The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-11-18
SEEKING TO DODGE DEATH.
Peculiar Freaks of People to Pre-
vent Loss of Vitality.

From Answers)
A man who while poor is not more
| afraid to die than most people often de-
velops haunting terror Of death after he
has made a big fortune, and spends an
unhappy life and huge sums Of money In
trying to avoid the coming fate frequent
ly hurrying himself into a premature
grave through sheer worry and fear. This
passion has turned the brains Of good
many wealthy people and made monoma-
MACS of them. They resort to the most
childish expedients to keep death from
their doors. You remember Kipling's
character who had his chair. slung on
ropes from a beam that the world might
spin under him, instead OF carrying him
along to grow older.
There was an actual case very like this
a few years ago when John Islip. an Eng
lishman, who made huge fortune cut of
silver in Mexico. drove himself mad
through worrying about his death. After
exhausting all the safeguards London
could offer he bought small rocky ISL
and called Brychil. on the west Irish
coast. taking with him one faithful SER
vitor. Here, in feyerish haste. he had
four stone pillars raised and small one
story cabin. with three rooms. rather like
a houseboat. slung on chains from iron
Orders that crossed the pillars and swung
clear of the ground. Once inside this he
shut himself up. with some books and a
pet jackdaw for company. and never left
his swinging house till his death.
The attendant. who lived In small
house close by, used to row to the main
land-a mile and half-when the wealth
er permitted-for provisions. The master
spent his time reading and looking out
over the Atlantic from the cabin win
dows. His brain had given away. Of
course. and he imagined his life stood
still while the earth revolved under him.
He had no relatives to insist on his en-
tering 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 forty
three.
Another wealthy man, James Ingles-
ant, though he had made fortune by
shrewd speculation, also gave up to the
dread of death. He conceived the idea
that all movement and effort wasted the
tissues of the body, and this notion sunk
SO deeply into his mind that he went to
bed in a quiet country house and hardly
moved hand or foot for years: IL he even
stirred finger he did it with dread, be-
lieving it used up his vitality and short
ened his life so much time. He spoke as
little as possible, sometimes not opening
his lips for days, and was fed by attend
ants with spoons. And his food consisted
Of "slops" to save him the fatal exertion
of chewing, and his one amusement was
being read to by the hour together, for he
would not hold book or turn the pages.
Even the reading he did away with toward
the close of his life, believing that listen
ing shortened his existence.
One of the queerest cases was that of a
Mrs. Holmes. very wealthy widow, who
had terrible fear of germs and 1acilli
of all kinds. She had studied the subject
deeply and it affected her reason to all
appearances. The dread of death seized
her and she was convinced she would die
by some wasting fever inspired by mi
crobes. Knowing that cold is fatal to the
average germ, she had two rooms adjoin-
ing each other fitted as refrigerators and
kept constantly at temperature Of about
30 degrees, or just below freezing point.
One would suppose this to be more trying
than any quantity of microbes. but the
owner was happy In her consciousness of
freedom from germ diseases. Winter and
summer the rooms were kept at the same
point and the adjoining rooms and hall
were also kept cool, that no current of
warm air might bring bacilli in.
This lady lived clad in furs throughout
the hottest days that blazed outside and
her attendants and servants were obliged
to constantly disinfect themselves before
entering her presence. They lived in a
perpetual atmosphere Of carbolic acid and
their mistress had to pay very high wages
to induce any servants to stay with Ter.