The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1900-01-25

ASTONISHING FEATS
j OF The MEMORY

rubies, yet many men have achieved phe-
nomenal success in spite OF memories alb
normally poor-at least in some directions.
The late DR.. McCosh, of Princeton, must
have had memory highly cultivated in
some ways. but for the life of him he
couldn't remember faces, and on number
less occasions he caused No end Of NORTH
cation to himself and others BY failure to
recognize persons with whom he had been
on terms Of intimacy for years. It has
been said of the good doctor that his in
ability to remember names and faces would
have prevented him from making success
In political life. but that doesn't follow.
Many public men have possessed almost
perfect memory OF names and faces and
this was true of James G. Blaine, but other
prominent men have managed to get along
pretty well without that faculty.
Conkling, for instance, forgot names and
faces often. He had wonderful memory,
though. as his opponents often discovered,
when, speaking publicly, he recalled utter
ance of theirs they would fain forget. Nor
was his memory confined to political mat
tiers. 1t was stored abundantly with poetry,
not fragmentary lines or brief stanzas, but
entire epics. page by page. He could re-
peat nearly the whole Of Moore's. "Lalla
RoOkh," and Scott's Lady of the Lake"
These were his fayorite poems. but the
odes of Horace in the original, were al
most equally familiar to him. and he often
amazed his few intimates by reciting the
Latin poets lines by the hundred with per-
feet information and superb elocution. while
he knew by heart. the first book of Homers
Odyssey" Bryant's translation.
MEMORIZlNG LITERATURE
1t is an interesting coincidence that
Thomas Bracket Reed, who has gone to
practicing law in this city after devoting
most OF his life to the public service, thus
following Conklings footsteps. is also able
to recite Horace at great length. Mr..
Reed has memorized long stretches of the
odes, in translation as well as in the orig
inal. His liking for them has led to his
making collection Of translations in Eng
lish and French When he has for an
auditor an enthusiastic admirer of Horace,
who understands Latin, he delights to
quote various versions of special passages
by the half-hour, sometimes commenting
thereon in a way that shows complete
mastery of the subject. Reeds. memoriz-
sizes either; he knows the work of some
of our native poets and delights in moth
ing more than recittng such bits as the
production by 'Ironquill." beginning:
Once a Kansas zephyr strayed
Where brass eyed bird pup played.
Besides, he memories prose with remark
able facility, and almost without effort.
Thus he can recite long passages from
Dickens and -Thackeray, especially the lat
ter. To hear him repeat the passage de-
scriptive of the meeting between Lord
Steyne and 'Rawdon Crawley in VANITY
Fair" is said to be as good as to see the
dramatized version enacted. The late Ed
win M. Stanton, President Lincoln's secre-
tary Of war, astonished Charles Dickens at
dinner party given to the novelist at
on suggestion chapter after chaper of his
works 1t didn't matter what chapter of
what story the author called for, Stanton
could give the text from memory, almost
letter perfect. In answer to the amazed
Englishmans query the war secretary said
that he had done the memoriZing almost
uncOnsciously. While the war was on he
had found it almost impossible to forget
for moment the heavy burden he was bear
ing and had lightened the pressure regularly
at night by reading something from Dick
ems before trying to sleep. One night,
not having a volume of Dickens handy, he
had sought to recall few random passages,
when to his delight, chapter after chapter
came to him.
Concerning Mr.. Reed it may be added
that thought he can memorize literary gems
without effort, he is incapable of remem-
bering the correct spelling of words. Hav
ing written an article for a certain news
paper he was Mortified on seeing the jour-
nal, for the editor had caused a part of
the manuscript to be engraved and had
printed fac smile of the first page.
Reeds fear that he had misspelled lot of
words was acute, and he didn't breathe
easily till a friend had gone over the fac
smile carefully and found no errors
CHRONOLOGICAL MEMORY.
Entirely different from the memory that
assimilates literature is that which stores
away chronological facts. Samuel j. Tilden
had such memory and his use Of it on
one occasion was heralded far and wide in
the newspapers. 1t was at Horace Greeley's
funeral. Greeley and Tilden were defeated
candidates for the presidency, and this
moved Tilden to speak of the circumstances
attending the death of the presidents. Be-
ginning with Washingtons, he gave the
date of each, with all the accompanying in
cdents.
Mr.. Tildens chronological memory was
not marker, though, to that of Daniel
Mccartney. His memory reached it's full
power when he was about Is and lasted till
his death at TO- He could tell what hap
pened to him on any given day of the en-
tire elapsed period of 81 years. He remem-
bered what the weather had been, what he
had eaten at each meal and many other
things MOST OF us forget. Statements con-
corning his own personal life could not be
verified, of course, but other statements
could. He could tell what day of the week
any given date in any year fell on. Yet
Mccartney, whose mathematical powers
were phenomenal as his memory, was
not success in life. The most important
work he ever was able to do was to turn
the crank of a hand press in a New Eng
land country newspaper office. He couldn't
read, even, though that was mainly because
of defective eyesight.
Almost as wonderful as McCartney's
chronological memory was that of Mrs
Susan Brady, of Richmond, Ind. At Sc
she was able to give the weather details of
every year for more than half century,
besides many other circumstances. Her
statements were found to be correct by ref
erence to newspaper files. Unlike Mozart
ney, Mrs. Brady was clever in many ways,
but generally the person with the phenom-
email chronological memory has no special
ability along other lines
MEMORY OF RAILROAD MEN.
1t has been said in explanation of this
that the person who dwells sufficiently in
the past to charge his mind with it's de-
tails is not fit to cope with the present. This
is the view held in his period of greatest
activity by the venerable John I. Blair, who
built the first line of railroad west of the
Mississippi, and who once when asked about
some recent transaction, referred to the
records, saying that whenever he got the
facts concerning anything down in black
and white he dismissed them Immediately
having no room for them in his mind.
It was largely SO with Jay Gould, but
Gould more perfectly than almost anyone
else. remembered exactly where the rec
0rds bearing upon any given transaction
were filed. Once when the conduct of the
Western Union, or some other of his prop
critics was being examined into by a con-
gressiOnal committee he failed utterly to
recall the details concerning transactions
of vast Importance. 1t was assumed by
the newspapers and the public, at first, that
Gould only slammed forgetfulness, but time
showed otherwise. Soon after he had told