Butte record., 1853-11-26
personal sccexr sIcIrLEs.


ted men. ''Ferdinand II, Grand Duke
Of Tuskany, who died in 1902 says
lie Able Arnauld, in his Memoirs,
was the slave Of his health. l have
frequently seen him pacing up and down
his room between two large tLermome-
ter, upon which he would keep Lis ewes
constantly fixed, increasingly employed
IN taking off and putting on q variety Of
) full-caps Of different degrers Of warmth,
+ which he had always five or six in his
fauds according to the degrees Of heat or
Hold registered by the instrument This,
can assure you, was a mighty plea SAINT
to behold, for there was not a con-
jl'rSA IN all his doninions more dext~
Gus in handling his cups and balls than
was this prince in shifting his caps"
The Able de St Martin, who, in the sew
enteeth century, rendered himself so RI
dlculous With his pretensions and manias,
always wore nine skull caps upon his head
to keep off the cold, which, BY the way,
was always awry and dishevelled, SO that
his lace never Appeared to be in its nat-
ural position II addition to his nine
skull-caps, he wore also nine pairs Of
stockings. His bed was made of bricks.
underneath which was q furnace, 50 con
structed as to impart the precise degrae
OF warmth ne might require; this bed
had very small opening through which
the Able used to creep as he retired TO
rest at night. The Jesuit GAezzi.
writer Of the eighteenth century, used to
wear seven skull caps beneath his wig.
The learned French mathematician,
Fourier, had returned from Egypt a mar
tyr to rheumatism, and with constant
sensation Of cold; he suffered dreadful
ly whenever he was exposed to an atmos-
phere lover than 20 degrees Reaumur:
q servant followed him everywhere, with
a mantle, in readiness for anv sudden
change Of temperature During the lat
ter years Of his life, exhausted by an
asthma from which he had been a suffer
er from his youth, he kept himself. for
the purpose Of writing and speaking 10
bis friends, enclosed in species Of box,
which permitted No deviation Of tie body.
and left at liberty only his head and
hands.
Sartines, tie Lieutenant General Of
Police, under Louis XVI had a strange
mania for wigs; his immense collection
amounting to upwards OF eighty speoi-
mems, all well eurled, powdered and po-
matumed, were carefully arranged IN a
glazad bookcase III his study, precisely as
4 a library Of books might he.
The FIorentine sculptor, Donatello.
who died III 1866, among other singular
ities, had the habit Of keeping his mon
/ ey in a basket, which hung from nail
in the wall Of his room Into this bas-
ket his workmen and friends used to dir
at discretion.
Beethoven, the composer, had two
imperious habits, by which he was con-
stantly swayed-that of moving his lodg-
ings and that Of walking Scarcely was
he Installed into an apartment, ere he
would discover some fau in it, and COM
menee looking cut for another Every
day after dinner, despite rain, wind, hail
or snow, he would issue forth on foot,
and take long and fatiguing walk.
Philosophers are naturally curious;
but never did philosopher, push curiosity
so far as did NJ de Ia Condamine. the
French mathematician. Wishing to ex-
anime closely, and with his own ewes, all
the motions OF a man undergoing death
by torture, he assisted = as the French
have it, at the execution of Damien. the
would-be assassin OF Louis XIV. who was
torn asunder pieeemeal By red hot pin
GERS. He accordingly pushed his way
into the inner space reserved for the
criminal and the executioners. Some Of
the guards having endeavored to prevent
Ilm, the chief executioner, to whom he
Was known, said, '-let Monsieur alone he
is an amateur" Whenever he visited
friend, he would employ his time in in
specting and handling every article in the
apartment, and in rummaging the cup
boards and drawers. One day being at
Chanteloup, in the study of u. de Cho-
iseui, the Prime Minister Of Louis XIV.
at the time Of the arrival of the letters
and dispatches La Condamine, during
the -aomentary absence of the minister,
sat himself down quietly, and began to
open the letters on the table, some Of
which doubtless treated of the most Sc
<cret interests of the different Stacs Of
Europe. '1Ah. Monsieuri'' cried M\e
GhOiSaIli in bnrror s-vrbar ara v-o,, sbo,t.