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Show X A FEAT OF MEMORY. v Wonderful Accomplishment to Which the Mind Was Trained. Some light is thrown on the possibilities possi-bilities of memory culture by an interesting inter-esting recital contained in the autobiography auto-biography of Robert Houdin, the famous conjurer. He taught his son to glance at, say, a shop window and to memorize accurately, as in a brain picture, the window's contents. Then he would ask him to describe the con-tents, con-tents, checking and correcting him as he wen,t on. On one occasion Houdin was commanded to the Tuileries to give a performance before the French court As he passed through an anteroom ante-room to the salon he bade his Son to note the arrangement of the rooms and the contents of the boakcases. Then at the close of the entertainment entertain-ment Houdin astonished his audience by giving what he called a "second-sight" "second-sight" test. Declaring his unfamil-iarity unfamil-iarity with the Tullieries, Houdin, blindfolding his son, asked him to send his gaze through the wall of the room to the chamber beyond, to describe de-scribe the arrangement of the chamber cham-ber and to read the titles of the volumes vol-umes on the shelves of the bookcases. This feat the young lad accomplished, to the astonishment of the court. |