Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1889-03-22
A MATHEMATICAL WONDER.
IGNORANT OLD TOM CUBBAGR AND
HIS ASTONISHING FEATs
WITH FIGURES.

of Virginia ever produced. Old |
Tom Cubbage, as he was known,
was the mathematical W onder and |
the pride of the Blue Ridge people. |
His teats at figures and his calcu-
latiOns were indeed wonderful, and |
like Blind Tom, the musical prodi. !
gy, his powers we're intnitlve and
innate. Old Tom did not know a
figure or a letter and never went 10
school for an hour IN his life. He
was a rough, ignorant and untu-
tored native of the hills, and yet be
could solve, almost in a moment,
any problem read to him from the
xt-bOoks or from the papers and
give the correct answer. He would
add a column OF figures OF any pos
sible length, subtract, multiply or
divide, and do it so quickly as to
surprise the scholar who tested his
remarkable powers.
His answers sometimes would
include dozen or more figures,
knowing absolutely nothing about
the numeratiDg of them, he would
give the figures beginning at the
right, and if a mistake had been
made OF a wrong figure purposely
introduced by the person taking
down his answer old Tom would
discover it at once and give the
correct one. He knew nothing OF
the notation of numbers, and his
whole knowledge was limited to
the giving of his ans wers, figure by
figure, 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 prob
lens IN the books, and believe he
could give the correct answer to
any possible sum. Problems In
volYing square and cube roots, COM
pleting the square OF equations,
we're 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 generis, aud the only one of his
kind ever known to the people of
the Blue Ridge.
Old Tom went Cnce to the Uni
yersity of Virginia upon the solicl-
tat!on of some of his admirers, with
a view to his education there in his
particular line, but after astonlsh-
ing the professors by his gIeat gifts
and having done all the sums given
him by the students, he declined
all proffers made hip and returned
to his hut in the Old Rag and to
the company of his dogs and his
rife.
Tue greatest work of this strange
ly gifted man was the calculations
aud computations for a hundred
year almanac, made entirely by
himself and reduced to wiring by
one of his neighbors. This WORK
was done by him mentally, and ln
cluded all the eclipses as well as
changes of the moon, and was cal
culated specially for the part OF thu
State in which he lived. 1t wa'
never published owing to the out
break of the war at the time OF III
completion, but those who have
compared the manuscript will
other published almanacs say 1t II
a perfectly correct one.
How this unlettered man coull
understand the movements OF tht
earth aud the heavenly bodies II
the straugest of all his surprising
, achievements, and must remain on'
of the mysteries known only to Hin
r who created man fearfully and
wonderfully, and breatbed int
hlm the spirit of life. On one oc
, casion he was asked if he could tel
, the contents of a pile OF brush b!
some person who thought to RI!
him, and his reply proved Old Ton
. 10 be at home where figures wer'
concerned.
8 "Yes,r said he. "put it in waite
i aud measure the water it displace
aud you will have the solid con
tents"
His measurement of land by sim
}. ply walking around il, no matte
y what its shape, and making i'll
s own calculations, havh been prove'
$ to be correct, and there are thos
who would take survey made b,
, Old Tom in prefere nee to one mad
by compass aud regular surveyor
: Outside of his peculiar gift, Ol
Il Tom Cubbage was a sad failure
Il and he died as he had lived-a
: poor and shiftless as his mountal
5 neighbors. lie did not even ow
i the small piece Of land upon whlc
J. his hut was built, save by th
J. rights of a squatter, and work t
him was an un known and an III
:, solye quantity. Yet be was
: quiet and a contented man, an
was never better satisfied tha
when copiodsly supplied with al
nlaiaok Or mountain dew, Ill