The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1897-09-11
LOVED JENNY LIND.
A MAN WHOSE LIFE WAS RUINED EY
PRACTICAL JOKE.
A Thrifty Carpenter Turned Iuto n Lu
matte by the Cruel Jest of Some Briel

the Great Singer Loved Him.
Jenny Lind is dead, bat in q filthy
howell on the road from Glasco, Ulster
county, to the Hudson river, ut Ulster
Landing, lives a lasting remembrance
Ct her IL i POOR mad hermit, who lost
his mind through a practical Joke,
which atottsed Ill him a violent love for
the great singer. The mans history Is
full Of such Incidents Is v1nr true prac-
fittai joker can endcy. lie las doEe no
end Of grotesina filings. Ha has utfer-
ed unmeasared ridlcule and injury.
Rare. indeed is the joke that can com
!: pare with this III the quality and ex-
tent Of tho real hHnlan misery resulting
from it.
Early III the ~fifties, when Jenny Line
was. creating a mad furor here by her
.woldcrhll singing, there lived in Kings
ton, q. u, j young carpenter named
Tobias Van Steellh9Tg. Eie never had i
very strong mind, tut was a geod and
steady workman, thrifty and. prosper
Gus. lie had accumulated seteralhun
dred dollars in tie savings bank anG
had built himself 4 coed. house. He
was not the sort Of MAJ to make ILL
enemy, but he was as good q mark for i
practical joke j. a Jester could hope to
find. Several young lawyers in Kings.
ton had noted Van Stoenberg's pecu-
llarltles and made him the butt Of their
jests. As most Of them were hristless,
they had plenty CT leisure to devote to
the young carpenter. to whom they
gave the nickname Of Boot"
One day lie was seen looking earnest
y at q cheap cut Of Jenny Lind in one
OF the shop windows, and the young
lawyers saw al opportunity for anoth-
er practical joke, 20 they began to talk
to him about Jenny Lind, and soon
MADE him think she was in love with
him. They afterward managed to have
letters sent to him from New York in
wiling him to visit the great singer in
the city. He it once drew his money
from the bank and, disposihg Of his
property, started fer New York.
The joke was certainly progressing
very well, but it would seem as il some
one might have had prudence enough to
call a halt before Van S~tcenberg had
quite ruined himself. In those DAYS not
80 mach WIS known as now about the
effect Of suggestion and "the fixed
idea, Z especially upon q weak mind, vet
plain common sense would have served
well in this contingency. Nobody but
the jokers could do anything with Van
Steenberg. His friends and relatives
We're poWerless, for he had passed into
that strange mental state where only
one spring Of action can be touched,
where only one impulse rules the con
duct.
As soon as he reached the city poor
Boot began to haunt the hall where
tie famous singer was appearing and to
follow her carriage III the street. At
. Of her public receptions at the Re
we're hotel he declared his love before
the crowd present and said he had come
TO New York to marry her and ended
by groveling on the floor at her feet.
She had never seen the man before and,
of course, had him elected from her
apartments.
He then began to haunt the hotel
lobby and to attempt to speak to her as
she passed out of the hotel until the
proprietors OF the house had him put in
TO the street. His next move was to place
himself where he could watch the
singers windows. and he would not
move from his post for hours at a time.
Later on he seems to have got an idea
that Miss Lind would love him better if
he was a musician, and then he APP
peared in front of the hotel with a hand
organ, which he would grind for hours
at a time. He soon became a public
nuisance and was arrested and taken to
the Tombs. His friends in Kingston
We're notified to come and get him.
"Boot' was brought back to Kings
ton, but his mind was destroyed, and he
would do nothing but wander about
town grinding his hand organ. He soon
became such a plague to his native town
and to his " family that one of his
brothers smashed the machine. He then
settled down into a state of harmless
lunacy until the war broke out, when
he became inrbued with the idea that he
was a general and began to organize the
boys of the town into a company of SOL
diers. He made his headquarters at the
state camp grounds and gave orders to
both officers and men, which they good
naturally pretended to obey. He the. |
took on a new phase Of lunacy by gath |
ering everywhere he could brass but
tons, which he sewed on his cap and
clothing until be fairly bent under their
weight.
He became such a walking show that
his parents finally quietly destroyed bis
button hedeckad suit.
ALI Atrn.rrI, tie r-nn La -.sI ..n.A