The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1908-03-28


termed originals AS eight Feafs of
ase he vas seized with an irresistible
desire to fy This idea bsuuted him
To- such q degree that be decided %
pitt IL into practice He shut himself
up in his study room climbed uD TO
the window and % ~ the movements
for flying in the air. Ire fen from q
height Of more than 16 feet and vas
sick for some time following
Tolstors Peculiar Mania.
+ Later Tolstois particular brand Of
insanity prompted him 70 fan FL love.
not once, but threefold; for. having
met the three daughters Of DR.. Berce,
he began by being very much taken
by the oldest. then he thought he was
in love with the second. and finally
fell in love with the third The triple
romance ended abruptly. for Tolstoi
suddenly decided thar instead OF get
ting married he would NOV hay with
the moujiks in a peasants blouse.
Ossip Lourie. who made a psyche
logical study Of many Of the great Rus
sian novelists OF the nineteenth cen
tury. summed up Tolstofs case in the
following way:
"Tolstoi is one Of those rare men TO
whom the English aphorism. They
are certainly cracked, but the crack
let's In light, might apply. in a word,
Tolstoi was a semi-insane genius.
Even Socrates must have had
streak Of insanity in him, for he went
into ecstacies which were almost cata-
Ieptic fits. at table, or in the streets
Of Athens, OF in the camps. he would
suddenly stop short sometimes with
out motive. AT other times, on the oc-
casion Of a sneeze either by himself
or one Of his neighbors. he would act,
or would not act, according to whether
the sneeze had taken place on his
right hand or on his left"
Insanity Of Some Great Men.
Prof Grasset cites the cases Of
many other great men Of past and
present times whose brands of in
sanity we're manifested in various
ways. Pascal, for instance, could not
stand seeing water without falling into
a perfect fit Of passion" Then Au-
guste Comte who has exerted a vast
and lasting influence on the philo-
sophical position Of the sayants Of the
nineteenth century, was undoubtedly
semi-insane when he was not wholly
insane. He wrote incoherent letters.
While he was taking a walk one day
he wanted to drag his wife with him
into the Lake d'Enghein. During his
meals he would try to drive his knife
into the table. like Walter Scotts
Highlander, and he would order the
succulent back Of pig and recite bits
OF Homer"
Of Cork, Prof Grasset writes that
he made an attempt to commit sui
eide at the age Of is and belongs to
the category of the semiinsane who
have been termed Yagabonds or wan
derers."
Guy de Maupassant died insane. He
had often confessed to Paul Bourget
that he frequently saw his double. In
going into his own room he would see
himself seated upon his own sofa. The
roots Of his disease seemed to be
confused with the very qualities Of his
talent" Villemain had ideas Of perse-
cution. Jean Jacques Rousseau was
successfully clockmaker. mountebank.
music master, painter and servant,
and then followed the paths Of medi-
cine, music, theology and botany. He
used to mediate bareheaded in the
sun at midday. He fell in love at II.
He would suddenly depart from an
inn, leaving his trunk behind him.
Gerard de NerVal, the political writer
and poet, was subject to hallucina-
tions He would be found on the street
corner, his hat in his hand, lost in a
sort OF ecstacy. In the Tuileries he
saw the goldfish In the big fountain
putting their heads out Of the water
trying to entice him to follow them to
the bottom The queen OF sheba was
waiting for him, they said. He was
found at the Palais Royal dragging a
live lobster along at the end Of a blue
ribbon. He tried to fly like the birds,
and one day at moment, in one OF
the streets Of Parig when he waited
with his arms spread out for his soul
10 mount to star, he was gathered in
by a gendarme because he had pre-
pared for this ascension by taking of
his terrestrial garments.
Freaks Of Men of Genius.
Baudelaire dyed his hair green. He
was an epicure Of odors, and used to
say that his soul scared upon perfumes
as the souls of other men scared upon
music. One day after throwing a
travelling glazier downstairs and break
ing every pane Of glass Baudelaire ex-
claimed: The beauty Of lifei The
beauty of life" He declared later that
he experienced at that morlent an I'm
finite joy because he was not yet in.
sane, at least, not officially so.
The case Of Alfred de Musset. who
was restless visionary and slightly
maniacal," is most interesting. IN the