“I heard a story of a colored gentleman who possessed a phenomenal memory. He was the keeper of the cloak room at a fashionable hotel, and his memory served him so faithfully, that he was not under the necessity of using checks when the guests left with him their hats or coats or canes. When they returned for them, he never failed to give each man his own.

“A certain judge went to that hotel for the special purpose of testing this man’s marvelous memory. He gave him his hat – a hundred others did likewise – and passed into the dining room. Returning in about an hour, sure enough, he got the right hat back again. ‘Well,’ he exclaimed, ‘that is remarkable. How did you know that was my hat?’ ‘I don’t know that that is your hat, judge,’ said the keeper. ‘Well, why did you give it to me, then?’ ‘Because you gave it to me.’”

– Orson F. Whitney, 1919