The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1903-04-10
Refuses Live Apart
From the World.

One day in the early ffties a Cam
bridgeshire> woman passed from hui
man ken. For over thirty years she
had been seen by none. her meals hay
ng been left outside her room to be
taken in when no one was by; and 1t
was only through her neglecting to do
this for three consecutive days that
apprehension as to her safety was
aroused. The door of her room was
forced and she was found dead on
her bed. The reason for her eccentric
conduct never transpired
An equally mysterious recluse dwelt
in a Kentish town. A trusted civic
employee. be one morning quit his post
for no ostensible cause and retired to
his house, where he lived on a scant
annuity he possessed. Such food as
he needed.was purchased by blind
sister with whom he lived, and he
gave no sign of existence, save when
at night his steps could be plainly
heard pacing his backyard. which. that
he might escape pryng eyes, he had
rooted in with canvas. The mystery
at his death remained unsOlved.
A physician named Blore. who lived
at the end of the eighteenth century
was suddenly seized with a hatred of
his kind and resolved until his death
never to see or be seen by man. So
he had made large bell-shaped struc-
ture of wickerwOrk. open al the top
to admit air and food. Into this, hav-
, ing caused it to be placed in the hall
of his house he, having hidden a sol
emn farewell to his wife and daugh-
ters/ descended through the aperture.
: In this case insanity was at the bot
' tom of the matter and BlOre persisted
by his own hand in less than a week
o after he had taken possession of his
a odd dwelling.
Another curious instance of mania
o was that of a gentleman whose family
l.; was well known TO the writer. He
G was stricken with the strange fancy
that he possessed n Gorgeous head, so
q that everybody who beheld him would
4 be turned to stone. He therefore re-
O tired to a couple of attics, TO which
he would admit no one, and, though
r doubtless he might with prOpriety have
X been relegated to an asylum his fam
I lily respected his bizarre within and
4 he remained religiously secluded for
1t over three years, when he recovered
is his normal senses.
L The victim through an accident of a
e CHASTITY Disagreement, a wealthy Pa
n risian, says the London Tit-Bits, made
.6 VOW never to be seen again by man.
He kept to a special suite of rooms
at in his house, where he was waited
# upon by two well-trained blind ser
lg wants, who were the intermediates
It. between himself and the other mem.
rs bers of his household. No exception
I'll was made even in the case of his wife
he and children. who. from the day of his
OF accident to that of his death, never
or again set eyes upon him.
p The late Il. p. Whipple. the Ameri
IT. can lecturer and critic, used to tel
W. of an eccentric New Yorker who. hav
Is. ing read a pamphlet on immurement
ID as practiced by the medieval religious
orders. was possessed by an irresisti
BILE desire to copy their procedure
though not in his own person.
m This he gratified with the assistance
N, OF an elderly pal4lSr, VINO, I'D cOnSlu
IN Grafton of handsome annuity allowed
to his wife, agreed to be confined in
"a small dungeon built in the walls. Ii
us this cell he spent four years of hi
er life, being fed through small aper
In. ture so cOntrived as not to permit
"a sight of the voluntary prisoner.
at A strange fancy seized Niennes
ng matchmaker some years back. II
he shut himself up in his house. and til
his death. seven years later, was neve
he again seen by mortal eyes. All tn
ar windows were closely suffered an
he such communication as he had wit
iii the outside world was carried on afte
dark through an aperture made in tn
ers door He continued, to some exten
ho to work at his trade at which he wa
sss an expert; watches clocks. etc. to b
he repaired being taken in and returne
ne. through the same small opening