The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1890-11-29
A NUMERICAL NOMAD.
Names Hum2l Algebra and Arith-
metic Wonder.


-
Figures, figures, figures. Such, writes
. Biddeford (Me.) correspondent of the
New York Herald, has been the steady
diet OF ono man in Maine, year in and
year out, for the past quarter OF cent
ury. He is 'Prof.' George S. McIntire,
and no one is better known to the citi-
zens OF Southwestern Maine than this
oft-encountered 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 leisurely
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,
moro 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. ~ 49,
t"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 a
constitution of iron he would never
have been able 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
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 tho rudimentary elements
OF mental arithmetic and the teacher
was Moses Wilson, long since passed to
the other shore. - ,,,tVes
} Pedagog1e Wilson determined to be-
come physician, and on the last day Of
his administration as teacher presented
young Mclntire with an old leather
covered algebra. The presentation of
the old algebra, yellow with age, vet
glowing with truths, marked the turn
ing point in McIntire's life. 1t became
the key to all tho mans future idiosyn-
crasies. Never before had George seen
book called an algebra, and when he
took 1T home he found his parents in
equal ignorance. 1t was beyond them. 4
Nevertheless, young McIltire was
soon knee deep among the KS US and
rs. 1t seemed strange to him that any
4 htx,fr INV, 10, I
those fragmentary characters, but the
moro he thought OF it the more it inter-
ested aim, and ere long he became
deeply infatuated with the study. His
parents tried to dissuade him from his
task, but uSmindful 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. $50
pMcIntire remained on the farm, doing
little else Chan figuring, until he was
well along in years. Once he ran away
from home and secured job in mill in
Saco, but he did not earn much, and
soon gave up the undertaking in order
to accept a job at painting in big
machine shop in Biddeford. The paint
had an ill-eirect upon his system, and
he wandered up to Buxton, where he
pushed tho shovel and hoe for one Benia-
min Grant. After a month of this
drudgery-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, some time in the early sixties.
Soon after McIntire came to Bidde-
ford he went to New York and took
steerage passage by the Nicaragua route
to San Francisco. On the passage out
ne fell in with French General who
happened to be on board, and was col
lege graduate. The man of Mars ex-
pressed much surprise at Georges re-
markable inroads upon the science Of
mathematics, and on one occasion dur
ing a 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 McIntire
sawed wood and did other odd jobs, but
he found it difficult to obtain liveli-
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
of diversion, to rehearse his mathe-
NAUTICAL studies. McIntire returned
from California by way of the isthmus
In 1866. ,,ssSSssatxn
Professor" was the title he now went
by in Maine. SO thoroughly absorbed
had,he become in the one study Of his
life that it had taken on form Of mon
omania. And to-day, outside the realm
Of figures, all the world is blank to
him. He declares that he likes the study
we'll enough to go without his natural
food, and this he has frequently done. He
has seldom eaten warm meal or slept
in bed during many years past. Much
Of the time he has slept in barns, some
times in old carts and not infrequent-
ly he has remained out Of doors all
night. At the present timo he is occu-
plying small room over store in this
city, bud nothing in the shape Of bed
stead adorns the room, the occupant Sc.
curing repose upon an old blanket
thrown upoa the floor. For years McIn-
tire has subsisted upon milk, bread and
fruit, which he purchases or begs in
small quantities at e time, going into
doorway or livery stable to enjoy
the frugal meal