The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-05-16
STRANGE FANCiES.


Conduct Would Lead Him to the White
House-Secretary Chandler Counts White
Horses-Thad Stevens Picked Up Pins.
The whims, superstitions, freaks, or
whatever they may be called, of many
men of good, hard, common sense, who
have become conspicuous in public OF
business life, are more potent forces than
would be supposed. The experience OF
such alienists as DR.. Hammond or the
late DR.. George NJ. Beard would, il
published, make most curious and in.
teresting story. For these physicians
there is no surprise when a shrewd and
wealthy financier or successful politician
hesitatingly confeSses that he is con-
trolled by some fancy that seems child.
ish, but is none the less potent They
meet so many such eases that they are
inclined to think that if almost all mer
would make confession they would ad.
init that some kind of fancy or belief
had possession of them.
DR.. Beard once said to the writer that
one of the most successful financiers o.
Wall Street had confessed to him h
was convinced that if he walked on the
right hand Broadway block, between
Houston and Prince Streets, he would
meet some terrible calamity, either in
business or personally. This banker
was accustomed to walk down Broad
way for exercise, on the right hand side,
and when he reached Houston Street he
crossed over, walking the block to
Prince on the left hand. Then he would
cross back again perfectly content
Satisfied that the seeming conviction
was mere whim, he once, by force Of
will, went on a few steps on the block
but he suffered such agony of fear that
he gave it up and crossed the street.
Another of DR.. Boards patients. a
well-known lawyer, who lived in Brook
Ign, would never cross the ferry unless
he could get to certain spot on the
rear deck, so that he could stand with
one foot on the big iron clamp. He be-
lieved that if he failed to do so he would
meet with misfortune of some kind.
That men susceptible to sentiment
should be dominated by these hallu-
cinatiOns. as DR. Beard called them, is
more easily eXplainable than the cases
of men of practical hard sense with. no
llOuSCllNC dDOuI JlltLI. Leu III. DtdIu
asserted that in his practice he did not
see that one class was less liable to no.
lions than the other. President Gar
field, for instance, who was of a keenly
susceptible temperament, had a pro-
found conviction that the figure nine
teen would be associated strikinglv with
the events of his career. He was born
on the 10Th of the month, and died on
the 10Th. 1t was known by Garfield $
friends that he was firmly convinced
that he would one day become Presi-
dent. Some incident that happened
while he was in the army fixed the con-
viction in his mind that he would be-
come President, provided he never
strayed from the path the omen pointed
out. His friends, not knowing just what
the omen was, were satisfied that in
obeying its dictates Garfeld's otherwise
ineXplicable course in some things OF
comparatively petty consequence found
explanation.
Speaker Carlisle is as practical and
unsentimental in temperament as Gar
field was the opposite; yet Mr.. Carlisle
is dominated by one notion, if not by
more. he will begin no new thing on
| Friday. When he came to Washington
to manage his canvass for the Speaker
ship, a year and half ago, he arrived
one day later than than expected, much
to the disappointment of some of his
friends. 1t appears that he had made
all his arrangements to leave Covington
Friday night; but on the evening of
that day, Just as he was about to start,
he remembered that it was Friday, and
he at once deferred his departure. He
couldn't have been induced to start that
night
1t is believed in Wall Street that the
cool, impertubable Jim Keene suffers
torture from the fear that poison some
how or other has got into anything of a
| liquid form that he drinks, not inten-
tionally put there, but there by acct
| dent, and he would not dare drink a
| glass of water, wine, or coffee without
going through some secret performance
that wards off the danger
Mr.. Blaine, with all his common
sense, will never turn back to enter his
house after he has quilted it, in case he
has forgotten something, not, at least
until he has walked few PAGES on the
sidewalk, and he is not free from few
| other Authorizations, if that is the name
for these mental phenomena.
Who would think that ex-Secretary
Chandler would permit himself to be
bothered by such visionary influences as
counting white horses for luck? He
counts every one that he sees until he
reaches thirty-nine, and then he begins
over again. Speaking of this once, he
said he had often wondered why he
did so. for his reason told him
| that it was nonsense; yet he
| felt uncomfortable unless he did. When
| President Arthur went to Florida with
Mr.. Chandler the party arrived at Jack
sonville in the evening. The President
entered carriage drawn by four horses
and in a moment the booming of a
cannon frightened them and started
| them on a run. Mr.. Chandler stood up
in his carriage, well frightened. He saw
that one of the horses attached to the
| President carriage was white. and
counted it, making the thirty-ninth, all
| by an instantaneous process of the mind
In moment the horses were quoted
down. Mr.. Chandler said that his iudg.
ment told him that there could be nc
possible connection between his count.
| inc of the horse, which he had failed &c