The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-12-12
A Mathematical Horse.

One of the most interesting things at
Atlantic City is a horse that can write
his name and do sums in arithmetic.
The horse was brought here from Shell
byville, Tenn, by a colored 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-blooded Arabian,
which also had many accomplishments,
and was exhibited with circuses and at
county fairs for many years as Curl
osity because of her intelligence. The
sire was Volunteer, the famous Ken
lucky Hambletonian.
Jim can do almost everything but
talk. He can tell time, pick out the
different colors select any playing card
that may be called for from pack,
or any letter of the alphabet or any
number as high as thirty. He can
count, add, substract and multiply fig
ures. If you ask him how much six
and twelve make he will bring you
card with eighteen printed upon it. If
you tell him to multiply five by three
he will bring you card marked
fifteen. 1t is not necessary 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
times or twelve times, or any number
of times, he will do it without the
slightest hesitation. They have a. street
car passenger register on the stage,
and he will ring up as many fares as
are called for, never making mis-
take. They have a cash register also.
and he can distinguish between differ
ent kinds Of coin and make change.
The old negro who has trained him
gives him 81 and tells him to bring the
change, specifying 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-McKinley Dewey, Hebson and
other heroes of the war, the Governor
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. He will entertain an au-
dience for an hour by all sorts of SIM
liar tricks, one of the most remarkable
being the spelling of works. His rep
ertory in this particular Is limited. He
has never been able to master words
of more than five letters, and does not
pretend 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 eight-year-o1d child. Doctor"
Key, who owns and exhibits him, says
that the horse was taught these ac-
complishments 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 intel
lect, as the doctor calls it, is so we'll
developed that he picks up new tricks
very easily.-Atlantic City letter in the
Chicago Record