Evening journal., 1914-03-18
NEw NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Blaine'S Remarkable Men,
Ory for Faces and Names
By Holland.

A few days before the close of the
State campaign in Maine, in Sep em-
Der, 1870, spent an afternoon with
Nelson Dingley in the editorial rooms
of his newspaper office in the city of
Lewiston. Mr.. Dingley had been
Governor of Maine, but was yet to
compass his greatest achievement,
which was the drafting of the law
which has passed into tradition as
the Dingley tariff eighteen years la
ter.
He was greatly concerned over the
result in Maine, fearing that the COM
bination between the greenbackers
and the Democratic party would cost
the Republican party certain Of the
State tickets and possibly the Legis-.
lature
Three or four of Governor Ding
ley's friends dropped in and in the
course of the conversation reference
was made to the extraordinary abil-
ity of James G. Blaine as a practical
managing politician. Mr. Blaine was
in charge of the State campaign at
that time
mentioned to Governor Dingley
that ] had heard that one of the rea-
sons for the pre-eminent success of
Mr.. Blaine upon the field of politics
was his ability to remember not only
faces, but names. and | asked the
Governor If that were an accurate
statement. He said:
"Of course, no one can tell whether
Mr.. Blaine never falls to recognize a.
face which he has once seen and to
recall the name that belongs to that
face. He could be wonderfully skill
ful in concealing his forgetfulness if
1t were necessary to do that. But he
did have, l think. an unsurpassed
ability-really an unrivaled faculty
of memory-for remembering not on
ly faces, but names. sometimes
thought that he trained himself by
a system of memories whereby he
indelibly fixed the face of a man
whom he had once met in his mind
and also the name of the man.
THAT belief is due, perhaps. to
something l once heard on good au-
thority that Mr.. Blaine said. Blaine
spoke of several of the qualifications
which We're necessary if a man we're
to be highly successful in politics.
One of them was the ability to re-
member not only faces, but names.
He said that almost everybody
claimed to be able to remember
face which he had once seen without
being able TO recall the name. In his
view il would be better for a politi-
clan never TO say to anyone, I can
recall your face, but I don't remem-
Der your name, For. in his opinion,
men took a greater pride in having
their names remembered than in hav-
ing their faces recalled. He had OBJ
served too, that there was one thing
that many men were very sensitive
about and that was inaccuracy in
calling a mans name. AS. for in
stance, giving him the right surname
but the wrong Christian name.
But if a man who had met po-
litical leader only once, and that
some years before the second meet
ing, were greeted by this leader. not
with the statement 4 recall your
face, but with a hearty and cordial
calling of the man by his right name
then the politician would be pretty
apt to make of that man, a lifelong
friend. His pride or his vanity was
in this manner appealed to.
Il have no doubt that Mr.. Blaine
cultivated to its highest perfection
his native-born gift of remembering
faces and of associating the right
names with the faces. and it is un-
doubtedly true that this accounted
not wholly, but in part, for Mr.
Blaine's popularity"
One of the men present added to
the following this statement:
Il have been told that Mr.. Blaine.
when speaker, would shut his eyes
or look away from the printed roll
of members and call every member
of the House of Representatives by
name without making a single mis-
take"