Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-02-18
-.a:leaster fntelligenrer.
4 Man of Glass.

Philadelphia Bulletin.
In the insane department of the Bicetre
hospital of Paris, a man died the other
day who was known as the glass man
(Chomme de rerre.) He was one hundred
and three years old, and he had been in
the hospital since 1897. At the age Of
eighteen this poor fellow, who had been
known as Jubissier before he had acquired
the other epithet, had been badly injured
in the head by broken pane of heavy
glass falling on it. The wound was a
long time healing. and when it did heal,
his reason had lied forever. At first he
was idiotic, and then crazy SO that at
last he was placed in the Bicetre, where
he remained for cighty-thrcc years. His
delusion was that he was made of glass,
and for fear of breaking himself to pieces
he kept motionlcss and speechless. Only
once in the last twenty four years did he
speak, and that was to ask for tobacco.
During the siege of Paris, when the shells
were bursting over the city, he became
terribly agitated, and walked a little, NUT
tering some meaningless words. After
that he rclapscd into the old silence and
immobility, which continued until his
death last month 1T an age as great as that
of the American Republic.
The case of Jubissier will, of course, be
studic,. and reported upon by psycholo-
gists and scientific men generally, for
there is no similar known case of insanity
of the same kind or resulting from The
same cause. AS his reason was impaired
by his skull being struck by a pane Of
glass, of course it is natural TO infer that
when ali other IDEAS left him that one
about glass remained, and possessed his
whole being. OGc Of the marvclS of the
case is that with this solitary idea, the
creature should nave lived for over So years,
surviving perhaps two or three successive
sets "i attendants appointed to guard and
protect him. One by one they passed
away; but the man with the one idea thai
he Was made of glass. and therefore must
take sDecti cane OF himself, lived tran
gully ami perhaps b'iSslu:ly to an aye cN-
cecd!nc that of the average OF the army OF
General Washington body servants. Ii
only i!.c house servants of the present
tim. .i.a 4 lk': motive to preserve the
glassware entrusted tn thrm. it wOu!d be Il
great thing for the housCkeepeis, though
4 bad n,c for the & lass makers and deal
0rs But the bottle washer has no more
soul than the bottle while Jubissicr, fan
cying that his; sou! was cncascd in 4 GlaSS
structure, took the best possible care to
preserve il. and he thus kept it on earth
for over Il century. Then somehow the
cork Slipped out or the fracture SO long
avoided was given by accident, and the
soal Of poor old crazy juji>sier, the glass
mali. pxiialcd.
No Frcmc!.man SD long lived and free
from care as JubiSSicr, has ever been
known. lie WAS born i'll the reign OF
Louis XVI. but lost his reason before the
revolution OF 1888 To him, the Terror,
the Directory the first Empire, the Bour-
boum restoration and expulsion, the Or
leans reign, the Republic of 1913, the sec
ond Empire and its overthrow, We're moth
ing. H.. was too much occupied in guard
lug his glass p.l, seal structure to care
aI,uui Wa: at politics. and cvcn the siege
and occupation of Paris had no terror tu
him except as the conclusion caused by
the bursting bombs might crack his poor
glass skull. Thus free from all but one
care. and that a selfish one, the
glass man reached extraordinary Ion
gevity. and there is a bit of q lesson III
his life for men who have brains with the
usual complement of ideas. The best and
healthiest man or wO:uan has Il fragile
body that could still he preserved t.
preserved to great age with a fraction of
the care that Jubissier gave to his. SO
too. the purcSt honor and the highest rep.
utation may I've preserved throughout a
long life. il men would consider that these
things are friable. II only the late Will
liam NJ. Tweed. OF New York, had consid-
cred the constant danger to which life
and character are exposed, he might have
led a deccnter and longer life,
though he could not rival the
glass man of Bicctre. 1t is not to bt
desired. however. that there should be
many Jubssicrs, living their century on
earth hoin. nothing as real workers or as
political rctormers. But there is hardly a
man gambling in stocks Or trading in pol
tiles. or exhibiting himself as patent re
former, with 4 socalled independent but
purchaseable Journal to support him, who
might not learn something from the his
tory OF .Jubisser. the glass man of tho
Bicetrc, who passed nearly d century III
silence and idlcncss, and though he never
did good to any one, certainly never die
any harm.