Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1875 — A Remarkable Memory. [ARTICLE]

A Remarkable Memory.

The most remarkable memory possessed by any man in the United States, perhaps, is that of Alfred Dueling, an humble colored man employed as hat-rack waiter at foe Metropolitan Hotel in fois city. Alfred is apparently about thirty-five years of age and is bright and intelligent in appearance. He has the faculty of remembering faces, names, facts, etc., that is very wonderful indeed. If fifty men are in a room and all are strangers to him he can walk around and inquire the name of each and then go around again and call every man by his proper name. Read a page of a book to this remarkable person and he will repeat the whole afterward from memory. He can keep the accounts of the steward of the hotel in his head a week or a month at a time, with items, expenditures, etc., correctly, thus constituting himself a mental daybook and ledger. The most curious illustration of Alfred’s powers is in his remembering bats. It is his particular business at foe hotel to stand in foe ante-room leading to foe din-ing-hall to receive foe hats of guests as they pass in. Alfred takes foe hats and places them on a rack and when each guest comes out of the dining-room that particularguest is handed his hat. It has been said that this colored man can remember 400 hats and the faces of the persons to whom they belonged, as he did on one occasion when there was a large fashionable ball at the Academy of Music. He told the Mercury reporter, however, that 400 was too high a figure and an exaggeration circulated by some of his sanguine and enthusiastic friends, but, said he, “ I can remember 800 without any difficulty at all. I have handled during the past fourteen years that I have been, in this business foe hats of foe most distinguished men in the land. “ There’s poor old Unde Horace Greeley—bless his heart!—l’ve put his famous white hat, and his black hats, too, on the rack scores of times.” His head watt a twenty-four incher, and was as wide in. front as it was at the back. In, this respect Uncle Horace was different from most persons- Nineteen men out of twenty have hats the inside of which fitting their heads resembles a pear, the forehead being narrow and the back wide. The founder of the Tribune seldom took his hat from Alfred without bestowing a quarter or a half dollar for the taking care of his tile. He was very liberal in this respect. Alfred always watched Horace to see that the latter did not in a fit of ab-sent-mindedness put his hat on hind side before.

One time the great editor had his hat full of scraps cut from newspapers, and when he took it off his head the scraps flew all over the floor, and some of them blew out of an open window*. Somewhat angry at the occurrence Mr. Greeley exclaimed : “There, now! See, there they’ go—all the material for to-morrow’s editorials!” Several waiters who were standing near hastily gathered up all the fluttering pieces of paper that could be found ana returned them to foe editor. The famous journalist looked them over and said: “Well, all that I care about are here, except one about Chinese Coolie Labor. I’ll give anyone five dollars who will find that for me.” The prospect of gaining this reward induced the waiters and bell-boys to make vigorous search, which was prosecuted for some time in vain, and Horace departed. Three or four hours afterward, tvhen it was eleven or twelve o’clock at night, a bell-, boy, who had been more persevering than foe others in his search, found foe missing article on Chinese Coolie Labor half buried in the mud in the area of the hotel. The little fellow rushed breathless to the Tribune office, and .up to foe room on the second story where Mr. Greeley was busywriting. “ There’s your newspaper scrap,” exclaimed the little fellow, handing the mud-bedaubed slip to foe editor. Mr. Greeley took the slip, smiled benignly on foe boy, and gave him a flve-dollar note. The next morning the article appeared in foe Tribune. The most dilapidated hat ever placed on the rack leading to the Metropolitan din-ing-room was foe tile of Long John Wentworth, of Chicago. This identical hat was worn by foe noted Illinois politician ten years, and then was taken to foe hatter’s and furnished with a new band and lining, and is probably still doing good service. On one occasion Long John, who stands six feet eight in his stockingfeet, ejame to the dining-room door and asked!she waiter to remove his hat for him. “ But I can’t reach your hat,” said the waiter. Mr. Wentworth replied: “ Get a chair and stand on it, and then you can.” The waiter did as requested, and, removing the tile from the head of foe tallest man in Chicago, deposited it on foe rack. Long John ate his dinner, and, when he had finished, one of the bell-boys got upon a chair and replaced foe tile. The smallest man who ever gave his hat into Alfred’s keeping was “Little Mac,” foe minstrel Charles Sumner once dined at the Metropolitan, and left the dining-room, forgetting to have his hat returned to him. The waiter had to follow foe absent-minded Senator clear out into foe street in order to five him his hat. Sumner received the at, thanked the vcaiter and added: “ I declare, I forgot all about my hat I have so much on, my mind now that it is a wonder I don’t forget my head and leave it somewhere.”

Artemus Ward and a friend once came to the dining-room together, and had on hats exactly alike. It puzzled Alfred to tell which hat belonged to the respective owners, and he had to hand the tiles to the gentlemen at random. Alfred never knew whether the two got their right hats or not. The fact that Alfred remembers hats and their owners so readily is owing to his being the pupil of a teacher of the art of remembering things when he was a boy.—AT. Y. Mercury. ■ r ■ The aggregate value of local church property exempt from taxation in New York city is $38,140,500, and colleges, hospitals, schools, etc., swell the sum to $64,470,000. The value of property owned by the Episcopalians is $10,700,000 in churches and $540,000 in schools; the Catholics have $6,999,000 in churches and $2,476,000 in schools, and the Presbyterians own $7,000,000 in churches.