To the audience I seemed more interested in my fingernails than I was in my subject one or two persons asked me afterward what was the matter with my hands.
I couldn't lick off a letter after using it, for while they could have made success certain it would also have provoked too much curiosity. I kept track of the fingers for a while then I lost it, and after that I was never quite sure which finger I had used last.
So I got ten of the initial letters by heart in their proper order-I, A, B, and so on-and I went on the platform the next night with these marked in ink on my ten finger-nails. I now saw that I must invent some other protection. Once I mislaid them you will not be able to imagine the terrors of that evening. But they all looked about alike on the page they formed no picture I had them by heart, but I could never with certainty remember the order of their succession therefore I always had to keep those notes by me and look at them every little while. They initialed the brief divisions of the lecture and protected me against skipping. “ In that region the weather-” “ at that time it was a custom-” “ but in California one never heard-”Įleven of them. The notes consisted of beginnings of sentences, and were eleven in number, and they ran something like this: Thirty years ago I was delivering a memorized lecture every night, and every night I had to help myself with a page of notes to keep from getting myself mixed. Indeed, that is the great point-make the pictures yourself. They can make nearly anything stick-particularly if you make the pictures yourself. Dates are hard to remember because they consist of figures figures are monotonously unstriking in appearance, and they don't take hold, they form no pictures, and so they give the eye no chance to help. They are like the cattle-pens of a ranch-they shut in the several brands of historical cattle, each within its own fence, and keep them from getting mixed together. Dates are difficult things to acquire and after they are acquired it is difficult to keep them in the head. In the hope that you are listening, and that you have confidence in me, I will proceed. These chapters are for children, and I shall try to make the words large enough to command respect.