One Thousand Secrets of Wise and Rich Men Revealed Part 15

DOLLARS.--First coinage, 1794; none issued 1805 to 1835, inclusive, and 1837.

HALF-DOLLARS.--First coinage, 1794; none issued 1798, 1799, 1816.

QUARTER-DOLLARS.--First coinage, 1796; none issued 1794, 1795, 1797 to 1804, 1808 to 1814, inclusive, 1816, 1817, 1826, 1829, 1830.

DIMES.--First coinage, 1796; none issued 1794, 1795, 1799, 1806, 1808, 1810, 1812, 1813, 1815 to 1819, inclusive, 1826.

HALF-DIMES.--First coinage, 1794; none issued 1798, 1799, 1801, 1806 to 1828, inclusive. The coinage of half-dimes was discontinued in 1873 by Act of Congress.

THREE-CENT PIECES (SILVER).--First coinage, 1851; and then the dates follow in succession until 1873, when the coinage of them was discontinued.

COPPER CENTS.

COPPER CENTS.--First coinage, 1793, none issued 1815; they then follow to 1857, when the coinage was changed to nickel. The nickel cent of 1856 was only a pattern, which continued during this year up to 1864, inclusive. The bronze cent was introduced in this year. In 1865 the nickel cent was discontinued, and up to date the bronze cents are issued.

HALF-CENTS.--First coinage, 1793; none issued 1798, 1799, 1801, 1812 to 1824, inclusive; 1827, 1837, 1838, 1839; in 1857 the issue of half-cents was discontinued.

In 1864 the two-cent piece in bronze was introduced, and discontinued in 1873, by Act of Congress.

In 1865 the three-cent nickel piece was first issued.

In 1866 the five-cent piece was first issued; a very few were struck in 1865 as pattern. In 1883 the die was changed to that of the current issue with liberty head. Although upwards of five million coins of the 1883 nickels without the words "cents" were issued, they will in the course of a few years command a premium. At present they are still quite common.

LOISETTE'S SYSTEM OF MEMORY.

So much has been said about Loisette's memory system, the art has been so widely advertised, and so carefully guarded from all the profane who do not send five or many dollars to the professor, that a few pages showing how every man may be his own Loisette, may be both interesting and valuable.

In the first place, the system is a good one, and well worth the labor of mastering, and if the directions are implicitly followed there can be no doubt that the memory will be greatly strengthened and improved, and that mnemonic feats, otherwise impossible, may be easily performed.

Loisette, however, is not an inventor, but an introducer. He stands in the same relation to Dr. Pick that the retail dealer holds to the manufacturer; the one produced the article; the other brings it to the public. Even this statement is not quite fair to Loisette, for he has brought much practical common sense to bear upon Pick's system, and in preparing the new art of mnemonics for the market, in many ways he has made it his own.

If each man would reflect upon the method by which he himself remembers things, he would find his hand upon the key of the whole mystery. For instance, the author was once trying to remember the word _blythe_.

There occurred to my mind the words "Bellman," "Belle," and then the verse

--the peasant upward climbing Hears the bells of _Buloss_ chiming.

"Barcarole," "Barrack," and so on, until the word "blythe" presented itself with a strange insistence, long after I had ceased trying to recall it.

On another occasion, when trying to recall the name "Richardson," I got the words "hay-rick," "Robertson," "Randallstown," and finally "wealthy,"

from which naturally I got "rich" and "Richardson" almost in a breath.

Still another example: trying to recall the name of an old schoolmate, "Grady," I got "Brady," "grave," "gaseous," "gastronome," "gracious,"

and I finally abandoned the attempt, simply saying to myself that it began with a "G," and there was an "a" sound after it. The next morning, when thinking of something entirely different, this name "Grady" came up in my mind with as much distinctness as though some one had whispered it in my ear. This remembering was done without any conscious effort on my part, and was evidently the result of the exertion made the day before, when mnemonic processes were put to work.

Every reader must have had similar experience, which he can recall, and which will fall in line with the examples given.

