Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1875 — A Natural Mathematician. [ARTICLE]

A Natural Mathematician.

Mr. Edward 11. Coursey, of Piney Neek, was born in 1794, and is now, consequently, eighty-one years of age. Mr. Coursey is a remarkable man. Figures are mere playthings for him. He can solve the most difficult problem, and has yet to find a sum he cannot get the correct answer to. His talent for figures is entirely natural, never having attended school as much as a year in his life. He doest his sums not by any arithmetical rules, but by rules of his own, but always gets the answer correct. He has made, too, somewhat of a reputation, and receives sums through mail from almost every State in the" Union, which he works and answers by mail. He is quite notorious, also, for the .difficult sums he puts to others, and particularly the schoolmasters, whom he especially delights to puzzle. His latest is as follows: “ A farmer having twelve ditches to cut, of different lengths, employs four men to do the work. To"the first lie agrees to pay $1 per rod; to the second, $1.25 per rod; to the third, $1.75 per rod, and to the fourth, $2.18% per rod. When they finish the ditches and come to be paid, off, each man receives the same amount of money for each ditch. How many rods did each man cut in each ditch; how much money did each man receive for each ditch; how long;was each ditch, and how much did it cost per rod to have the ditches cut?” —Cent ere ilk (Md.) Observer.