ANOTHER JUVENILE PRODIGY.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 116, 20 December 1879, Page 2

ANOTHER JUVENILE PRODIGY.

The latest addition to tho long list of juvenilo prodigies, in respect to memory and mathematical accuracy, is reported from Maine. Ho is, says tho Bangor Commercial, tho son of a former postmaster of that pluoo, and is now ten years of ago. He is untaught, cave in tho art of reading, to which ho appears to give 'more attention than wiser parents would allow. His strong point is memory. Ho recollects not only overything that 'ho roadu, but everything he does, romembers on what day he did, whero ho was at the timo, and what woro the oircumstaucos that led him to do it. For instance, ho will tell where ho was on any day within the past two years, and what he was doing. Further* ho reillPmhorj aud can tell on what dato anil ou what day of tbe week they did it. Tho first thot his friends noticed of hw precocity was about a year ago, wheu thoy accidentally diseovomd that he was almost infallible on any date he had over wen or heard Walking iu compauv

with eoiua relatives in a cemetery it was observed that he would look at a tombstone, read the date of the death recorded, and the exaot age of the person buried there, then glance up and tell ou what day of the week the dead person was I bom. This happened on several occa* I sions, and but little attention was paid to lit. Finally one of his relatives took pains to look into an old almanac covering some of tho dates he had mentioned, and found that tho day of the week had been given correctly in every iustanoo. This caused them to ask him questions, when it was discovered that ho could almost instantly tell tho day of tha week on which any date within the last 75 years fell. In a scries of testa made by the Commercial writer, the boy gavo the day of the week corresponding to a large nnmber of dates between- IHI2 and 18+0, gave it correctly in every instance, and averaged Ave seconds foreaoh test. The longest time required was eight seconds? the shortest throe ■ seconds, ilis habits are described as " peculiar." " He never plays with other boys, but lis continually busy in. reading. Oftentimes ho takes an unabridged dictionary land stu<lies it hour after houi'inever seeming to consider it auythingjbut a pleasure to do it. In fact he takes no coinfort unless busying his brain about something.. If there is anything he does not understand he keeps at it till he does understand it, nnd then it is next to impossible for him to'forget it. One would; naturally suppose that's, child with suoh unusual powers would gradually fail and fade away, but, singularly enough, ho is constantly growing stronger and more healthy."