have been talking, or
trying to talk, about!
How often have you been told that "your
face is familiar. but for the life of me |
can't recall your nance
This lapse of memory is peculiar to no one
condition in life. The greatest and the
huIubest are alike subject to it. But it is
more marked and frequent in those whose
minds are occupied with those vacations in
private and public life that call for inces-
SAINT study and FRAMEWORK.
1t is in these cases-where the brain does
duty as a library and storehouse for statis-
tics and is crammed with the minutest de-
tails of many and great undertakings-tha
the memory most often fails, and usually
when the demand upon it is more than
ordinarily simple one.
Here is case in point:
A gentleman residing not many miles
from New York CITY, whose inventions have
been praised in all civilized parts of the
world, can not, if suddenly asked to do it,
tell you his wife's christian name. He has
time and again, when wishing to address
her, been secretly annoyed by his inability
to remember her name, and yet there are
few husbands who think more of their
wives than he does Of his. Not long ago the
lady presented him with a handsome gold
oh nd ir1a
n great comfort TO him-Dot because of its
intrinsic worth and beauty, but for another
reason. He accidentally discovered at
time when he wanted to call his wife and
his memory tricked him that by simply
looking at the watch she had given him lie
could pronounce her name gibly and with
out difficulty.
During a recent visit to him l observed
that when speaking directly to the lady he
invarbly produced this watch. | COM
mented upon the oddity of the action aud
he told me his reason for it, loosely adding
that it would never do to make the story
public. as it might occasion an alarming in
crease in the number of absent-minded hus-
bands.
Another of these by no means rare in
stances of inanimate objects acting as subtle
but unaccountabie guides for the memory
came under my personal observation some
years ago. 1t was during the progress of
murder trial in the Bexar county court as
San Antonio, Tex. There were several at
torneys on the side of the prosecution,
while the defense had retained but one
Col. John A. Baker, who was one of the
state delegates to the Paris exposition from
Texas, and who married French countess
while abroad. Col. Baker had already won
an enviable reputation as criminal law
yer in southwestern Texas, but | remember
in this instance it was generally thought he
oNnba ID hxrN ha arraN of ngal
on the other side. / was ordered to report
the proceedings and sat at the same table
with the counsel in the case. Throughout
the trial, during the opening addresses, and
the examination Of witnesses, and the sum-
ming up, Col. Baker never took note; but
| observed every now and then during the
proceedings that he folded or otherwise
marked the pages of book which lay be-
fore him on the counsel table. When he
closed the case for the defense Col. Baker
went over the arguments of the prosecution,
quoted some parts of them literally, and &C
tually knocked their combined logic into
cooked hat The evidence was purely cir
cumstantial, though strong, aud while going
over IL and the addresses of the opposing
counsel Col. Baker kept his hand on the
book he had marked, though never once did
he raise the volume from the table. But he
did turn the pages and smooth them out
one after another, as he raised point, after
point the creases he had made in the leaves.
"What wonderful memory that man
has" whispered the prisoner to me.
Iagreed with him. The prisoner was ac
Quilted. After the trial went up to the
colonel aud asked him how he had managed
to quote so extensively from the arguments
and tue evidence without taking not 8.
"But / did take notes" said he. Here
they are" And he opened what had sup
posed was a tome Of legal lore, but which
In reality proved to be Shakespeare and
showed me tho creased pages "As things
cropped out that seemed tome weak or in
consistent in the evidence or the argu-
ments." said he, 81 turned down page for
each. Ia tho order Of its occurrences. When
IL came time to show them up simply
placed my hand on each page in rotation,
aud the Inconsistency or error each was
marked for stood out as clear to my minds
eve as though written in chalk on a black-
board before me. 1 can't explain how or
why IL is. but IL all comes back to me as
soon as my hand touches the. pages l mark
| never write out my notes.
''Wouldn't your memory prove as reten-
tive. y asked, without marking the pages