Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-11-01
SOME WONDERFUL Rows
Mental Feats Performed by Pre-.
cociOus Youths.

sr'eious Mental Feats Performed by Pre-.
cocious Youths.
mere are OF course. many excellent
ooohs whlch deal with boys in fiction,
anu there are also actual biographies
when narrate what promising young
persons certain individuals were who
IN a1ter life achieved greatness, but in
'ne iatter case the prophecy is made
aIter the event, and somehow or other
the youth thus eulogized has generally
100 little OF the boy about him to be
quite oelleved in. What 1 venture to
propose Is that some sympathetic
writer should tell US "what bows have
done when they were boys.
Inns Is by no means SO small a mat
ter as may be supposed.
Ihere are, of course, the musical
Boys. handel, who at nine years old
composed church service for voices
ana instruments every week." and at
h1teen brought out three successful
operas, and Mozart, who also at nine
had a reception in London s.such as
the curious give to novelty, the scien-
tine to intelligence. and the great to
"hat administers to stately pleasure:"
at ten he composed a mass for the
dedication of the church of the or
phans at Vienna, and acted as director
in person"
These were certainly boys who made
some noise in the world.
Then there were the calculating
ooys-who, it is noteworthy, distin-
gulshed themselves as juveniles much
more than as grown-ups-Zerah Col
burn, who astonished the scientific
world of London as child ''by raising
the number eight progressively up to
the tenth power" and whose mind was
a fertile soil for cube roots when his
contemporaries were learning addi-
ton.
One gentleman, by way of a side dish
during a feast of figures, asked him
how many seconds there were in forty
eight years, and before the question
could be written down he answered if
correctly.
George Bidder made even this youth
take back seat, for at twelve wears
old, when taken to the stock exchange.
he was asked this little question, and
answered it in one minute: ssIf the peD.
dulum of a clock vibrates the distance
of nine and three-fourth inches in
second, how many inches will it vibrate
in the course of seven years fourteen
days two hours one minute fifty-six
seconds?'
Even with pencil and paper 1 know
persons (who shall be nameless) that
could not answer this in seven years.
Then there was Chatterton, sthe mar
velous boy, who perished in his PRIDE
and in quite another line of business
Thomas Malkin, who died not "a dotard
at seven," but undeniably the greatest
scholar of his age. He was an ALI
around" genius. He knew more about
e Greek at four than some people again
/ forbear to mention names) at four
teen.
At five he made copies of some of
Raphaefs heads SO admirably that con-
noisseurs prophesied he would be a
great artist. His most remarkable
feat, however, because it showed i'm
aginative powers of a high order, was
his description of a visionary country
called Allestone, of which he consid-
cred himself king.
He wrote its history in a number of
tales and letter, and drew maps of it,
giving names of his own invention to
its mountains, rivers and seaports.
He was probably the most remark
able boy-thOugh, indeed, he was but
= a child-who ever lived.
The most excellent boy from the
financial point of view was. however,
undoubtedly, William King West
Betty, better known as 1.-The young
Roscius," who at fifteen years of age
retired from the stage, having made
something like thirty thousand pounds
for his family.
Here was ''something like" boy
though, in fact, he was not in the
least like one-and happy should be
the father who has his culver full of
.such.-James Payn, in Illustrated Lon
don News.