Morning journal and courier., 1891-03-16

esper ially remarkable in that. As the boy. grew older l used to take him occasionally with me to my office, and he took great de- llSht ln seeing the trains of cars % by the window. He soon began To repeat the numbers of the cars, and the faculty of re membering the numbers that he sees that way has developed to what some think an astonishing point. He will not only re member the numbers of each car in long train, but he will keep them in perfect or der and remember the initial letters in the names of the railroad company that each car belonged to-"
 The boy was called to give an illustra- tion of his remarkable faculty in that di rection and he reeled off long lists of car numbers from memory as a car accountant would read from his record. Thenumbers did not come glibly in any parrot-like fash lon There seemed to be some rather com Plleated mental process by which the prop CT numbers were arrived al, but the boy could offer no explanation of it. He "iust remembered, that is all" He would re- peat the list of numbers forward or back ward, and if any number was given him he would tell the number of the car in front and behind that
 A few days ago he extended his visit from his fathers office to the telegraph op- orator in the switchman's tower house. After an hour spent their he had perfectly mastered the telegraph alphabet. With a button hook tished out of pocket that contained the usual varied assortment that boy pocket is apt to be filled with he lmprovised on the window sill telegraph key, and would tap of the dots and dashes for any letter called for with the accuracy and rapidity of an old operator.
 The boys faculty for remembering fig ures has been turned to more useful ac- count than the memorizing of long lists of car numbers, however. While hls parents have made no effort at all to induce him to memorize anything-in fact. rather discouraging it-he has of his own accord in his reading picked up and fixed ln his mind vast number of such facts as every one goes to the cyclopedia for In geography he will tell the area in square miles and the population of about ali the countries of the world, coleection of fig ures alone which his power of memory has run riot. Astronomical statistics he can talk off as an ordinary child would prattle about his playthings
 'un Neptune a year is 60, 127 days long Muuldn'l that seem funnyF' he said. q don't want to go there. When I move away from here I'm going to Mercury. They have year there every S7. 9693 days Just thlnk of that q Christmas every SS days" and the eight-year- looked at the small pile of blocks he had left with which to complete that twenty-s.oried Masonic temple, and seemed to think that another Christmas, with further supply of build ing material in the shape of more blocks, was absolutely necessary.
 Another peculiarity of this boys mind is the way in which he will arrive at arithme- tical conclusions without apparently going through any process of calculating to get there. If one tells the day and the year of his birth to the lad. for instance. he will immediately tell you how old you are What is more lie will remember it He has as much information of that kind stored away as there is in the family record pages of the neighborhood bibles.
 No effort has been made to develop this faculty of arithmetical calculation, the boy's parents preferring rather to restrain him from anything that would seem like a mental tax. His memorizing of figures seems purely pastime. While at play he will rattle off long lists of figures and sta tistics as a child would fairy tales. If his faculty for ari;llnetical calculation deve- lops, as seems quite probable, it is not i'm possible that this lad, with the aid uf his astonishing memory, will become a mental prodigy.