The silver state. [volume] (Unionville, Nev.) 1870-1903, 1885-12-18

Hallucinations and Beliefs-The Lat
secretary Felger's Belief I'm th
Figure 3.

secretary FehSefs nftici IN s~c
Figure 3.
baltimore Herald
Some eminent specialists maintain
that one. third OF mankind are crazy
and ought to be in asy.ums. DIR. john
son would have been considered 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 ap-
preaching a gats-post which he can not
touch because it is surrounded by other
people, he will turn back and 60 some
other way. He will stop in the hardest
rainstorm to put his finger on post.
This eccentricity has gotten him into
predicament more than once. The
owner Of house in Connecticut avenue
once pursued him and demanded to
know why he had tampered with his
gate, threatening to call the police.
On one occasion, while travelling in the
country, he rode back a mile to touch
gate which he had passed and omitted
to touch. The late Secretary Foleer
had an insane idea that there was a
charm in the figure 3. When a 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. Ii he
had four be would throw one away.
II he should eat more than three he
would eat twice three or three times
three. II he was TO ride horseback he
would mount three times before start
ing. Up to his death he had way of
saying Good day" three times to those
he met. aud in letters to his family he
invariably wrote on three pages. Judge
Folger often alluded to the idiosyn.
Grassy. He said that from his earliest
remembrance he had an overpowering
belief in the cabalstic power of the
number 3. He thought it had been
transmitted to him from his father, or
that be had gotten it from supersti.
tious nurse When a small boy he
walked a mile to school, and he after
ward acknowle iged that he had on
more than one day traversed the dis.
tance three times. making six miles in
all, before he felt safe in entering the
schoolhouse.
1t was said of Thomas Jefferson that
he would never permit any person to
cut his hair. He used the scissors him.
self. He had a superstition that his
strength would depart if he allowed
any one else to cut his hair.
The late Thaddeus Stevens could not
pass pin without picking it up. Fur
thermore, Re always walked around it,
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 hallucinations, though man Of
varied accomplishments. 1t is almost
too ridiculous for belief, but it is fact
that he 10 convinced that he has been
married to the departed spirit of the
Empress Josephine, and that the spirit
'is the mother of child to him which is
now o years old. For year he kept
Mrs. Best, noted Boston medium, in
Washington under good salary be-
cause she could "materialize" the spirit
of Josephine so that it could come ou4
from the cabinet, sit in his lap and kiss
him. To his intimate friends Mr..
Lyman talks seriously about this affair
as il it were an everyday concern.
III Senator Vance hears cock crow
before midnight he is nervous for
week for fear that some calamity is
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