The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-28
HISTORIC FREAKS OF MEMORY.
Some Famous Men Had Their Menu
cries Severely Trained From
Childhood.


cries Severely Trained From
Childhood.
To possess an excellent memory
proves sometimes as goodly an herit-
age as a fortune. The one may be
lost in spite of care, while the other
If properly regarded, will continue to
aid and abet a man throughout his
existence. The Residences of culti-
waiting good memory, If merely as an
act of policy, is well exemplified by
several notable men who have lived in
the public gaze.
King Edward VII would, If APP
preached on the subject doubtless lay
a good portion of his popularity with
the masses at the door of his wonder
full memory. Hardly is it believed that
another could be found to match 1t in
the present day. The King never for
gets a face, nor name, and both he
associates in his mind, and with some
connecting place or incident. Who
ever is presented to him, no matter
how great, or how humble a parsonage,
or under what crowded, changing sur
roundings, he has it in his power to
recall years afterwards and to relate
the circumstances attending the pre-
sentation. Many of his subjects have
amusing stories to tell of their sur
prise, amounting almost to terror, at
times when, as Prince of Wales, he
would suddenly turn amid some tu-
multuous throng and call one of a
number by name. Not to feel fiat
tered at such a mark of favor would
be more than human, and as surely
as the deed was done the King added
to his following.
Once when passing ineognita through
Rome under the name of Mr. Smith,
and sitting in a restaurant on the
Corso, the King was heartily slapped
on the back by a waiter who at the
same time gave vent to the remark:
BLESS me, man; you're the only soul
that's put foot in this place who re-
members me bein' at Ostend."
But this is not altogether an inco-
herent trait with the King. The inn
planting of memory was hobby, If
one may so speak, of the late Queen
Victoria. In his boyhood the King
was made to repeat to his tutor every
night before going to bed the names of
the people he had met during the day,
the circumstances under which he had
met them, and made also to repeat, as
nearly Verbatum as possible, the con-
versations in which he had taken a
part
With his nephew, the Emperor of
Germany, the same training in this re-
spect was pursued throughout child
hood and youth. The Kaisers mem-
DRY in Germany is held in reverential
awe. To a few, however, 1t is known
that he sometimes pulls through try
ing ordeals by leaning strongly on his
reputation.
Recently at a large official dinner
given in Berlin by the medical staff,
it was favorably remarked that the
Kaiser spoke with all those present
on the particular branches of medi-
cine in which they were respectively
interested. With each. man he dis
cussed his writings and pet theories,
dwelling always on the point that
marked him from his brothers To
do such thing it was thought re-
quired not only an immense amount
medicine, but a most most eXtraordin-
airy memory. 1t was rather a denoue-
ment, therefore, when a young phys1-
clan, not willing to have his thunder
stolen, gave the fact out rather broad
~ that twenty minutes before the din
ner he had been summoned to the
kaiser's presence, and had then given
in synopsis form every bit of the in
formation that had been used during
had thought little before of any of the
men present, and most assuredly had
read none of their writings. Even so
it is an achievement of merit to abb
sorb enough in twenty minutes to
make one au courrant of the labor and
thought of years.
Lord Kitchener, another Englishman
of trained and unerring memory, is UNI
happily more feared than loved by his
men, and partly on this account De-
linquents especially when awaiting his
justice are painfully aware that the
details of every other trip-up in their
career are as fresh in his memory as
the day they occurred. 1t is said Of
him that he knows not now to for
get.
James G. Blaine had. perhaps, as re-
markable a memory as anyone born
under the Stars and Stripes, and 1t
was one which he was fond of saying
"came with him" By this he meant
that II had had no such rigorous train
ing as that of King Edward VII. But
he, too, was always glad to acknowl-
edge his many debts of gratitude to
this source.
Thurlow Weed made IL a practice 10
repeat to his wife at night in sequence
every incident Of the day. So alive
TO Impressions was his intelligence,