The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1901-09-10
ONE PHASE OF MANIA.
The Fear of Spnce Is as Real as Any
Other Kind of Fear.


"But speaking of manias." said an
observant citizen, several years ago /
had occasion to study the most singu-
lar case of dread that | ever saw in
my life, and it was the case. too, of a
man whose personal history and whose
great genius would be far more inter-
esting than this single peculiarity- But
l shall refrain from any minute refer
ence to the man or to the part he play
ed in life. He is n poet aud is known
from one end of the country to the
other for the brilliance of his verse
Wherever there is a gathering of Bo
hemians he is quoted quite as often as
Omar. and in fact some of his lines are
more popular in this country than any
of the catchy bits OF Bohemianism that
are found in the Rubaiyat.
'IIe used to come to my Office very
often, and there was mutual friend
who had an Office just under mine. My
friends office was in the basement, and
there was a rather dark stairway that
led down to il. AS often as he would
come to my Office he would ask me to
show him the way to the Office of my
friend, and would do so. | would go
nearly to the top of the steps with him.
He would pause. ga-e down the long
stairway as if half alarmed and then
walk out the hallway to the street.
The first time ! paid no attention to the
matter. as | thought lie had just
changed his mind or that lie just want
ed to learn where the Office was In
order to call some other time. But my
suspicion was aroused when he kept
on asking me where the office of our
friend was, so l made up my mind to
make q close study of the matter and
waited probably week before my
friend, the poet. called again. When
he had concluded his talk with me, he
turned to me and asked that | show
him the way TO the Office of our friend
l was glad to do it in order to observe
more closely his conduct. He went
through the usual performance, failing
| to go down the stairway.
Il went 10 Il physician" the narrator
| continued, who made speciality OF
| peculiar things in a psychological way
| and told him how strangely the poet
had acted. The last time had gone t.
| the stairway with him he seemed tt
| linger longer than usual. and his face
wore a frantic cast as he looked dowI
| the long. dark stairway. The physician
| Immediately classified the mental de
| rangement and told me that he hat
| never seen a case of it and would Iik'
| to meet the poet in order to conduc
| an experiment. He said it was feal
| of space and gave me the technica
| name for ii. but this is unimportant
| The physician told me that it was
| rare mental disease and manifested it
self in different ways. But a genera
| symptom was found in fear of darl
| places.
| 1.-The fact is the physician said
| that men afflicted in this way ar,
| afraid that they will be swallowed VI
| by some great and bottomless chasm
| and no doubt our poet friend believed
| that If he had ventured down the darl
stairway which led TO the office of hi
friend he would have stepped off of th
earth. and, as he was not ready TO qui
the world, he did not 60
after this the physician met tn
poet. and he told me of number of in
teresting experiments he had mad
with him and said there was no ques
tion about the correctness of his frs
diagnosis. 1t was ease of fear o
space. and after the poet is gone. if tn
physician survives him. he will prob
ably regale his scientific brethren wit
rather Interesting record taken iron
the life of one of Americas grea
/ poets."-New Orleans Times Democrat