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

organization with which He was connected
but he never forgot. syd.sthough his duties
as head of the Vanderbilt system were
enough to warrant hts remaining away
from many Of his directGs' meetings. he
made it q point to be present at every one.
Chauncey M. Depew has curious mem
ory faculty" of which. prubably he is un-
aware. 1t was discovered last year by a
reporter. The senatOr-e1ect was feeling
good and told several std1ies Of his early
life to the newspaper man and told them
WELL Some of these have been printed
before. l suppose" said Mr. Depew, "for
remember telling them 10 so-and-so three
or four years ago, but not ip the same FORM.
shorthand in Mr.. DepeNt'sf own words, but
took the precaution tos overhaul 4 certain
old serapbook before pfeparing his copy for
the press The scrapbo0k contained q De-
pew Interview" among other things, and
In 1t were tho same stories Mr.. Depew had
given out that morning. That. was in ac-
cordance with what he had told the reporter
Careful reading of his notes and the old in
terview showed the reporter, however that
the phraseology and the general form were
so nearly identical that, had he written
out his notes al they stood, he might have
been accused of lifting whole paragraphs
bodily from what had been printed pre-
viously Mr.. Depew's repetition OF the
stories of personal experiences in Identical
language was unconscious, beyond a doubt,
HIS memory, trained to retain narrative,
had recognized the form in which these
incidents were told the first time as being
decidedly better than any other form that
probably might be given them. and, be-
ing called on for the facts had furnished
the form in which they had been told as
we'll as the facts themselves.
James ]. Hills memory of details of
MS railroad and its running is simply mar
Vicious. He can tell not only how long
Is each level, how steep Is each grade how
hfSrh ic AoAA% l.
and of what radius each curve but also how
much coal engine APT, for instance, should
consume in hauling q given number. of tons
of freight over given stretch of the road;
how much delay should be expected when
the rails are wet or the wind head on and
a thousand and other details learned in his
personal experience, and firmly held by his
tenacious memory.
WRITER'S WITH MEMORIES.
De Blowitz for many years correspond
ent in Paris for the London Times, ire
mendously surprised himself and Delane,
the editor of the paper, on one occasion.
Theirs. who was at the height of his power
just then made a speech at Versailles.
De Blowitz and Delane were present and
both felt cut up badly because they hadn't
shown the foresight to have reporter
there. too. The speech was highly i'm
portant and its publication in the Times the
next morning would have been a great
stroke of journalistic enterprise. Delane
lmmcQ19to-
ly after the end Of the speech, and about
the last thing he said to De Blowitz when
they parted was to repeat the proverb about
crying over split milk. When Delane got
the paper in the morning his eyes came
near popping out of his head, for there was
long and nearly verbatim report of Theirs
address. The editor wired to De Blowitz
at once to learn how 1T had been done. The
answer-only two words, From memory"
amazed Delane as much as had the pub
lication. Later De Blowitz said he had no
notion of attempting any such thing at first,
but finding when he sat down to write about
the speech that his memory was serving
him unusually well, he wrote out full re-
port and put it on the wire. This was a
great feat, particularly as the speech was
delivered in French and reported in Eng
lish Before the invention Of shorthand
the London Times used to depend upon
memory for debates in parliament alto
gether. They were written by reporter,
who from his unique power was known as
Memory Woodfall .---
Macaulay had prodigous memory He
read SCOTS Lay of the Last Minstrel
one day when a lad, and that night repeated
it to his mother canto after canto, till she
was tired and begged him to stop. He never
lost his memory and used to say in the later
years Of his life that, were Millions Para
disc Lost and Bunyan's "Pilgrims Pro-
gress' to be lost to the world, he could
reproduce them from memory.
Sir Walter Scott used to amaze his friends
with his memory. When Campbell had
finished his poem, 'Lochiels Warning"
he took it to Scott and read IT.. Scott then
read it over carefully. Take care Of your
copyright - said Scott, for l have your
poem by heart Whereupon he repeated
it verbatim, with the exception of single
word, for which he had substituted a better
one.
Going back for moment to the sort of
memory which enables it's possessor to
recognize persons readily, it may be said,
on the authority of certain accomplished
politician, that it can be acquired easily by
studying the lines surrounding the eyes of
the person you want to remember.
Its too much to try to bear in mind all
the personal peculiarities,' says this man,
land there is variation a-plenty in the
crows feet inscribed near the eyes of diff
ferent persons Once l get a good look at
any ones eyes l can never forget him.
The late Col. Ingersoll never failed to
recognize any one he had talked with, but
he never studied eyes dr any other visible
feature. He had a WONDERFUL memory for
sounds and could associate any voice he
had ever heard a few times with the name
of its owner.-Exchanges
GOT HER CHANGE IN NICkELs.