, 1886-03-23
AlA1enr STREAK OF INSANITY.


FecuIiarities Of People Who Arc Not Ex-
actIy Compos MsntIs-"A Fixed Idea"
Some one has said that in every one Of
us there Is a latent streak Of insanity, and
/ guess he wasn't far in the wrong. The
only thing Is to keep our streak from be-
ing discovered. There was an old lady
in Michigan who kept a clearinghouse
for students. She kept a good boarding
house. She made royal pics, and she
brought the ~juciest roasts upon the table
that the hollowest student ever con-
sumed. She had the popularity OF not
being able to write her name. The stu
dents, although they liked her pies, re-
garded her with great contempt. She
was the last person to whom they thought
of applying when they began to miss
their Greek and Hebrew books, and great
was their astonishment when one of
them, who happened to go into her
for a fire-shovel, found them hidden in
crannies about the fireplace. They re-
covered possession only to have them
stolen again, and it became the regular
thing, when one OF these books were
missing, to search the old lady's room
until it was found.
Her popularity is equaled by that of
mother old lady over seas who had a
mania for watches, and never a peddler
came to the door with them but she made
a considerable purchase Of them. So
poor was she that she must have denied
herself her full allowance OF porridge to
indulge in the singular luxury. When
she died her friends found an immense
- ALI. y -. I'LL. a.. . toII. o-l Lolf
as long as her Uncovered bed, filled with
them. There is an old gentleman Of re-
spectability and comparative wealth who
never loses an opportunity TO possess
himself Of a paper Of pins. II he goes
into a dry goods store to make a pur-
chase, which he does once a week, he
never rests until he catches sight of the
pin basket, and he is apt to carry these
pointed reminders of his visit away with
him.
But after all is he n more of a mad
man than we who collect more books
than we can read, or pay a great sum for
n black-letter volume whose pages are
sealed to us? What under the sun does
a man want with sixty different editions
of Shakespeare? He might just as well
have sixty different pairs of spectacles.
A physician of an insane asylum would
denominate this as a species of compare
tive alteration known as "A fixed idea
For instance, / know a man who never
pays his fare on the street cars without
afterward holding an imaginary ~alterca-
ton with the conductor-the latter de-
handing the fare a second time, andhe
Indignantly insisting that he paid it, and
that the conductors carelessness is mex
cusable. He fights against this feeling
whenever he feels it coming on, but it is
too strong for him. 1 nave recon-
mended him to procure a free pass as a
as a relief from his fixed idea"
An estimable lady Of my acquaintance
has an exasperating trouble Of this nat
ure. Some powerful mental influence
compels her every few minutes to regard
her left thumb with the most intense in
terest. Now there is nothing remarka-
BILE about this useful portion Of her anat-
omy, either in size, shape, or feeling, yet
her eyes are riveted upon it at stated in
~tervals, to the great annoyance of herself
and family. She is mentally strong, and
comes OF a family of good mental and
physical condition, but somewhere in her
makeup there was an influence working
at cross-purposes with the surrounding
forces. l have heard of a gentleman
who was similarly impelled to count
everything he saw. In this way he finds
himself counting passengers in street
cars, windows in houses, all the horses
in sight, the buttons on peoples clothes,
etc, till he is almost III Of his lenses.
He is under medical treatment for the
trouble, which seems to be undermining
his mental powers.-Chicago News
Rambler"