The gold leaf., 1900-08-16
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MIRACLES OF MEMORY.
The Extraordinary Feats Performed q
by Chess Master Pillsbury.

The Extraordinary Feats Performed
by Chess Master Pillsbury.
One Of the most extraordinary feats
Of memory ever known was that Of
Henry Nelson Pillsbury, the American
chess master, when he played 20 stimuli
taneous games without seeing any OF
the boards One blindfolded game is
far beyond the power of 80 out Of 100
chess players, but Mr.. Pillsbury sue
ceeded in the colossal task Of remem-
bering for several hours the constantly
changing positions of G4O bits Of wood.
Not only did he win II, draw five
and lose but one Of these 20 games,
but at the close also remembered the
details of every play and corrected
several mistakes which had been made
in recording them.
Wonderful as this is, it need not
alarm Mr.. Pillsbury's friends with
fears OF mental breakdown. He has
merely given the world one Of the most
remarkable examples of what we call
visualism, a peculiar and rarely cult
waited function Of memory.
There is nothing abnormal in a feat
Of this kind, and it need not be regard
ed as an enormous strain upon the
mind Abnormality only appears when
one faculty stultities all the others.
The probable fact is that Pillsbury
has discovered q better method Of play
ing chess than others, which makes
hitherto impossible task comparatively
easy for him. l am certain that he
could not have played 90 tables by the
aid of any artificial memory system.
These systems are like crutcheS-
they help up to a certain point and
then are apt to hinder. Visualizing is
simply a matter of concentration and
development of a certain pictorial quail
ity of memory. Those who are most
likely to excel are those who devote
themselves entirely to one mental pur-
suit. They develop the faculty Of be-
coming obiivious of all that takes place
around them.
l once knew Il minister who men,
orized his sermon by this method Of
visualizing He would reproduce iE
his mind the manuscript just as it had
been written, SO that whenever it was
blotted he would have difficulty in re-
membering it. Most of us have this
power to some slight degree, and it
may be cultivated. One Of the simplest
methods Of strengthening the memory
in this line is to endeavOr to recall
what we have seen during a walk
through the streets;
Some people seem to be entirely
%r1
raphy. and the following story is some
times used in classrooms as test: The
story relates that when Napoleon was
visiting one Of the military hospitals in
Paris he stopped by the bedside of an
old soldier who had lost both an arm
and Il leg. The old soldier in an ecstasy
Of loyalty sprang from the bed and,
drawing his sword, cut off with a sim
gle blow his one remaining arm.
IF PillSbury were to be told this
story. he would see it's absurdty at
once. but Il person who has no power
Of representing ideas as pictures would
believe it to be n possible occurrence.
We hear frequently of the marvellous
achievement of some actor or actress
who commits to memory several thou
sand words in n single season. This is
not done by visualizing, but by Sc
quence. Change the sequence Of the
speeches and the memory often fails.
Memory is an exceedingly complex
thing, 1t is not the highest type Of
mental function, and it is noticeable
that this power Of visualizing decays
as the power of abstract thought
grows.-Professor Charles II. Judd in
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