The Sunday globe., 1901-05-05
Which Grow Upon Men and are I'M
possible to Correct.
QUEER ACTIONS OF INDIVIDUALS
Noted Cases Of Well Known and Distinguished
Professional Gentlemen and Their
Particular HabIts.

ing | got out Of bed, picked up a shoe
and threw it down again because it
fitted the right foot, whereas | have
accustomed myself to putting on my
left shoe first Now, | might just as
well have put that shoe on my right
foot and saved the time required to
throw it down aud pick up the other,
but the habit had become firmly estab-
lished and before thought had made
the change
The remark started train Of thought
in the writer's mind and for few days
the small peciliarities Of his friends and
acquaintances were noticed. Its won.
d.rful to what an extent each man and
wumau's life is made up of small habits,
in Il great measure useless and extreme
ly trivial, Tut having nearly as strong
hold on the victim as mo selIous
habits, and only those who have had
experience with them and have fought
against them know how annoying they
are to their victims, althou h almost
unuuticeable to others Every trade
develops them, and once formed they
can hardly he broken I he sailor is
known by his rolling gait and by his
habit Of pulling up his pantaloons by
The waistband, and everybody knows
that detective can tell an old soldier
10y the fact that he will invariably start
Off on his left foo, a story is told Of a
New Yorker who was out of employ.
ment and, lounging along the street,
noticed a man in painters clothes car
rying brush and paint pot. Stepping
up to him the lounger said, You are
no pai ter" The man of paint,
startled, asked why, aud was informed
that he did not carry his brush rs paint.
ers are accustomed to do. The man had
to acknowledge that he was not a
painter, but on the contrary was de-
tective aud had assumed the garb of
painter i'm order to hunt down certain
clue. The detective, whose name is a
familiar one in all parts Of the country,
was even at the Time possessed Of con
siderable influence, and recognizing he
strangers shrewdness, secured him a
position in Il detective agency. He be-
came one Of the keenest and most sue
cessrul detectives in the East.
Everyone who has read Boswell's
Life Of DR.. Samuel johnson remembers
his peculiar habit Of touching with his
. cane every post he passed. So strong
was this habit, that it, thinking to
break himself of it, he would go by a
post without touching it, he must come
back, even if he had travelled some dis
tance, in order tosatisfy the habit which
he had acquired This is, probably,
one Of the most common and aggravat
ing of the humberless silly habits cul-
tiyated by men. There is II well.known
gentleman in this city who says that
from boyhoOd he has been fighting
against desire to touch every fence
post he passes. If, in walking along
the street. he does not manage TO step
evenly with the fence p .sts, curb stones
or cracks in the stone pavement, he is
worried to an extent almost unbeliev.
able from such q small cause. When
passing over a stone pavement he
makes painful effort so to measure his
steps that his left foot and then his
right foot would come down directly
upon the cracks. If the middle of his
instep is not directly across the crack
he experiences a very disagreeable feel
ing, as if his shoe were not touching
him in the right place.
Another Washington gentleman, at
one time prominent in school work,
has often complained Of a habit which
he formed in boyhood aid which he
could not destroy, The habit was that
of curling up his nose as a small boy or
girl would do when making a snOotn
at an unpleasant acquaintance. He
says that it gave him the keenest
pleasure to do it, aud that the tempta-
tion to cuIl up his nose in a friends
face or in front of his class was often
irresistible. To yield to it made him
feel extremely foolish, because il seemed
weak in him to do so and becau.e such
Il motion must seem very silly to the
friend and very funny to the school.
The same gentleman would spend hours
in single week in looking with one
eye half closed at spots or small objects
just past his hand or some straight
edg d obstacle, 50 that the spot seemed
in the hand or obstacle. In walking
along the street he would constantly be
engaged in seeing how long he could
make distant lamp post remain hid
den behind tree, and in SO doing
would walk zig'zag across the pave
ment and blink and wink in such
m amer rs to compel stranger to be.
lleve that he was slightly of. Yet he
is to day one OF the brainiest men i'm
the District.
One Of the most eloquent diyines of
au adjoining tate has often complain
ed to the writer that in passing paling
fence, he is always bothered by an in
ordinate desire to count all the palings
10y fours. lie had been worked down
and bothered great deal 10y the cuti-
cisms of some narrow minded people
who " ere not well enough educated to
understand his scientific illusions, that
seemed unOrthOdUX to them, but this
habit worried him more than anything
elss aad became almost IA monOmania.
Everything was counted, d II the
number did not prove to be n multiple
OF four, he experienced a keen disap-
pOintmeut. Sums were added, multi.
piled and divided, and the totals, null
tiplicants and quOtients tested by being
divided by four II row Of figures
A 4
diately and divided by four. The min
ister became fearful least this were
premonition of insanity and became
morbid over it. AT last, after a severe
illness, during when he could not count
at all he Lost thp hahit n bp gnp1a man