The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-24 00:00:00

MEETING A MANIAC.

" The madman or idiot is universally looked upon
in West Barbary as a person to be held in reverence.
The Moor tells you that God has retained their reason
in heaven, whilst their body is on earth ; and that
when madmen or idiots speak, their reason is for the
time permitted to return to them, and that their viords
should be treasured up as those of inspired persons.
These wretched people are allowed to paxade the
streets in a state of nudity, and the maniacs sometimes
prove most dangerous to unwary Europeans. A
French Consul-General, some years ago, was nearly
killed by a sainted madman, and in 1830 I had a very
narrow escape for my life from another.
" I happened to be walking on the sea-shore with
my sister immediately below the walls of the town. of
Tangier, when I espied above us a wild-looking
fellow, about seventy or eighty yards off, with
a clotted head of hair that bespoke a !sainted
madman, aiming at me with his long gun, which
he had rested on the wall. We were near a rock
at the time, behind which we took refuge, and
waited there a good while, in the hope that
the madman's patience would be worn out; but he did
not stir, and the passers-by, whom I appealed to for
their interference, shook their heads, muttered some-
thing about Seedy Tayeb, which proved to be the;
ptdelfloirnwgait7 s".i..tanA
gaveto
name of the saint, and went their way. In the Sear,:Sear,:time the tide was rising rapidly, and we had the 1,,n.
ereedr
pleasant choice of being drowned or shot. We ag
runit Nv
oa.
fis
.in betteran o tthoe
r riskdiretchtei latter;nstepped
eep
him the preference ofa standing shot. The maniac took
aim and fired ; and I heard the ball whiz into the water
behind me. I was proceeding to run up to him by a
path which led to that part of the town wall where be
was standing, when I observed that he was coolly re-
loading his gun ; and as the next shot at close qufir...
ters might have proved more effective, I thought the
best thing I could do was to follow my sister; so I.
fairly took to my heels."—Hay's Western Barbary.

HOSPITAL FOR CONSUMPTION AND DISEA'As OF
THE CHEST.—His Royal Highness Prince A';bert has
been graciously pleased to forward the lilluni.Acent suns
of 1004 in aid of the building fund of this In'Atitution, so
that the committee are now enabled to proceed with oho
wing. The total amount collected at the, fancy baaaar
exceeded 2,4001., but the gross amount required to com-
plete the splendid building contemplated is 16,0001, The
Marquis of
Westminster has also forwarded fifty guineas
fe object. The benevolent founders of the in-
stitutiongreat cause to congratulate themselves on
e favourables ('
ah
.-
have
auspices under which they have comtfur the
m
raenced their labour.

HEIRS-AT-LAW AND FORTUNE Vie
have this week received from a person in Manchester,, a
letter inquiring for some particulars of an adverti.se.
ment for a next of kin, which some one had told the
writer he believed he had seen in a Lancashire newsy/4,-
per, some years since. Scarcely a week passes but we
have applications for similar advertisements, about
.w
the applicants are about as much,or even more, IT the
dark than the present writer. The application $ are
generally for copies of advertisements for nest o
but of the paper in which the advertisement appeared or
the time at which it was published, they, in nine cases
out of ten, are entirely ignorant. They twe generally
set upon their wild-goose chase by. some one who Mitt
"heard a neighbour say that such a one believed he had
at some time or other seen some person who thoug'ttl
the advertisement had been published !" Much time is
lost, and much money thrown away, by parties who got
it into their heads that they are the heirs to prop may,
and act upon that idea without getting proper tidy ice or
assistance.—Preston Chronicle.