Tombstone epitaph., 1890-04-19
A NUMERICAL NOMAD.
Maine's Human Algebra and Arith-
 metic Wonder.
A Queer Genius Who for Many Years Has Lived on Steady Dict of Figures-His Remarkable I1roads on the Sci-
 enco Of Mathematics.

Figures, ngurcS, figures. Sucn, WrlGeS | a Biddeford (Me.) correspondent of tho | New York Herald, has been the steady l diet of ono man in Maine, year in and | year out, for tho past quarter of a cont urv. He is Prof George s. McIntire, | and no one is potter known to the citi- zens of Southwestern Maine than this 1 oft-encounterod person, with his little | tin pail and his armful of books. AL | most any day, be the weather what it may, he may bo seen sauntcring leisurely along the main thoroughfarcs or crouched in some hallway upon door stop absorbed in the one great work of his life, mathematics. He is not exactly an intellectual tramp, but, perhaps, moro strictly, a numerical nomad. His is life wrapt up in fgures-those dry, abstract things, so cold, palpable and undeniable. Only when delvirg in them is his cup of happiness filled to ] the brim.
 Prof" George s. McIntire was born in tho little settlement of North Ken uebunkport, Me, on January 31, 1926. | lie spralg from good, hardy, Anglo | Saxon stock, and had he not inherited a | constitution of iron he would never havo been ablo to withstand the ordeal through which he has passed; for in his aimless rambles he has undergone enough exposures and privations to | knock the underpinning out of dozen l human frames. When quite young Me Intiro 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 rudimontary elements i of mental arithmetic, and tho teacher was Moses Wilson, long since passed to the other shorc.
 Pedugogue Wilson determined to be- come physician, and on the last day of his administration as teacher presented young EIcIntire with an old leather covered algebra. Tho presentation of tho old algebra, yellow with age, yet glowing with truths, marked the turn ing point in NCIntire's life. It became te key to all tho man s future idiosyn- crasics. Never before had George seen Q book called an algebra, and when ho took it home he found his parents in equal ignorance. It was beyond them.
 Nevertheless, yoUrg McIAtire was soon kneo deep among the KS. y's and z's. It seemed strange to him that any thing tangible could be resolved out of thoso fragmcntary characters, b. the moro he thought of it the more it inter- cste6 &-m, 1 ere long he became deeply infatuated with tle study. His parents tried to dissuade him from his task, but, Uc<-lindful of their sugges- tion9, he absorbed chapter after chapter of the wonderful book, and neglected farm work as often Gs he could steal away into the more sequestered hooks of the forest.
 ONIcIntire remained on the farm, doing little else ohan figuring, until he was well along in years. Once he ran away from home and secured a job in a mill in Saco, but he did not earn much, and soon gave up the undertaking in order to accept Q job at painting in big machine shop in Biddeford. The paint had an ill-eGect upon his system, and he wandered up to Buxton, where he pushed the shovel and hoe for one Benja- min Grant. After a month of this drudgory-for any thing was drudgery
 outside of mathematics for him-h re-
 turned to the old homestead, where he
 remained a series of years until his par
 cnts died. Then he removed to Bidde-
 ford, some time in the early sixties"
 Soon after McIntire came to Bidde-
 ford he went to New York and took
 GCeerage passage by the Nicaragua route
 to San Francisco. On the passage out
 he fell in with a French General who
 happened to be on board, and was a col
 lege graduate. The man of IIars ex
 pressed much surprise at Georges re-
 markable inroads upon the science of mathematics, and on one occasion dur ing protracted discussion of the sub-
 ject, many of the ships passengers and crew gathered about the pair with
 mingled feelings of pity and awe. While in San Francisco McTntire
 sawed wood and did other odd jobs, but
 he found it difficult to obtain a livali-
 hood. Nevertheless, on every pleasant
 Sabbath he went to the Lone Mountain
 battle-ground to decipher the characters on the grave-stOnes there, and, by way
 O1 ulNCIS4Olls OO LCAlSdi oO l44o ll4eNOlAC , .natical studies. Mcintire returned [ from California by way of the isthmus in 1866.
 Professor was the title he now went
 by in Maine. So thoroughly absorbed . had he become in the one study of his 7 life thatit had taken on form of mon ) omania. And to-day, outside tho realm l of figures, an the world is Q blank to { him. Ee declares that he likes the study t wei enough to go without his natural : food, and this he ehasfroquentlyd dore. He
 has seldom eaten . warm meal or slept 5 in bed during many years past. Much of tho time he has slept in barns, sone- , times in old carts ,.ld not lnfrequent- . " no has remained out of doors a! t night At the prcscLt t4E1c he is occu- ? pying small room over 9 Store in this i city, L',s nothing in tho shape of bed p stead adorns tho room, the occupant se-
 curing rcposo upon a1 old blanket
 thrown upcN tho floor. For years MeIn-
 tiro l23 subsistCd Upon rn4Ik, bread and I frrit, which ho purchases or bcg9 in l Graal quantities at z time, going into l c doorway or q livery sUAble to enjoy s tho frugal meal.
 Nr3. V=ndcrbIt's Necklace.
 r-bo c;,,oOr1 and ,Co-1 7Ncl-1of,a Ivor-1