New York Daily Times, 21 Aug 1854. >From the St. Louis Post Dispatch Aug 12, 1854 "For some time past there has been a boy in our city who is gifted with almost incredible power of calculation in numbers. We do not know how or where he is lodged or fed, yet we see him almost daily walking the streets, and at short intervals we discover his posters at the principal public places, telling, in his own way, of his wonderful powers, and asking the assistance of the charitable. His cards are usually done up in alternate lines of red and blue ink, all the letters being in capitals. "During the days of the late mobs two of his cards at the corner of Fourth and Chestnut streets, seemed to atract a good deal of attention, which, perhaps, was more the the result of the excited state of the public mind, and its consequent appetite for novelty, than the strangeness of the boy's placards. At any rate, we give place in his advertisements just as we copied them from his posters: "I have a great gift in knowing all sums mentally by my head. If any man will tell me what year and month he was born in, it is like a voice strikes my head to tell him what day in that he was born in. That is the only way that I can make myself acquainted with the persons. Now the place for to meet me at, is at the Court-House from 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock A.M., and from 2 o'clock to 4 o'clock P.M. 25 cents. MEREDITH HOLLAND. "Another of his cards reads as follows: "Now take notice, that I will give a true answer in any sum mentally by my head. I wish for the public to patronize me. I have had forty days' schooling. I cannot write a running hand. I was born with this natural gift of knowing what the amount of any sum was mentally by my head. I was born in Monroe County, Ky. I am not 19 years old, quite. I do not improve any at all in this gift. For I could tell as much in numbers when I was three years of age as I can now. I cannot explain it nother. Have hundreds of men tested it, indeed. I never saw any man that was a Christian that they would always give something to help me along. Now here is another subject on wickedness. No man can spell his first name without the five letters, A, L, N. R. S. But there are seven names that can be spelled without these five letters. All wicked hard-hearted men have to make use of more or less of those five letters. It is of hardness of heart causes all this to be. This will satisfy all who hears answers in knowing the results of sums mentally in my head. Twenty five cents is nothing to let me have, for I have an extroaordinary gift." "The boy, MEREDITH HOLLAND, has rather a simple look - is most slovenly in appearance, and when engaged in any of his mental calculations, "mentally, in his head," he stops up both his ears with his thumbs, looks to the ground a moment, and then announces the result. He is rather a singlar specimen." Interesting ... does anyone know who Meredith Holland was? Sandi Sandi's Puzzlers: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gensoup/gorin/puz.html SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html GGP: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/