The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-08-09
FEATS OF MEMORY.
Many of Them which Seem Impossible
Are the Result of VIsualizing.

Are the Result of VIsualizinG.
One of the most extraordinary featS
of memory ever known was that of
Henry Nelson Pillsbury. recently the
American champion chess player.
when he played twenty simultaneous
games without seeing any of the
boards. One blindfolded game is far
beyond the power of ninety-nine out
of II hundred chess players, but Mr..
Pillsbury succeeded in the colossal
task of remembering for several hours
the constantly changing positions of
$40 bits of wood. Not only did he
win fourteen, draw five and lose one
of these twenty games, but at the
close also remembered the details of
every play and corrected several mis-
takes which had been made in record
ing them.
Wonderful os this is, ii need not
alarm Mr. Plllsbury'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
cultivated function of memory. There
is nothing abnormal in feat Of this
kind, and it need not be regarded us
an enormous strain upon the mind.
Abnormality only appears when one
faculty stultifieS all the others The
probable fact is that Pillsbury has
ing chess than others, which makes
a hitherto impossible task compara-
lively easy for him. | am certain
that he could not have played against
twenty tables by the aid Of any arti-
fetal memory system.
These systems are like crutcheS-
they help to Il certain point. ana theI
are more apt to hinder. NiSualiZing
is simply Il matter of concentration
and development of Il certain pictorial
quality of memory. Those who are
most likely to excel are those who de
vote themselves entirely to one men
tai pursuit. They develop the faculty
of becoming oblivious to all that takes
place around them.
| once knew II minister who memor.
lied his sermon by this method of
viSualizing. He would reproduce in
his mind the manuscript Just as il
had been written, so that wherever
it was blotted he would have difficulty
in remembering it. Most of us have
this power to some slight degree and
1t 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
without this power of mental photog-
raphy, and the following story Is
sometimes used in class rooms as II
test: The story relates that when Ma
pOleOn was visiting one of the mill
tary hospitals in Paris he stopped by
the bedside of Il soldier who had lost
both an arm and Il leg. The old sol
dler, in an ecstacy of loyalty, sprang
from his bed, and, drawing his sword,
cut off. with a single blow, his one
remaining arm. If Plllsbury were to
be told this story he would see its
abSurdlty ut once, but Il person who
has no power OF representing ideas as
pictures would believe 1t to be Il pos
slble occurrence.
We hear frequently of the marvel
Ous achievement OF some actor or
actress who commits TO memory sev-
eral hundred thousand words in sim
gle season. This Is not done by Wis.
ualization, but by sequence. 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 not notice
able that this power of vlsualizlng de-
Gays as the power of abstract thought
grows. .-I'e iladelphia Inquirer.