The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-05-01
Queer People.

queer PeOple.
"IT takes all 9 orts of people to make
world,' says the old adage, and truly
there are a great many varieties of queer
men and women and queer societies and
queer communities scattered all over the
earth, when one takes the trouble to look
them up, as curious Investigators do now
and then. 1t Is said that Dickens knew
an original for every one of his characters,
and that he COPIED them pretty closely
too in his delineations. If this be true,
he must have known some very rare oddi.
ties indeed. We have no difficulty in reali-
zing the possibility of Dick Swiveller or
Sairey Camp, but Mr.. Quilp seems al
most out of the question. Mr.. Vholes
has many duplicates, and so has Mr.. Spen-
low, of the firm of Spenlow & Jorkins;
but Dora and Mr.. Crook and Mr.. Dick
and Miss Flite-these and score of others
seem so unlike the common run of people,
that we find it hard to believe them por-
traitures from life. And yet almost every
body meets now and then with people
quite SIS oddly made up as any of these.
Mr.. Hepworth Dixon found more than a
dozen sects in Russia, whose hundreds of
members were risking both liberty and
life for the sake of the most utterly absurd
faiths imaginable. Similar bodies exist in
other lands. There is within a days jour
ney of London a place known as the
Agapemone, or Abode of Love, in which
dwell a number of people who Believe
that their leader-a man named Prince
died some years ago and again became
alive; that he is now incapable of SHINING,
and finally that he is the Almighty hiu-
sell, as he claims to be. And this Abode
OF Love is not an insane asylum either.
We have in our country the Shakers on
n mic re
on the other, while some parts of the West
and South have sects far. queerer of doc
trine than either of these. We can readily
understand how one "cranky'' man or
woman can take up the odd notions on
Which these curious sects are based, but
that scores of others should follow such
leaders seems a marvel.
Our purpose, however, is to speak of
singular individuals rather than of singu-
lar sects or communities, and almost ev-
cry neighborhood furnishes at least one
oLdity. We remember one old man with
a mania for litigation, whose favorite
amusement was suing his sons and daugh-
ters on all imaginable pretexts. Once in
suit, no matter how small the amount
at issue might be, he would spare neither
money nor time to push the litigation just
as far as the law would let it go, and that
too in spite of the fact that in all other
matters he was as penurious as miser.
We knew another man once who, in riding
on horseback, would always sit with his
back toward the animals head, because
he believed it q sin for any body to sit
otherwise on horseback since Baalam's
time. Another, neighbor of this one,
would always go out without his hat as
soon as rain began, and would walk
thus for hours over his farm, returning
only when the rain ceased or night set in.
Another would not allow on his table
sweet pickles or any salad-dressing in
which vinegar and sugar were mixed
even though he was abundantly supplied
with pickles or dressing to his taste
In the same neighborhood lived
gentleman who has belonged to seven diff.
terent churches, and whose oddities OF
other kinds are innumerable. For many
years he thought walking the only proper
mode of locomotion, and so he walked
everywhere, even to the city, forty miles
away. Suddenly he became convinced
that walking was not the proper thing,
and ceased to walk altogether outside the
house.
Somewhat less strange than these was
the case of gentleman Of high culture
and courtly manners, who would never,
on any account, bid any one adieu, even
when the separation was to last but day.
He would lay deliberate plans to avoid
this without seeming guilty of discourtesy,
and rarely ever failed to accomplish his
purpose. But in any event he positively
would not say goodbye; and if he could
not evade it by taking French leave or in
any other way, he would abruptly turn
his back upon his friends and leave with.
out a word. He went to Europe once for
tourney of many months, and gave nc
notice whatever of his intention to go
even to his own family. He left the house
without baggage, apparently for ten
minutes walk, and sent back a note by a
servant, saying that he would wait in New
York for his trunks to arrive by express.
A good many peculiarities, of which we
are too apt to make sport, are the result
of nervous disease. Several cases of the
kind have come within our own know
ledge. One of them was that of young
man who would be seized with an irresist-
ible impulse to touch, with hand or foot,
some object within sight. He would rise
from his desk, when writing, and cross
the office to touch particular spot on
the wall or the leg of particular chair.
When walking along the street he would
feel bound to touch post here and tree
there, so that his progress was often seri-
ously impeded by the nervous necessity.
Sometimes the impulse would seize him
after he had passed the object, and he
would be compelled to return to it. His
first meeting with the lady who after
wards became his wife was at party
where, seeing her, stranger, on the op-
posite side of the room, he was suddenly
impelled to cross the floor for the purpose
of laying his finger on her nose, pro,
ceeding which friend of both had to ex.
plain and apologize for in an interview
with the lady next day. The explanation
led to an acquaintance which ripened into
a friendship ana ended in marriage. But
if any novelist had told this life-story in 6
book, who wouldn't have thought it al
utterly improbable one? - Hearth ana