Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-18
q. DON'T REMEMBER. .
Results of Mental Training in this Direc.
ton Exemplifled.
Phil Armour, "0ld Hutch" John stetsOn, James
G. Blaine, Sam Randall, All Have
Retentive Minds.
payid weloher in kansas citv Times.

persons who are positively coming money
from their profession. There are several
professors in New York who are overrun
with pupils who wish TO improve defective
memories and who are willing to pay the
person who will supply the method.
Each of these professors has a system of
his own and each of them savagely in
sists that his is the only sure system.
Phil Armour, the great Chicago pork
packer, is said TO have remarked that
2 good memory is necessary to one VINO
wishes to succeed. This is perhaps trife
strong, and yet there is no lack Of evil
dence 20 support the statement. Ar
Ihour himself is an example of what a
good memory can do.
He is as wonderful in his time as Car
dinal Merchant was in his. He is said
to carry the smallest detail of his inn
mense business in his head. He can re-
member the date of small as well as
large business transactions. He knows
the names of pretty nearly all of
his army of employees. After the build
ing of the addition to his great establish
nent in Chicago he astonished a circle of
friends by rafting finland the number
of bricks, carloads of sand feet of tim
Der, etc. that were used in the con-
structlon. Armour's gift is natural
one. He has never cultivated it, but the
demands of his business have uquestiona-
bly, kept his powers of memory in active
training.
''OId Hutch, - as the fmperturbable
Chicago wheat manipulation is called, is
another man gifted with an extra
ordinary memory. He needs no books to
carry his transactions in, although, of
course, he uses them With him, too,
reteDtiveness is a natural gift. He re-
members everything he wants to remem-
Der, but says frankly he doesn't know
how he does It. He also possesses the
gift of not remembering things he does
not wish to remember. But then that
gift Is not rare.
In another line of business is John
Stetson, the famous theatrical manager.
Many funny stories are told at the eX-
pense CT the bluff Bostonian, but that ne
is one of the most successful men in his
line of business cannot be disputed. He
runs newspaper and always has a few
theaters or Theatrical companies on his
hands, and there IS no one who can make
better use Of it than John Stetson. 1t is
said that if he were to burn hIS books he
could carry on his business without them
This is too much 30 believe, Of course,
but it certainly Is true that pretty nearly
every detail Of his business is carried m
his memory, and that he is able to so
carry 1t is sometimes of vast assistance to
him.
Most of New York 5 successful men
have good memories. There are coed
many men who wish that of Jay Gould
was not so good.
The professional memory men say that
among public men and speakers for good
all-aTOund Fetentiyeness James q Blaine
leads all the rest, for he can not only re-
member dates, figures and authorities
when debating, but in addition he has a
faculty for remembering names and faces
that is little short of the marvellous, and
many are the stories told of his exploits
III this line.
In the domain of figures, Samuel J
Randall when well stood almost pre-
eminent, His long service on those COM
mittees in congress that controlled the
finances of the nation gave him an i'm
mense know ledge of such matters, which
he retained without an effort. 1t was no
uncommon thing for him to make long
speeches without using notes. He Jug
gled figures running at one time into
millions of dollars and then into fractions
of cent without tripping, as most men,
however able, would have done Il was
the same faculty that made Gladstone so
successful a chancellor of the English
exchequer.
Congressman Sam Cox has also re-
markahle memory, especially for things
literary and this has stood him in good
stead in debate III congress, for his OPP
ponents never know when the genial
jester is not about to double them up
NI,fr
Koran, Bobby Burns, the Bible, or some
old hymn book. 1t is to his memory
alone it il due-and of course his wide
stady-that he is able TO do this in run
ming impromptu debate. 1t is charged
that his memory trips sometimes.
Henry George can quote political econ
omists of the past and present by the
yard without reference 10 their books,
and his One-time friend, Or. McGlynn,
has an almost equally good memory Dr.
Talmage goes around continually with
few sermons, lecture or two, and prob
ably magazine article in his head, but
his memory is such that he stores each
away in some subdivision and they come
ont all right. These men frankly admit
that good memory is invaluable
Among actors retentiVe molnory, or
q ''good study - as the veteran assist
ant secretary OF the actors IulQ ben
Baker, has it, is invaluable. But it is
not so necessary now in the time of COM
binatiOns, when the same company plays
the same piece for q season. In the old
days of the stock company it was COM
mon TO present farce, a comedy and
tragedy all in one night, and TO change
the bill nightly a good memory was an
absolute necessity. No actor can sue
coed without it, but it was no uncommon
thing for play to be put on at few
hours notice.
Edwin Forrest was wonder in his
prime, He would read over page of
book and at once recite it off-hand. He
did it frequently for amusement as wei
rs practice. In his later years he lost
this faculty TO some extent.
The elder Booth studied everything and
remembered everything that he studied
The only language that he was unable to
conquer was Russian. He tried hard,
Though and veteran Baker laughs as he
tells how Booth used to put cork in his
mouth that il might enable him TO pro-
nounce unpFanounceable Russian words.
But il didn't.
Thomas L. Hamblin, who IN his time
played anything from farce to tragedy;
John Brougham, as happy John Drew;