Omaha daily bee., 1895-11-24
WELL DEvELOPED FACULTIES.
Marvellous Powers of IA Country Youth
in New York.

| Marvellous Powers of a Country YOutl
| in New York.
A remarkable case of human senstivenes!
is that of Clarence Barton Is years old, SOL
Of sturdy country parents, who
lives some five miles northeast ol
| Rodman village and twelve miles
| east of Watertown, N. Y. His sense of feel.
| Gays the New York Herald are marvelousy
| developed.
| A pin scratch will cause him to faint
away from pain; half dozen sour grapes
or sour apple or an orange that is not
positively fresh, II eaten by the boy will rem
der him perceptibly intoxicated; his sight is
so remarkably keen that he can at once dis
tinguish separate characteristics and pc
culiarites in similar objects which an or
dinary observer would utterly fail to dis
cover; his sense Of smell is so acute that if
vessels of water from a dozen different
springs in the neighborhood are submitted
to him he can Immediately tell by smelling
each in turn what spring 1t was brought
from, tell which is the most strongly i'm
presnated with iron, which with magnesia,
which with alum, ETC., although to the COM
mon individual there is no perceptible differ
ence even in the taste Of these waters; his
sense Of hearing is most acute, and while
rot particularly nervous, as one might sup
pose SO delicately organized child would
be, there are some seemingly trivial things
which are almost unbearable to his sensitive
ears.
The tick OF a watch the buzzing OF a bee,
the patter of raindrops ard the squeaking
Of door upon rusty hinges are among these
annoyances. Loud or sudden noises, as OF
guns, blasting, ETC., he does not mind. His
sense of taste Is no less acute than his other
senses. Food has to be especially seasoned
for him, and is prepared in vessels which
must be scrupulously free of the falntest
trace OF anything but the substance or artl-
cid which 1t is Intended each vessel is to be
particularly used for. Thus each article OF
food has TO be separately prepared In YES
sci In which nothing else has been previously
cooked or prepared.
The slightest quantity Of salt, pepper, spice,
sugar. or OF vinegar, etc., is SUFFICIENT for his
needs. A single drop OF alcoholic spirits in
a gallon of water would at once be detected
by the boy.
Adams is the railroad station nearest to
Rodman village. A mile or SO west Of Adams
is the large seed farm and barns OF T. V.
Maxon. Last fall Mr.. Maxon harvested less
than a peck each OF three different new va
rietes of wrinkled peas, grown from samples
sent to him from England year ago last
spring. These peas, to the common observer,
are exactly alike in appearance-that - 10
say, a handful of one kind is so like the other
two kinds that one would at once say they
are all from the same kind OF vines;
However, when growing In the helds, there
is a wide difference In these varieties, which
the yeriest blockhead would have no diff
Guilty In discerning. Mr.. Maxon is an expert
osed-grOwer. and very slight differences in
similar seeds are quickly noted by him; bu,
when through the careessness Of a blunder-
ing farm hand, who thought them all the
same kind, these new varieties Of peas were
hopelessly mixed in bag, Maxon could no
more distinguish, pick out or assert one
kind from another than II he had never seen
a pea.
He was in a quandary. The seeds were
almost valueless unless assorted Maxon
knew the Barton boys father. and, meeting
him at Adams one day. told him how his
new peas were hopelessly mixed. Barton said
he thought his boy could sort them out.
Msxon became interested at once, and said
that IL the boy could do It, which could not