Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-16
ODDHALLUCINATIONS
An Over Worked Boston Lawyer Can
Never See Peoples Faces.
EYEG ACTORS TURN THEIR BACKS.
A Judge Annoyed by Prisoner and a
Minister by Tardy Old Maid.
CITIZEN TRAINS CH1LDREEs DAY
rcoRRnsroNDENcE OF THE D1srArcH.,

lawyer OF Lnls CITY, VINO was IRnb OI SOCIAL
as well as of legal circles, has recently been
ordered away for his health. He has been
suffering from overwork, and his disease
took the form of singular hallucination.
Everybody, no matter under what circum-
stances seen, appeared to him to be back to
him. The people with whom he talked. the
persons he met ON the street, the partner
with whom he danced, and the physician to
whom he went in his afaiction, all persist
emily turned themselves away from him,
until he seemed doomed to the terrible curse
of living among his fellows and yet OF never
beholding human face again.
A"When the thing first took hold Of me,
he said. in talking Of the trouble, 81, of
course. did not understand what had hap
pened, and made some awkward blunders.
do not know how soon I should have real
lied that the trouble was with me, if had
not gone to the theater and found that the
actors all turned their backs to the audience.
I knew that that couldn't be, and as had
begun to understand that the dickens was to
pay with me, passed pleasant evening
wondering If nv brain had turned wrong
side out or upside down, and if 1 should ever
know anything right end foremost again.
had lady with me, and she observed that
L
about the plays having affecting associa-
tions with favorite cousin who had died
suddenly. Then I reflected that if my brain
had gone wrong, could still invent q lie at
need, and that was some comfort"
AJUDGE's HALLUcINATIoN.
The absurdity of the illusion has brought
to light couple Of instances in which the
delusion was quite as odd. One was the
case OF q municipal judge, who was in his
time well known in Boston. The trick
which his imagination played him was con-
nected with a certain reprobate who was
continually appearing before the police
court, and who was thoroughly known TO
the police, both on account of his offenses
and certain devilish ingenuity he dis
played in evading justice by adroit and
specious pleas. Whenever this offender had
been before him Judge K. saw his likeness
in the next two prisoners brought up be-
fore him. The likeness was perfect, but he
always declared that the first time it oc-
curred he was fully aware that it was
simply delusion. He tried various ex-
periments with himself, such as having a
woman brought up next to the rogue whose
likeness haunted him. but the woman took
the shape of the man even to his garments.
Judge z. had the man brought up at the
cad of a sitting, but the halluclnation
reached over to the court of the next day,
and the first two criminals were disposed OF
in the likeness of the other. The delusion
never occurred with any other prisoner, and
it ceased when the man at last died in a
drunken brawl. The mans frequent ap-
pearsnce in court is the theory the Judge
explained the phenomenon upon.
THE CASE OF PASTOR.
The other case was that of a clergyman
who declares that all persons who come into
church after the services has begun, even if
they be men, take on Tor his eyes the like
ness Of q singular elder maiden lady who,
in the village where his childhood was
passed, habitually came to services tardily.
Even when his own wife comes in late and
takes her place in the pastors pew, he is en-
abled to identify her only by the place
where she sits; and the singular thing is
that the false appearance does not disappear
until the benediction has been pronounced.
When the clergyman closes his eyes to in
woke a blessing upon the congregation as
they depart to their homes, he sees before
him dozen copies Of the old maid, whose
bones have repOsed this quarter of century
in New England country graveyard; when
he opens them again these weird figures
have been transformed into his neighbors, or
even into members OF his own family, if it
has chanced that they have been tardy in
their coming to the sanctuary.
It seems to me it would be both more prac-
tical and more just ii it could be arranged
that the punishment, such as it is, could be
visited upon the heads OF the offenders them
selves rather than upon that OF the pastor.
CITIZEN TRAIN AND THE CHILDREN.
One of the amusing things of dull season
in Boston, when the influenza has laid its
paralyzing hand upon the town so firmly
that nothing in particular has happened for
weeks, is the Sunday reception which it has
pleased the somewhat erratic fancy of Citi-
zen George Francis Train to give at the
Parker House. He is certainly somewhat
lacking in conVentionality, as may be
evident from the fact that verv
early in the reception on Sunday he
pulled costume bon-bon with one of the
children who always swarm where he ap-
pears, and afterward adorned his head with
the blue and white cap OF tissue paper that
came out of it. There is certain suspicion
of the undignifed in receiving adult guests
at q public reception given at a hotel
adorned In this manner; and on the other
hand there is certain dignity In being able
to do it with the Indifference and ease of
Citizen Train. One of the newspaper men
who was present remarked to another that
he was not sure whether Citizen Train were
the more superb as q madman or as an auto
crat.
The children swarmed, and if ices and
cakes can make children i'll, they made
themselves i'll. There was good deal of
singing, of recitation and some speaking,
and through all the running comments Of
the host gave flavor and made the thing
unique. ARLo BATES.