Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1898-08-12
A WONDERFUL r
Now Being Exhibited at Atlantic
City-What He Can DO.

''Jim' Now Being Exhibited at Atlantic
City-What He Can do.
The most interesting things at Atlantic
CITY are a horse that can write his name
and do sums in mathematics and a woman
who sews and does other useful tasks
with her feet. The horse was brought
there from Shelbyville, Tenn, by a color
ed man named Key, who raised him,
educated him and has slept in his stall
every night since he was a colt. He is
called "Jim." His dam was a full blood
ed Arabian, which also had many accom-
plishment, and was exhibited with cir
cuses and at county fairs for many years
as a curiosity because of her intelligence.
The sire was Volunteer, the famous
Kentucky Hambletonian.
"Jim' can do most everything but
talk. He can tell time, pick out the
different colors, select any playing card
that may be called for from a pack, or
any letter of the alphabet or any number
as high as thirty. He can count, add,
subtract and multiply figures. If you
ask him how much six and twelve make,
he will bring you a card with eighteen
printed upon it. If you tell him to
multiply five by three, he will bring you
a card marked fifteen. 1t is not neces-
sary for his trainer to ask the questions.
Any man or woman or child can put him
through his tricks. OF course he cannot
talk, and therefore he has to answer by
signs. If you tell him to rap on the
floor five times with his hOof, or nine
fffnac or tuya1Vo fipnas nr anu othor
number of times, he will do it without
the slightest hesitation. They have a
streetcar passenger register on the stage,
and he will ring up as many fares as are
called for, never making a mistake.
They have a cash register also, and he
can distinguish between different kinds
of coins and make change. The old
negro who has trained him gives him 81
and tells him to bring the change, speci-
fying what coins he wants. Jim" will
do it as gracefully and as accurately as
the paying teller In a bank. There is a
rack on the stage bearing a number of
cards upon which the names of famous
men are printed-Mckinly, Dewey, Hob
son and other heroes of the war, the gov
ernor of the state and so on. ".Jim"
knows every one of them, and will bring
any card that is called for either by his
master or people in the audience.
These are only a few of his accom-
plishments. lie will entertain an audi
ence for an hour by all sorts of similar
tricks, one of the most remarkable
being the spelling of words. His re-
p~ertoire in this particular is limited. He
has never been able to master words of
more thar five letters, and does not pre-
tend to spell words he has never heard
before, but can learn any short word in
three or -four lessons. Such words as
home, boy, girl, horse, wagon, hay, oats,
water, and others that are found in the
same category in the spelling book "Jim"
will spell as rapidly as an S-year-old
child. Doctor Key, who owns and
exhibits him, says that the horse was
taught these accomplishments just as one
would teach them to a human being. He
learned to spell and to count and to add
and multiply just as if he were a child.
He began when he was a year old, with
the simplest things, like counting with
his hoof upon the floor. At first it came
pretty hard and required a great deal of
patience, but after he had learned a few
things the rest came easy. and now his
memory, or intellect, as the doctor
calls it, is so well developed that he picks
up new tricks very easily.-Record.