Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1890-03-12
A NUMERICAL NOMAD.

diet OF one man in Maine, year in and
year out, for tho past quarter Of q cent
ury. He is "Prof" George S. McIntire,
and no one is better known to the citi-
zens OF Southwestern Maine than this
oft-encountercd person, with his little
tin pail and his armful of books. AL
most any day, be the weather what it
may, he may be seen sauntering 1eisurely
along the main thoroughfares or
crouched in some hallway upon door
step absorbed in the one great work of
his life, mathematics. He is not exactly
an intellectual tramp, but, perhaps,
more strictly, numerical nomad. His
is life wrapt up in figures-those dry,
abstract things, so cold, palpable and
undeniable. Only when delving in
them is his cup of happiness filled to
the brim.
"Prof." George S. McIntire was born
In the little settlement Of North Ken
nebunkport, Me-, on January 81, 1926.
lie sprang from good, hardy, Anglo
Saxon stock, and had he not inherited q
constitution OF iron he would never
have been able to Withstand the ordeal
through which he has passed; for in his
almlesS rambleS he has undergone
enough exposures and privations to
knock the underpinning out of a dozen
human frames. When quite young Nc
lntire was put at work upon the farm,
and at the age of sixteen was sent to
the village school. The curriculum of
the school, which was kept open only
during six weeks in winter, did not soar
higher than the rudimentary elements
OF mental arithmetic, and the teacher
was Moses Wilson, long since passed to
the other shore.
PedGgogue Wilson determined to be-
come a physician, and on the last day of
his administration as teacher presented
young Mclntire with an old leather
covered algebra. The presentation of
tho old algebra, yellow with age, vet
glowing with truths, marked the turn
ing point in McIntire's life. 1t became
the key TO all the mans future idiosyn-
crasies. Never before had George seen
book called an algebra, and when no
took 1T home he found his parents in
equal ignorance. 1t was beyond them.
Nevertheless, young McTAtire was
soon knee deep among the KS. VS. and
rs. 1t seemed strange to him that any
thing tangible could be resolved out of
those fragmentary characters, but the
moro he thought OF it the more it inter-
csted aim, and ere long no became
deeply infatuated with the study. His
parents tried to dissuade him from his
task, but, uamindful of their sugges-
tions, he absorbed chapter after chapter
OF the wonderful book, and neglected
farm work as often as he could steal
away into the more sequestered hooks
of the forest,
OMcIntire remained on the farm. DOING
little else chan figuring, until he was
we'll along in years. Once he ran away
from homo and secured job in o mill in
Saco, but he did not earn much, and
soon gave up the undertaking in order
TO accept job at painting in big
machine shop in Biddeford. The paint
had an ill-efFect upon his system, and
he wandered up to Buxton, where he
pushed the shovel and hoe for one Benia-
min Grant. After a month of this
drudgcry-for any thing was drudgery
outside OF mathematics for him he re-
turned to the old homestead, where he
remained series Of years until his par
ents died. Then he removed to Bidde-
ford, somo time in the carly Sixties"
Soon after McIntire came to Bidde-
ford he went to Now York and took
stecrage passage by the Nicaragua route
to San Francisco. On the passage out
he fell in with q French General who
happened to be on board, end was a col
lego graduate. The man of Mars OK
pressed much surprise at Georges re-
maritable inroads upon tho science of
mathematics, and on ono occasion dur-
ing protracted discussion of the SUBJ
jet, many of the ships passengers and
crow gathered about tho pair with
mingled feelings of pity and awe.
While in San Francisco McTntiro
sawed wood and did other odd jobs, but
no found 1T difficult to obtain liveli-
hood. Nevertheless, on evory pleasant
Sabbath ho went to tho Lono Mountain
battle-ground to dcciphcr the characters
on the grave-stones there, and, by way
of diversion, to rchoarse his mathe.
NAUTICAL studies. McIntiro returned
fy.,- -. . 4