Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-11-06
A Healthy Man Goes to Bed
and stays There Forty
Nine Years.

On a recent occasion were consigned
to their final resting place, in the
churchyard of Keighley, in England,
the mortal remains of one of the most
eccentric individuals that ever iveds-
In fact, parallel seems scarcely posi-
bic of q man going to bed in good
health and remaining there for peri
cd of forty-nine years! The subject of
the following remarks. who went by
the cognomen of sold Threelaps," but
whose real name was VIM. Sharp, lived
at place called Worlds, not far from
Braithwaite, N the parish of Keighley.
He was the son of small farmer, and
from an early age never showed much
inclination to steady work. For
while he followed the trade of weav-
er, but more frequently neglected his
loom to range the neighboring moors
with his gun, often spending whole
nights in the open air. When thirty
years of age he took to his bed and
the room which he never left until car
ried thence on the day of his funeral.
The cause of this extraordinary con-
duct, owing to his great age, and the
very few of his own standing who sur
vive him retaining no more than slight
recollection of the events of that period,
is difficult 20 ascertain with any degree
of certainty. But the principal reason
seems to be a matrimonial disappoint-
ment. The wedding day was fixed. =
This singular character, then a young
and doubtless ardent lover, accompan-
led by friend, wended his way down
to the parish church, and there patient
ly awaited the arrival of the bride elect.
But the bride never came. The father
of the dsmsel sternly and steadily re-
fused his consent.
This, combined, it may have been.
with other grievances, imaginary and
real, preyed heavily on a mind certain
ly not endowed with more than average
intellect, and bearing unmistakable
traces of hereditary singularity and
the result was that the young man con-
signed himself to a small room, meas
uring about nine feetin every direction,
with the determination Of spending the
remainder of his existence between the
blankets, which resolution he kept
most unAinchingly. The floor of his
room was covered with stone flags; GER
tainly not too dry; in one corner was
a fireplace which could only be used
when the wind blew from one or two
points of the compass; the window was
permanently fastened, and where some
of the squares had been broken was
carefully patched with wood. At the
81 L.. l.,rk Kh,s r-...IA--- LII
never been opened for thirty eight
years. The sole furniture comprised an
antique clock, minus weight and pend
ulum. the hands and face of which was
covered with a thick network of cob
webs, small round table of dark oak.
and plain, unvarnished four-post bed
stead, entirely without haugings. In
this dreary cell, whose only inlet for
fresh air during thirty-eight years, Was
the door occasionally left open, did
this strange being immure himself. He
obstinately refused 10 speak to any one
and, if spoken to, never answered those
who were his attendants. In fact, all
trace of intellectual development SEEM
ed to have become either dormant or
extinct, and the only faculties which
remained in active exercise were those
which man holds in common with the
animal.
His father by his will made provision
for the temporal wants of his eccentric
son, and so secured him a constant at
tendant His meals he ate regularly
when brought to him, and utterly in
very singular manner; for in process
of time his legs became contracted and
drawn up toward his body, and when
about to eat his food he used to roll
himself over and so take his meals in a
kneeliug posture. He was generally
cleanly in his habits. During the
whole period of his selfimposed con-
fnement he never had any serious i'll
ness-the only case of indisposition
those connected with him can remem-
Der, being a slight loss of appetite,
caused apparently by indigestion, for
two or three days-and this, notwith-
standing be ste on the average as much
as any farm laborer He certainly,
physically at least, did credit to his
food; for, though arrived at the long
age of seventy-nine years, his flesh was
firm, fair and unwrinkled, save with
fat, and the estimate of his weight was
240 pounds or thereabouts. As a mat
ter of course the curious came far and
wide to see this eccentric being, and