Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1909-07-30
MEMORY or MILLER IS
THE WONDER OF ALL
At 80 Can Recall Happenings
of Infancy-Endowed With
Sixth Sense.

Fruitland, Md.-Josiah Fooks, or
Fooks Mill, near here, has a memory tha'
b is u~nequalled the world over
Though g. years old, his mentality Is as
strong and active today as that or a man
OF only half his years, while his physical
strength and powers of endurance are
marvellous. He remembers very well the
days when he wore short dresses. and he
declares that not since the day when he
put on his first trousers has he been haIt
50 happy.
Visitors from Salisbury, Fruitland and
the surrounding country flock TO Fooks
Mill on Sunday afternoons TO hear the
venerable miller relate the many interest
ing little incidents that happened III ms
boyhood days and take up matters that
were of national import three score and
ten years ago.
But Fooks' wonderful retentive mem
DRY is a mere bagatelle as compared with
a certain peculiar sense with which he
seems TO have been endowed. Local ply
sicians and men OF letters hold to the
opinion that Fooks was especially favored
by his creator in that he gave him a
sixth sense, hence his rather long sobri-
auet. 1.-THE man with the sixth sense, or
The Memory Man"
Recalls All He Has Read.
While doubling Thomases may expert
ence some little difficulty In getting it all
down at one gulp, nevertheless 1t Is true
that Fooks remembers very distinctly all
that he ever has read, and that is a great
deal, and can sit for hours and recite YER
batim newspaper articles he read In the
long ago. Could he hold out, the opportu-
nifty to give a doubling Thomas a recital
sitting OF about two months duration
would afford him a great deal OF pleasure
and amusement.
The old miller also is a Biblical scholar
one does not nave the pleasure of meet
ing every day. While his Scriptural inter-
pretations may not always have the trade
mark OF the up 10 date divinity school
stamped upon them, yet they are worthy
OF and command the consideration OF the
thinking mind. There Is not a book In
the whole Bible with which he Is not
thorough familiar, and his interpreted
lions OF the Scripture and the ideas which
he advances concerning the soul OF man.
not by any means conflicting with the
doctrines taught in the Bible, shows the
master mind of this simple. unostentatious
man, who all his life has been content to
"live by his MILL like the proverbial
Dusty Miller, and take long range obser-
walton of what the outside world was do
ing and study his Bible hemmed In by
the sylvan beauty surrounding his old
water mill.
Can Quote Bible.
1t is a safe claim that the old miller
can quote more Scripture than any man
I'm the world. for where Is the man today
who can recite from memory chapter after
chapter anywhere in the Bible, word by
word, just as 1t is written. Fooks can do
it,. Where is the man who can pick UP
the latest edition Of a metropolitan daily.
read a column or two OF news or a spe-
article in an offhand way, and then
repeat it just as II is in the paper.
Fooks Is the man who can perform this
feat, and has done 1t a thousand times
or more.
In fact, there is hardly anything of IN
terest that he has read that he can not
give to his auditors verbatim. The
speeches Of great orators and writings of
noted authors he has at his fingers ends,
and he knows Shakespeare's plays better
than most children of today do their
evening prayer.