Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1889-03-21
ANATHEMATICAL PRODIGY.
Remarkable Talent Of . Half Witted
COuntryman.

Countryman.
Reuben Field, the mathematical
prodigy of Lexington, who has attracted
so much attention of late, was born in
Warrensburg, johnson County, about
thirty years ago, and possessed only
slightly better intellectual faculties than
Blind Tom. ~Reub's' gift is made
the more prominent by the barrenness
of his mind in other features. He has
no intelligence aside from his remark
able manipulation of figures. Give
Reuben Field a problem, no matter
whether it be decimal, compound. or
vulgar fractions; it makes no difference
whether it is better suited to the rules
of short than long division; it is imma-
terial whether there are ten figures or
700 in it; whether multiplication or
subtraction; and he will, without the
aid of paper or pencil, give you the an
swer before the echoes of your voice in
propounding the question have fully
died away. He cannot read he cannot
write. He does not know one figure
from another, and yet mentally, by the
gift which he possesses, he can solve
any problem submitted to him. As
blind Toms talent of repeating pieces
of music played in his presence for the
first time by many of the most brilliant
performers in the country has been
tested, and always with the result of
making more wonderful his great gift,
SO have learned mathematicians tried to
trap Field, but without success. To
give him problem which one himself
could not solve would not determine
whether he was right or wrong, and lest
errors might be made most difficult
examples" in the higher arithmetics as
well as others, originating with their
questioner and simple enough except
for their long array Of figures. have
been hurled at him, and quick as
flash would come his answer always
correct.
Give him the diameter of the wheel
of locomotive and the distance be-
tween any two points-it makes no
difference how great-the time spent in
traversing this distance, and you have
hardly ceased speaking before he gives
you the number of revolutions the
wheel makes in covering the distance.
Give him the distance and the time and
he will tell you the diameter of the
wheel. Tell him the dimensions of a
brick, and say to him wall is so many
feet long, so many high, and so many
thick, and he promptly tells you how
many bricks are in the wall. Not in a
reasonable length of time, as though
calculating, but instantly, and while
skilled accountants who have witnessed
his feats have questioned the correctness
of his answers, they have found they
were in error and Field was right when
ever they did so. Tell him to multiply
1898, TAG, 800, 156 by 73, add SO, SO, and
divide by 60, and in less time than the
reader can calculate it Reub will have
the answer ready. These figures are
only used as an illustration, but they are
simplicity in its purest form compared
to some submitted to him. He has gray
eyes, and when not engaged in exhibit
ing his strange gift they are entirely
free of expression, as though they were
of dead glass. but have him in the ex-
element of figures and a strange glitter,
something little short of an expression
of madness. lights them up. The
strangest of this half-witted fellows ac-
complishments is that awakened at any
hour he will tell you the time to sec
ond. He does not make business of
exhibiting his power, and it is not al
ways that those who are most kind to
him and whom he knows best can per-
suade him to "show off" He SAYS his
power came from God, and if he ac-
copied offers which had been made to
him to travel with showmen or to take
employment in large business houses
God would take the gift away.-St.
Louis GlObe-DemOcrdt