It follows, then, that when we endeavor, without the aid of any system, to recall a forgotten fact or name, our memory presents to us words of a similar sound or meaning in its journey toward the goal to which we have started it. This goes to show that our ideas are arranged in groups in whatever secret cavity or recess of the brain they occupy, and that the arrangement is one not alphabetical exactly and not entirely by meaning, but after some fas.h.i.+on partaking of both.

If you are looking for the word "meadow" you may reach "middle" before you come to it, or "Mexico," or many words beginning with the "m"

sound, or containing the "dow," as "window" or "dough," or you may get "field" or "farm"--but you are on the right track, and if you do not interfere with your intellectual process you will finally come to the idea which you are seeking.

How often have you heard people say: "I forget his name; it is something like Beadle or Beagle--at any rate it begins with a B." Each and all of these were unconscious Loisettians, and they were practicing blindly, and without proper method or direction, the excellent system which he teaches. The thing, then, to do--and it is the final and simple truth which Loisette teaches--is to travel over this ground in the other direction--to cement the fact which you wish to remember to some other fact or word which you know will be brought out by the implied conditions--and thus you will always be able to travel from your given starting point to the thing which you wish to call to mind.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _a_ _b_ _c_ _d_ _e_]

To ill.u.s.trate: let the broken line in the annexed diagram represent a train of thought. If we connect the idea "_a_" with "_e_" through the steps _b_, _c_ and _d_, the tendency of the mind ever afterward will be to get to _e_ from _a_ that way, or from any of the intermediates that way. It seems as though a channel were cut in our mindstuff along which the memory flows. How to make it flow this way will be seen later on.

Loisette, in common with all mnemonic teachers, uses the old devise of representing numbers by letter--and as this is the first and easiest step in the art, this seems to be the most logical place to introduce the accepted equivalents of the Arabic numerals:

0 is always represented by _s_, _z_ or _c_ soft.

1 is always represented by _t_, _th_ or _d_.

2 is always represented by _n_.

3 is always represented by _m_.

4 is always represented by _r_.

5 is always represented by _l_.

6 is always represented by _sh, j, ch_ soft or _g_ soft.

7 is always represented by _g_ hard, _kc_ hard, _q_ or final _ng_.

8 is always represented by _f_ or _v_.

9 is always represented by _p_ or _b_.

All the other letters are used simply to fill up. Double letters in a word count only as one. In fact, the system goes by sound, not by spelling--for instance, "this" or "dizzy" would stand for _ten_; "catch" or "gush" would stand for 76, and the only difficulty is to make some word or phrase which will contain only the significant letters in the proper order, filled out with non-significants into some guise of meaning or intelligibility.[2] Suppose you wish to get some phrase or word that would express the number 3,685, you arrange the letters this way:

+-----+-----+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | 3 | ^ | 6 | ^ | 8 | ^ | 5 | +-----+-----+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | a | m | a | sh | a | f | a | l | | e | | e | j | e | v | e | | | i | | i | ch | i | | i | | | o | | o | g | o | | o | | | u | | u | | u | | u | | | h | | h | | h | | h | | | w | | w | | w | | w | | | x | | x | | x | | x | | | y | | y | | y | | y | | +-----+-----+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+

You can make out "image of law," "my shuffle," "matchville," etc., etc., as far as you like to work it out.

[2] You can remember the equivalents by noting the fact that _z_ is the first letter of "zero" and _c_ of "cipher;" _t_ has but one stroke, _n_ has two, _m_ has three. The script _f_ is very like 8, the script _p_ like 9; _r_ is the last letter of four, _l_ is the Roman numeral for _fifty_, which suggests _five_. The others may be retained as memorizing these two nonsense lines:

Six _shy_ _J_ewesses c_h_ase _G_eorge Seven great _k_ings _c_ame _q_uarreli_ng_.

Now, suppose you wish to memorize the fact that $1,000,000 in gold weighs 3,685 pounds, you go about it in this way, and here is the kernel and crux of Loisette's system:

"How much does $1,000,000 in gold weigh?"

"Weigh--scales."

"Scales--statue of Justice."