The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1899-01-21
CHILDREN THAT AREPRODIGIES
They Never Amount to Anything in
Later Life.

tempted suicide by leaping from bridge
into the Danube Why? 1t is hardly
necessary to ask. His phenomenal powers
were failing him. As show he had lost
his value: he didn know what to do with
himself or how to live So, he decided
that it WASH worth while trying to live.
Doubtless. too, he Vas morbid in tenn
permanent You can't be prodigy, in
FAINT or other, without being more or less
abnormal. You must pay the price; and
the price is much too high-a bad bargain.
1t is fine thing to be a little above
average in some way; but not too much.
Somebody has said that to be one foot
above or below the average stature of man
means lifelong misery for to be a monster,
whether dwarf or giant, Is a wretched fate.
1t is quite as bad TO be abnormal in mind;
as even genius can testify. If You are
just an average. wholesome, happy human
being, You may well thank heaven 1t Is
not such as you who leap from Danube
bridges. seeking oblivion.
But even among abnormal creatures the
lot of the infant prodigy is peculiarly hard
Quick to ripen, quick TO rot-that seems
to be the law Of nature Especially if one
has been show child accustomed to
the wonder and applause of crowds, the
change. which must come, from the hot
house atmosphere Of the theater to the
cold dry air Of everyday life is cruel or
deal
What becomes of them We rarely
hear of them after the nine-day craze is
over Genius. indeed, is often notably
precocious; but the true infant prodigy
rarely redeems his promise. Many die
even without the aid of the Vienna boy :
water cure. Others. after a brief meteor
fight, collapse and sink into obscurity-a
dismal sequel The story of these gifted
unfortunates is in many cases extremely
interesting.
MATHEMATICAL. PRoniGIES.
Since Frank posed as a mathematical
prodigy, it is most natural 10 begin with
performers of that class. Here the typi
cal wonder worker Is Zerah Colburn. says
writer in the Washington Star The
mental arithmetic of this otherwise com
monplace youngster makes Us gasp with
a,tonishment. but his ieats are vel atteSted
He began his display at the age Of six.
Born in Vermont hamlet not quite a
hundred years ago, there was nothing in
his antecedents to lead one to expect math-
emaiieal miracles; yet they came and grew
aud amazed the neighborhood Have
sou heard about that little Zerah Colburn?'
was on everybody lips
The elder Colburn was a ready reekoner,
too. as it would seem, but after quite an
other fashion At the first hint Of posi-
ble dollars he took the road, making his
sou an itineraut show, himself the show
man Thus they travelled all over New
England
The father, seemingly, was Yankee ot
the wcoden-nutmeg type; but there was ne
humbug about the boy. Tie was repeat
edly examined in the most thorough man
ner by college professors aud other experts.
The genuineness of his giit j. beyond gues-
ilon
Az Boston perched amid circle Of in
cre,lulous investigations the little fellow was
tired with all sorts Of unexpected questions.
How many days aud hours in l,Sll
ycars
They held their breath for the an
swer-hter,,lly for ii came in twenty SEE
onds
six hundred and sixty one thousand
aud fifteen days, II, SOL 800 hours.
Take your pencil and put down on paper
the figures that must have raced through
the child ; brain IN that twenty seconds
See how long it takes YOU
How many seconds in eleven year,
But that was an easy one The answer
came in four seeouds-346, 500. 900
LIKE A TRICK ANIMAL
The president Of Dartmouth College
ghereupon offered to educate the lad at his
own expense. For several years little Ze-
rah WAS paraded about the United States
and exhibited like trick animal. Then
he was taken to Europe
The child was now nine years old aud
hts faculty had reached its highest point
tn Paris he made "a sensation The
sayants there tossed him such bagatelles as
this
What Is the square of 999, 800
Multiply this square by 40 twice and by
p once
As the answer only runs into quadril-
hons seventeen figures) few seconds
time was quite enough for Zerah. He
solved the problem in scarcely more than
the time needed to grasp the full import of
the words
How did he do it? The thing savors
Of magic Yet in after years Colburn de-
elared that his processes We're much the
same as those Of ordinary mortals Doubt
less he had in an extraordinary degree that
same picturiug power which enabled Nor
ply and other chess players to play blind
folded dozen games at time. just as
they saw each board and all its shifting
pieces in imagination, so baby Ierah saw
his swiftly evolving figures in sort of
kinetoscopic vision, as plainly as if he had
written them with chalk,
MADE NO MISTAKES
But this will not explain all. His French
iuquiSitors once asked him for the factors
Of / 294. 967, 297. He named them al
most instantly-6, 700, Al multiplied by
GIL. This, though absolutely correct,
was news to questionerS, who supposed that
they had given him prime number; it
was 50 set down in their tables He made
no mistakes. When numbers really prime
were offered he detected the fact just as
promptly.
How could he see these things? 1t is
faculty hard TO understand. 1t seems
like divination. Perhaps, however. it had
something in common with the power some
persons possess of determining large num-
bers at Il glance, without regard to group
ing and without counting Anyone can dc
this up to three or four many up to seven
or eight. You can easily test your own
aptitude in this respect by throwing down
an uncertain number Of pennies and an
nouncing the total at the first glimpse 1t
Is an experiment worth trying. There are
Il few who are able to carry this automatic
process up to thirty without error Dase,
for example, could instantly give the num-
Der of a herd of cattle with that limit
Yet, reason as we may, Colburn marvel