The Arizona sentinel., 1886-01-16

the unavoidable habit of sleeping
 through the entire forenoon. This
 practice was cautiously, but persever-
 ingly continued until the wild train of
 Oriental imaginations was broken up in
 his brain, and he became again sound in
 intellect, mingling with his fellows as
 before ''clothed and in his right mind" "
 He is yet living, and laughs as heartily
 as any one can at the delusion of which
 he once, to use a legal phrase, ''stood
 seized and possessed.
 Another instance was that of recent
 occurrence in an interior town of Penn
 sylvania. A respectable citizen, by
 trade cooper, residing in one of those
 picturesque and beautiful suburbs of
 Philadelphia, after a course of deep re-
 flection on metaphysical subjects, was
 found at last to be affected during his
 slumbers with a kind of tremor. in-
 dicating an unhealthy action of the
 mind. By day, however, he was appar-
 ently well, conversed rationally and at
 tended to his employments with the
 usual promptitude. By degrees he be-
 gan to evince on one subject trivial
 alienation of intellect. He contended
 seriously and with the greatest earnest
 ness that man could bring himself,
 by solemn meditation and con-
 munion with his Maker, to condition
 in which, even on earth, his physical
 wants might be forgone and the ordi-
 nary nourishment of sortal life be dis
 pensed with altogether. This delusion
 increased in his fancy until he an-
 nounced one morning at breakfast that
 he was then taking his last meal for the
 space of the following fifty-two days--a
 number corresponding with the amount
 of weeks in year. At first his family
 were utterly incredulous as to his inten-
 ton; but they soon found to their sor-
 row that his purpose was too deeply
 fixed to be shaken or frustrated. He de-
 clared with great soberness that God
 appeared to him in a dream, command
 ing him to abstain from all earthly food
 for the space above mentioned, promis-
 ing to sustain him under his self denial
 with heavenly mamma, and declaring
 that when his probation expired he
 should be translated to glory, like the
 prophet of old, without the taste of
 death. This revelation he most potent
 ly believed, and acted accordingly. For
 few days he was able to attend to his
 mechanical avocations, but he grew
 feeble by fasting, and having taken
 nothing save water since entering upon
 the fulfillment of his resolution he was
 compelled to take to his bed. There he
 would give directions to his workmen touching their employments, and con-
 versed cheerfully and rationally with all who approached him. The usual cir cumStance of man gradually wasting away his life by volun- tary starvation soon became exten- sively bruited through the place, and the monomaniac had, consequently, no lack of visitors. Growing daily weaker he yet kept open house for his friends, and no one who called went away without the refreshment afforded by creature comforts nor, strange to say, without a full belief of his sanity. On the twen- tieth day the deluded martyr became so feeble as to be scarcely capable of speak ing. He was implored to abandon his foolish resolve, and reference was made to his increasing weakness and an ar gument showing the mental deception under which he suffered But he per sisted against all entreaty, and would have perished in a few days had not a physician advised that the water which he drank should be filtered through a vessel containing little rice and some grains of gum-arabic. This partially sustained him, and the regimen, un- known to himself, was continued.
 Between forty and fifty days had now elapsed since he began his famishing practice. He shrank not a jot from his purpose, although his flesh had fallen away, his hands become long and bony, fecked with shriveled blue veins, and his cheeks hollow and haggard. His eye still retained its cheerfulness, and he | would say in faltering voice as he sur veyed his attenuated limbs: ''God has done this No Superstitious in his cell, with beads and cross, wearing his knees in genufexions and l lacerating his back with stripes, was ever more demented than this simple mechanic in his lofty determination. Every word he uttered when he could be | prevailed upon reluctantly to speak of | himself or his condition was full of hope, | and confidence. He cared | very little about conversing on the sub ject of the extraordinary abstinence, did | not seem to consider the presence of so many friends as an unusual occurrence | and was evidently more fond of speak | ing on any other theme than on that of | his singular delusion. Seven days at | last remained of his painful trial He | became more buoyant in spirit as the | time of his appointment drew near to a close; yet he seemed far less anxious about his exit from the world than with respect to the state in which he should | leave his temporal affairs. When four days were left him he was reduced to a mere skeleton, but his mind remained | firm, and his hallucination waXed strong within him. Ignorant of the occult | means by which he had been kept alive, he attributed everything to supernatural agencies. At this time, contrary to all | he began to be melancholy. | There was an ebb to the high tide of | hope with which his mighty effort had hitherto been sustained. No one could | rightly account for the singular depression of his spirits when so near the goal of his desires, with the bright prospect of its speedy attain ment. Three days now remained for the completion of our subjects fasting ordeal, when he became so infirm as to lose his power of utterance. Dread fully alarmed, his friends determined to avert his seemingly impending death by | Gentle narcotics were | with the water he drank, and hours of almost uninter- rupted slumber fell upon him. On the of the last day he awoke. had been made by his family tn inforrn him urhnn his SlI1mher |