The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-13
QUEER FREAKS OF SOME MEN.
Hallucinations and Reliefs-The Late Secre-
tary FoIgers Belief In the Figure 3.

Hallucinations and Beliefs-The Late Secre-
tary FoIgers Belief In the Figure 3.
Baltimore Herald.
Some eminent specialists maintain that one
third of mankind are crazy and ought to be in
asylums. Dr. johnson would have been consi6-
cred insane because he insisted on touching all
the gate-posts he passed in London. There is
chief of an important bureau in Washington
who has the same habit, He admits that the
tendency is almost irresistible, Sometimes
when he is approaching gate-post which he
cannot touch because it is surrounded by other
people, he will turn back and 90 some other way.
He will stop in the hardest ranstorm to put his
finger on post This eXcentricty has got
him into predicament more than once The
owner of a house in Connecticut avenue once
pursued him and demanded to knew why he had
tempered with his gate, threatening to call the
police. On one occasion, while travelling i'll the
country he rode back a mile to touch gate
which he had passed and omitted to touch The
late Secretary Folger had an insane idea that
there was a charm in the figure 3. When
boy, and later on in life, he had fashion of
doing thing three times that only had to be
done once. He would eat three peaches
no more and no less. If he had four he
would throw one away. If he should eat more
than three, he would eat twice three, or three
times three. If lie was to ride horseback, he
would mount three times before starting. Up
to his death he had way of saying Good
day" three times TO those he met, and in letters
to his family he invariably wrote on three
pages Judge Folger often alluded to the lido
syncrasy He said that from his earliest remem-
brance he had an overpowering belief in the
cabalistic power of the number ) He thought
1t had been transmitted to him by his father or
that he had received it from a superstitious
nurse. When small boy he walked mile 10
school, and he afterward acknowledged that he
had on more than occasion traverseG the
distance three times making six miles in all,
before he felt safe in entering the school house.
1t was said of Thomas jefferson that he would
never permit any person to cut his hair. He
used the scissors himself He had a superst
ton that his strength would depart if he allowed
any else to cut his hair
The late Thaddeus Stevens could not pass
pin without picking it up. Furthermore, he al
ways walked around. if necessary, to get the
point toward him before picking it up.
The venerable philanthropist, Mr.. w. W.
Corcoran, will not sit down until he has raised up
the chair.
Mr.. Lyman, the present chief of the Bureau
of Navigation, is noted for some strange hal
fluctuations, though a man of varied accomplish
ments, 1t is almost too ridiculous for belief,
but it is fact that he is convinced
that he has been married to the de
parted spirit of the Empress Josephine,
and that the spirit is the mother of a child to
Linn which is now six years old For year he
kept Mrs. Best, a noted Boston medium, in
Washington under good salary because she
could 'materialize" the spirit OF Josephine so
that it could come out from the cabinet sitsin
his lap and kiss him To his intimate friends
Fir. Lyman talks seriously about this affair as if
it were an everyday concern.
If Senator Vance hears a-cock crow before
midnight. he is nervous 4oc &N1eek for fear that
some calamity is about 90 happen.