The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-08-08

into premature grave through sheer
 worry and fear. This passion has turned the brains of good many wealthy people and made monomaniacs
 of them. They resort to the most
 childish expedients to keep death from
 their doors.
 You remember Kipinga character, who had his chair slung on ropes from
 beam, that the world might spin un-
 der him, instead of carrying him along
 to grow older. There was an actual
 case very much like this a few years
 ago, when John Islip, an Englshman, who made a huge fortune out of sil- yer in Mexico, drove himself mad
 through worrying about his death. After exhausting all the safeguards | London could offer he bought a small rocky island called Brychil, on the West Irish coast, taking with him one 1 faithful servitor. Here, in feVerisl haste, he had four stone pillars raised, and small one-stored cabin, with three rooms, rather like houseboat, slung on chairs from iron girders that
 crossed the pillars, and swung clear of
 the ground Once inside this he shut '-'iANNS'' Nf-', Nitll ppS.NS oiiNt tb PcI jackdaw for company, and never left his swinging house until his death The attendant, who lived in a small house close by, used to row to the
 mainland-a mile and a half-when
 the weather permitted, for provisions.
 The master spent his time reading and
 looking out over the Atlantic from
 the cabin windows. His brain had
 given way, of course. and he imagined
 his life stood still, while the earth re-
 volved under him. He had no relatives
 to insist on his entering a private asylum, and he died three years later in the cabin, worried out of life by the fear of death. His hair was snow- white, though he was only 43.
 Another wealthy man. Jean Ingle- sant, though he had made fortune through shrewd speculation also gave way to the dread of death. He con- ceived the idea. that all movement and effort wasted the tissues of the body, and this sunk so deeply into his mind that he went to bed in quiet coun- try house, and hardly moved hand or | foot for years; if he even stirred fin ger he did it with dread, believing 1t | used up his vitality and shortened his life by so much. He spoke as little | as possible, sometimes not opening his lips for days, and was fed by attend ants with spoons. All his food con sisted of 'sloops" to save him the fa- tai exertion of chewing and his one amusement was being read to by the hour together for he would not hold a book or turn the pages. Even the reading he did away with toward the close of his life believing that listening shortened his existence,
 One of the queerest cases was that of a Mrs. Holmes, very wealthy widow, who had a terrible fear of germs and oacilli of all kinds. She had studied the subject and it affected her reason, to all appearances. The dread of death seized her. and she was convinced she would die by some wasting disease in- spired by microbes Knowing that cold S fatal to the average germ, she had .wo rooms adjoining each other fitted IS refrigerators and kept constantly at l temperature of about thirty degrees, )r just below freezing point. One would suppose this to be more trying han any quantity of microbes; but he owner was happy in her conscious ness of freedom from germ disease. and summer the rooms were kept cool that no current of warm air night bring bacilli in.
 This lady lived clad in furs through ut the hottest day that blazed outside. md her attendants and servants were obliged to constantly disinfect them- elves before entering her presence.
 They lived in a perpetual atmosphere if carbolic acidyand their mistress had o pay very high wages to induce any ervants to stay with her--Answer. I