The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-02-24
IN A MADHOUSE.

There lived in Normandy, where he
was born in 1916, man named Soleman
Caus. He was an engineer and architect,
and had held several important posi-
TONS He wrote great many scientific
works and papers, of which, however, no
one took much notice during his life.
and finally was seized with an idea
ich made his friends and relatives fear
that he was mad. After Fostering the
king and Cardinal at Paris, he was or
dered to be taken to Bicetre-the mad
house-and there shut up. This was
done. They had just one way With mad
people in those days. They shut them
in iron cages and fed them through the
bars as they would do with wild beasts.
They did this to Soloman Cans. For a
long time stood behind those bars all
day and called to those who would lis
ten, and to them repeat the story he had
told the Cardinal He became the jest
of the place. Some of them even gave
him writing materials, and then, amid
the misery of his surroundings he wrote
down his ideas and amused the jailUrs
so much the more. However, it could
not be long before such life, such sur
roundings, would shatter any brain. In
time Soloman Caus was as mad as every
one believed him. 1t was in 1924 that
an English nobleman, Lord Worcester,
went to Paris and visited Bcetre. AS
he was passing through the great court,
&C accompanied by the keeper hideous
face with matted beard and hair, APP
peared at the grating, and voice shrek
ed wildly: "Stop! stopl am not mad.
l am slut up here most unjustly. 1
have made an invention which would
enrich country that adopted it," "What
does he speak DIP" the Marquis asked
his guide. "Oh, that's his Madness" said
the guide, laughing. That is man
called Solomon Caus; he is from Nor
mandy. He believes that by the use of
steam of boiling water he can make
ships go over the ocean, and carriages
travel by land--in fact, do all sorts of
wonderful things. He has even written
a book about il, which can show you"
Lord Worcester asked for the book,
glanced over it, and desired to be con-
Quoted to the cell Of the writer. When
he returned he had been weeping. 1.-THE
poor man is certainly mad now" he
said, "but when you imprisoned him he
was the greatest genius of the age" He
has certainly made a great discovery.
After this Lord Worcester made many
efforts to procure the liberation of the
man, who, doubtless, would have been
restored to reason by freedom and ordi-
nary surroundings, but in vain; the Car
dinal was against him, and his English
friends began to fancy that he himself
had lost his senses, for one wrote to an
other: INV lord is remarkable for
never being satisfied with any explana-
tiUns which are gwen him, but always
wanting to know for himself, although
he seems to pierce to the very center of
a speakers thoughts with his big blue
eyes, that never leave theirs. At visit
to Bicetre he thought he had discovered
a genius in mailman, who declares he
would travel the world over with "a ket-
tie of boiling water He desired to carry
him away to London that he might listen
to his extravagances from morning till
night, and would, think, if the maniac
had not been actually raving and chained
to the wall"
Thus in Bicetre died the man to whom,
after his works were published, many
people gave the credit OF being the dis
coverer of steam power, and it is said
that from the manuscript written in his
prison Lord Worcester gathered the
idea of a machine spoken of, as water
commanding engine" which he after
ward invented. Historians have denied
that Caus died in prison, but there exists
letter written by Marion de Lorme,
who was with Lord Worcester at the
time of his interview with Caus, which
establishes the fact beyond doubt.--Lon-
den Invention.