St. Paul daily globe., 1896-01-06
TRAINING EYE AND MEMORY.


sees in this worlddepends on the capac-
ity for seeing he brings with him. Mod
ern educators do not accept this wholly,
but modify it by saying that what one
sees depends largely on the training
IN seeing one has had. No amount of
drill can. of course, remove the differ
ences of endowment, nor can it create
what does not exist, but there is no
eye so alert, no mind so quick in it's
perceptions and no memory so reten-
tive that 1t cannot be increased in DOW
er just as there are none of these
Faculties so deficient, short of idiocy.
that training cannot enhance their
vigor.
Ihe plainsman, trained to catch the
fatntest traces of movement, tells his
companion of the city that along the
way there has gone but a few hours
before horse blind of an eye lame
in a foot and with rope about his
neck, and his companion can discover
IN the grass-covered ground none of
the story which it tells the plainsman
But the unfailing indications are all
there, plain to the accustomed eye.
Some years ago a murder was commit
ted in Northern Wisconsin. A traveller
was shot by some one in ambush.
Among those who examined the
ground was an Indian who said that
the man who did the shooting was of
a certain height, wore a gray woolen
oVercoat and was accompanied by a.
small dog with a short tail. 9th
er details were given with such
particularly that the Indian was
arrested as an accoHplice, if not the
principal But he, trained all his life
to minute and quick observation, had
merely seen in the snow and on the
bushes the evidence of the details he
narrated He saw what was invisible
to the unframed eyes of the whites.
Miss Akin, principal of a girls school
IN Stamford, Conn, has given to this
drill of the mind, the eye and the mem
ory, long trial in her school,
whose results she has embodied in
book on Methods Of Mind Train
ing Similar methods are in use in
some Of the st. Paul schools. and might
be more extensively used with benefit
Miss Akin calls her exercises mental
gymnastics, performing for the eye and
memory the developing Services that
gymnatics do for the muscular system.
She uses at first revolving black
board on which she writes numbers as
for addition. After the class has OBJ
served them for few seconds, the
board is revolved and the class re-
quired to write the figures from mem
ory. In one Of the schools here. WORDS.
taken at random, are written. inspect-
ed, erased, and the pupils are asked
to write them in their order and from
memory.
OF the beneficial effects Of this
Miss Atkins book gives ample testf-
mony. The faculties of seeing and re-
membering, the ability to concentrate
attention, develop rapidly. After a
few months, long lines Of figures can
be accurately reproduced; long pas
sages repeated after hearing them read
and powers acquired that will be of
constant utility in after life Every
vocation will find it's toll light
ened by such requirements. In school
studies, tasks are made easy by the
ability to concentrate attention on the
lesson and to grasp and retain it. It
is. of course, not a discovery that Miss
Akin has made. 1t is only the ap-
plication to school exercises of that
which was well known that marks
her work. Men with defective or IN
developed powers of memory have pa
tiently and persistently and success
fully brought it to a high degree of
power. Thurlow Ie Weed, who, in his
days Of prominence, could call by
name and place any man Of any i'm
portance in any part however remote.
of his state, gained the ability after
years of practice. Noticing his defect
after he went to- Albany and entered
political life, he began it's correction by
narrating to his wife in the evening
each event of the day, however trivial.
From being at first unable to recall
more than few Of the most striking
events, he acquired power to follow his
days life from morning until night to
the minutest detail This retentiyeness
gained by concentration, was one OF
| the chief factors Of the undisputed
reign he enjoyed for many years in the
| politics Of his party in that state. In
many an instance it has been the kew
| to greatness. We need to give to the
development Of primary powers ar
earnestness and universal attention
such as they now rarely receive. Fo,
want Of it men and women are so in.
complete as we see them; so far short
in ordinary requirements, of what the,
might and ought to be.
There were pictures in the art gal