The herald., 1898-10-16
BY BEN c. TRUMAN

lntGIleCt, CauSeu Ny Va
monomanta," and monomania as "a oe-
rangement Of the mind n regard 10 sin-
gle subject only" and a crank as "a person
full of crochets; one given to fantasuc anu
impracticable subjects; one whose Juds-
ment is perverted In respect to particular
matter"
Monomania. whatever be Its form' Al
most always thoroughly absorps Hs VIC
tim. Physicians are unnecessary a. tney
are absolutely incapable of prescr.o Ding any
thing to allay that mental vagueness or
sdiosyncracy which hovers between rea-
sen and unreason. AS rule, however
monomaniacs are harmless, ana generaiiy
their cases call neither for the pity OF the
philanthropists nor an examination py the
scientists.
Paris, par excellence, Is the ABODE (or
nidus) Of this class of afflicted. Its art!sts'
authors, actors, advocates, architects anu
artisans of note are all more or less anecteu'
and also many of Its soldiers. statesmen,
students and swordsmen, and many others.
indeed, are subjects of monomanlacai oe-
lusions>
The national library in the Rue Richelieu
fairly swarms with bellicose monomaniacs.
They are known by their wild looks ana by
the strange books which they demand Of
the employees. For eleven years an old man
with powdered hair used to 60 to the H.
brary daily about noon. select the same Sit
ting place and read from three to four hours
only books about Apollomus of Tyana. For
more than ten years another old character
perused daily Veget.us' treatise ON Epl-
tome Rel Mslitaris." One day these two oc-
togenarians became involved in crntro-
versy which terminated in duel. in which.
happily. neither was harmed but neither
ever visited the library again.
For nearly thirty years queer looking
person visited the library of the arsenal
and made notes from every book Except
one) that he could find containing the name
of Caesar-page. line and all. This inde-
fat!gable monomauiac left nearly half a
ton Of ma nuscrpt ON the subject as a be-
quest to the Arsenal library; but. strange
as 1t may seem. this rare old worm had
overlooked Plutarch's Life Of Caesar"
altogether.
There was still another patron Of the
Arsenal library who had read paul and
Virginia so assiduously for Twelve years
that he knew the story by heart and could
be seen any pleasant summer evening. omly
II
recitins page after page and gest!culatins
and enjoying himself hugely. 1t is a mat
ter of fact that this harmless fellow. after
witnessing Masses opera entitled Paul e'
Virgsnie," rushed furiousiy on: Of the
Gaite at the end Of the second act. and,
finding Masse, exclaimed: Mon disu! mo n
d!eu! Your music has ruined my beautiful
tak"
There was for many years a tall, spare
henign-looking piece Of human trestlework
who haunted the Bibl,otheke Natonale
who carried back and forth with him a
ponderous book. His inflrmity consisted in
securing the exact number Of vowels and
consonants In virgirs "Aeme.d." and the
number Of times the verbs esse and hahere
were employ ed by this favorite poet.
In 1889 used occasionally to walk from
the Grand hotel to the Arch de Triomphe
and return before breakfast. once met a
man at the latter who informed me that he
had never missed morning for ten year.
In walking up the Champs d. Elysee to tho
arch and reading the Inscriptions thereon
after which he would raise his chapeal
like an old soldier and exclaim, "Vive Ia
Napoleon!"
Chief among the causes Of the failur,
of the big New York house of Hilton
Hughes & Co. In 1896 was alleged to bt
the postage stamp mania. Any employe OF
the firm who had occasion to consult Of
confer with the head partner Albert Hill
ton, usually expected to be met with thu
petulant exclamation, "Oh, go away; don't
bother me now. Can't you see I'm busy 2
Ie was busy the chief of this great con
Germ but not with balance sheets nor with
contracts, nor estimates, nor In considera.
ton Of new ideas in dry goods selling The
head Of one of the largest dry goods houses
in America the employer of thousands OF
persons. over whose counters immens,
sums of money passed daily. was busy dur.
ing business hours almost exclusively with
his collection of postage stamps Hilton
had been q collector from early years. As
a school boy he possessed an album and
devoted much time to swapping duplicates
for other specimens Then the possession
of a set of Australian three-cornered
stamps was a triumph, while to obtain
examples Of the coveted Central Asian is
sues was the chief desire Of his life. In
the early COS to obtain a specimen of every
stamp known to have been issued was 9
difficult but not impossible task. But now
new sets are issued somewhere or other in
thA world almost every day, and to keer
track Of these fresh issues is by no means
easy. So absorbed was Hilton with his
mania that he engaged a young man whose
sole duty 1t was to help him In gathering
his collection. Hilton speculated some in
stamps. Every collector will remember
the remarkable rise in value of the Co.
lumbian series issued at Washington In
the year of the Chicago fair. A set OF
these stamps was. of course, desired ar
IDENTIFY by every American collector, bu
soon after their issue most extraordinar,
rise in their value took place. They were
quoted at 50, IS and even IS and SO beyond
their face value. This "corner" in Co
lumbias was engineered by Hilton. 1t was
kept up as long as possible, and at one
time 1t looked as though he could continue
the corner successfully, but he had esti-
mated the number of stamps In circulation
wrongly and found IT impossible to con.
tinue. and then the issue dropped to Its
present value and Hilton dropped more
than $25, 900.
There is in Waynesville, Ohio, a banke,
named J. H. Harris, whose "fad' is "deaG
pearls" and whose collection of pearls IL
the costliest in the world, and was once
ris has been prominently mentioned In
nearly all the books on gems and the ar
ticles In newspapers and magazines or
pearls that have been published in the last
decade. Thus 1t was that a Scotchman
who has been nearly all over the world ex-
ploring rivers for whatever curiosities he