The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1891-03-14
A MATHEMATICAL PRODIGY.
The Remarkable Talent Of n Half witted
Negro COuntryman.

Negro NOuhlV9ulans
Reuben Field the mathematical pro-
! dizzy Of Lexington, who has attracted SO
much attention, was born at Warrens-
/ burg, johnson county. about thirty years
| ago. and possesses only slightly better
intellectual faculties than Blind Tom"
"Ruebg" gift is made the more promi-
nert by the barrenness of his mind in
otlcr features. He has no intelligence
aside from his remarkable manipulation
Of figures. Give Reuben Field problem,
no matter whether it be in decimal. COM
pound or vulgar fractions it makes no
difference whether it Is letter suited TO
the rules Of short than long division; it
is immaterial whether there are ten fig
ures or 200 in it; whether multiplication
or substraction and he will, without the
aid Of paper or pencil, give you the
1 answer before the echoes Of your voice
in propounding the question have fully
died away lie cannot read: he cannot
write He does not know one figure
from another, and yet mentally, by the
gift which he possesses, he can solve any
problem submitted to him. AS Blind
Toms talent of repeating pieces of music
played in his presence for the first time by
many of the most brilliant performers in
the country has been tested. and always
with the result of making more wonder
full his great gift, so have learned math-
ematicians tried to trap Field, but with
out success To give him d problem
which one himself could not solve
would not determine whether he was
right or wrong, and lest errors might be
made the most difficult examples" in
the higher arithmetics, as well as others,
originating with their questioner and
simple enough except for their long
array of figures, have been hurled at
him. and quick as flash would come
his answer always correct.
Give him the diameter of the wheel Of
a locomotive. and the distance between
any two points-it makes no difference
how great-the time spent in traversing
this distance, and you have hardly
ceased speaking before he gives you the
number of revolutions the wheel makes
in covering the distance. Give him the
distance and the time and he will tell
you the diameter of the wheel Tell him
| the dimensions of brick, and say to him
| a wall is so many feet long, SO many
high and so many thick, and he promptly
tells you how many bricks are in the
! wall. NOI III leIRlu VI
time, as though calculating it, but in
stantly, and while skilled accountants
who have witnessed his feats have ques-
toned the correctness of his answers,
they have found they were in error and
Reub was right whenever they did so.
Tell him to multiply 9S9S, TAG, ,322, 1856 by
/ 73, add S9,512 and divide by 60, and in
( less time than the reader can calculate it
Reub will have the answer ready. These
figures are only used as an illustration,
but they are simplicity in its purest
form compared to some submitted to
him. He las gray eyes, and, when not
engaged in exhibiting his strange gift,
! they are entirely free of expression, as
though they were of'dead glass; but have
him in the excitement of figures and a
strange glitter-something little short of
an expression Of madnesS-lights them
up. The strangest of this half witted
! fellows accomplishments is that, awak-
ened at any hour, he will tell you the
time to a second. He does not make a
business of exhibiting his power, and it
is not always that those who are most
kind to him, and whom he knows best,
can persuade him to "show Off" He
says his power came from God, and, if
he accepted offers which had been made
to him to travel with showmen, or to
take employment in large business
houses, God would take his gift away
Lexington (Mo.) Cor. Globe-Democrat.