The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1943-06-24
PHOTOGRAPHIC EYES

You might have taken a course in psy-
chology in school or college, might have
read score of volumes on that subject, yet
what do you know about mind? What do So
called great psychologists know about it?
Ask them about the relation of disease TO
mind, particularly those outstanding Incl
dents in history of how diseased or once dis
eased bodies expanded the mind made it
keener, in one or more respects.
This editorial was suggested to us by
Mitchell Albury S featinp icking out the three
sailors who. he asserts, attacked and rob-
bed him, despite the fact that they had
changed their jail-soiled clothes with other
sailors and were lined up among !, ggoup OF
/; dozen ormore.
What gave Mitch, as he has been
called for years by his hosts of friends in
Key West, his Photographic eyes? Ever
since he was boy it has been known locally
that once he sees face he never forgets it.
Why, then, is it limned in his mind? Is it
traceable to the fact that he had infantlle
paralysis when he was boy?
1t has been said often that the greatest
PoooOooSO
DR.. Samuel Johnson 81 When he was three
years of age he was afflicted with scrofula,
and it stick to him throug houtI his life. 1t
made him near-sighted, but practically ev-
erything that vent Through those eyes was
li2mhnneedd on On his BRAIN
{ ULEet us consider only one of many in
stances about Johnsons memory that his
biographer, James Boswell, records. john
son was handed poem, written in Latin,
of five quatrains, or 20 lines. His biograph-
er, James Boswell, had been given the poem
by its author, who was anxious to know
what the great man thought of it.
Johnson read the poem once and pass
ed it back to Boswell. After commenting
on it, johnson remarked, Let me see if /
can recite it. /" He recited it with the change
of but single word, and the change, Bos-
well declared, added to the cogency of the
line in which the word appeared.
The foundation of Johnson's greatness
was his retentive memory, with the added
faculties of knowing how to apply effective
ly the things his mind had retained.
Two years or so ago, many stories ap-
peared in newspapers about man who
had never done any creative writing in ali
his life. He contracted a serious malady,
was operated on, and remained in bed for
several months. While he was convalescing,
he wrote drama, which turned out to be
q hit. He wrote another, and then book.
and both were successes. What effect did
his malady have on his mind?
History is full of such Incidents Frank
lin Delano Roosevelt showed little of his
keen mental ability of today prior to the
time he was stricken with infantile paraly-
sis. And his mind can tire out dozen ordi-
nary minds. He is mentally alert always,
and he never forgets even minor happen
ings in the realm of politics and government.
And then consider Steinmetz, the cleo
trical wizard, the greatest in that field of
science the world has ever known. He was
hunchback and cripple.
Mindl Wonderfl1l mind. We have it,
as. aSs ectricAy, and knoW little
How did Mitch come to get photo
graphic eyess How did johnson come to
getsthen2 Weleavs the answers to you.
1t is amazing how many men who drink