The Sussex Republican., 1894-11-10
WONDERFUL BOYS.
Calculated Instantly the Number of ssa-
onds In Forfyleight Years.


There are of course many excellent
books which deal with boys In fiction,
and there are also actual biographies
which narrate what promising young
persons certain individuals were who in
after life achieved greatness, but in the
latter case the prophecy is made after
the event, and somehow or other the
youth thus eulogized has generally too
little of the boy about him to be4fuite
believed in. What venture to propose
is that some sympathetic writer should
tell us what boys have done" when
they were boys.
This is by no means SO small a matter
rs may be supposed.
There are of course the musical boys.
Handel, who at years old composed
church service for voices and instru-
ments every week" and at 10 brought
out three successful operas, and Mozart,
who also at o had reception in Lon
don ''such as the curious give to novel;
ty, the scientific to intelligence and
the great to what administers to stately
pleasure. At 10 he composed mass
for the dedication of the Church of the
Orphans at Vienna and acted as director
i'll person.
These were certainly boys who made
some noise in the world.
Then there were the calculating boys,
who, 1t is noteworthy, distinguished
themselves as Juveniles much more than
as grownups-Zerah Colburn, who as
tonished the scientific world of London
as child "by raising the number s
progressively up to the tenth power"
and whose mind was fertile soil for
cube roots when his contemporaries
were learning addition.
One gentleman, by way of side dish
during feast of figures, asked him how
many seconds there were in As years, and
before the question could be written
down he answered it correctly.
George Bidder made even this youth
take back seat for, at 10 years old,
when taken to the stock exchange, lie
was asked this little question, and an.
awered it in one minute: "If the PEN
Gulum of clock vibrates the distance
Of 924 inches in second, how many
inches will it yibrate in the course of 2
years Ia days 3 hours | minute Sc Sec
onds?''
Even with pencil and paper l know
persons, who shall be nameless, that
could not answer this in seven years
Then there was Chatterton, "the mar
velous boy, who perished in his pride, -
and in quite another line of business
Thomas Mall1in, who died not "a do
tard at z, :" but undeniably the greatest
scholar of his age. He was an "all
around" genius He knew more about
Greek at than some people, again
forbear to mention names, at IA.
At he made copies of some of
Raphael's heads so admirably that con-
noisseurs prophesied he would be great
artist. His most remarkable feat, how
ever, because it showed imaginative
powers of high order, was his descrip-
tion of a visionary country called Alle-
stone, of which he considered himself
king.
He wrote its history in number of
tales and letters and drew maps of it,
giving names of his own invention to
its mountains, rivers and seaports.
He was probably the most remarkable
boy, though indeed he was but child,
who ever lived.
The most excellent boy from the
financial point of view was, however,
William King West Betty,
better known as ''the young Roscius,''
who at l5 years of age retired from the
stage, having made something like $780,
100 for his family
Here was something like" boy,
hough, in fact. he was not in the least
ike one, and happy should be the father
Who has his quiver full of such. James
Pawn in London Illustrated News.