Morning journal and courier., 1889-06-12
A mATHEMATloAL WONDER.
Ignorant ola Tom CubbaRe and Eli Astonishins Feals with Figures.

Ignorant ola Tom Cubbaao and Ills
 Astonishing Fents With Figures.
 There died in Woodville, Va, some time ago one of the most remarkable characters the Blue Ridge country of Virginia ever pro- duced. Old Tom Cabbage, az he was known, was the mathematical wonder and the pride of the Blue Ridge people. His feats at fig ures and his calculations were indeed won derful, and like Blind Tom, the musical pro- dizzy, his powers were intuitive and innate. Old Tom did not know figure or letter, and never went to school for an hour in his life. He was g rough, ignorant and untu- tored native of the hills, and yet he could solve, almost in a moment, any problem read to him from the text books or from the pa pers and give the correct answer. He would add column of figures of any possible length, subtract, multiply or divide, and do 1t so quickly as to surprise the scholar who tested his remarkable powers.
 His answer sometimes will include dozen or more figures, and knowing absolutely nothing about the enumerating of them, he would give the figures, beginning at the right and if mistake had been made or a wrong figure purposely introduced by the person taking down his answer, old Tom would discover it at once and give the cor- rect one. He knew nothing of the notation of numbers, and his whole knowledge was limited to the giving of his answers, figure by figure, as fast as they could be written
  eduoations, 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 room meant, he would tell you he didn't know. No one knew the way old Tom did these things, in- deed, he could not tell you himself. He was simply sui generis, and the only one of his kind ever known to the people of the Blue Ridge.
 Old Tom went once to the University of
 Virginia upon the solicitation of some of his admirers, with view to his education there in his particular line, but after astonishing the professors by his great gifts, and having
 done all the sums given him by the students,
 he declined all proffers made him and re-
 turned to his hut in the Old Rag and to the
 company of his dogs and his rife.
 The greatest work of this strangely gifted man was the calculations and computations for hundred-year almanac, made entirely by himself and reduced to writing by one of his neighbors. This work was done by him mentally, and included all the eclipses, as we'll as changes in the moon, and was oalcu- lated specially for the part of the State in which he lived. It was never published, owing to the outbreak of the war st the time of it's completion, but those who have com \ pared the manuscript with other published | almanacs say it is perfectly correct one. How this unlettered man could understand l the movements of the earth and the heaven. \ ly bodies is the strangest of all his surpri. 1 sing achievements, and must remain one oi | the mysteries known only to him who crea. | ted man fearfully and wonderfully, anG breathed into him the spirit of life. On ons | occasion he was asked if he could tell tht
 contents of pile of brush, by some persoI who thought to rig him, and his reply | proved Old Tom to be st home where fgure \ were concerned.
 "Yes," said he, "put 1t in water and meas
 ure the water 1t displaces, and you will have !! the solid contents"
 His measurements of land by simply walk ing around it, no matter what it's shape, and making his own calculations, have been proved to be correct, and there are those who would take a survey made by Old Tom in preference to one made by regular sur veyor. Outside of his peculiar gift Old Tom ! Cabbage was 8 sad failure, and he died as he l had lIved-as poor and shiftless as his noun | tain neighbors. He did not even own the small piece of land upon which his hut wal
 built, save by the rights of squatter, anc | work to him was an unknown and unsolvet | quantity. Yet he was quiet and contsntet man, and was never better satisfied thai when copiously supplied with apple jack 0 mountain dew. He would do the sum give him by way of pay for the liquor.