Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-03-19

anu N1ASNAaeoaS anu AidASuAOuS luhcu-
tions."
But. after all, semi-insanity in some
forms has its advantages. Many
world-famous men-pOets, mathema-
t%icians. philosophers. historians,
writer's, statesmen and scientists
would probably never have been heard
of but for that one little streak of In
sanity which lent luster and impetus
to their minds and prompted them to
accomplish something of tremendous
value to mankind.
For instance, "Tolstoi belongs to the
category of the semi-insane who are
termed originals At eight years of
age he was seized with an irresistible
desire to fly. This idea haunted him
to such a degree that he decided to
put it into practice. He shut himself
up in his, study room, climbed up to
the window and made the movements
for flying in the air. He fell from a
height of more than 16 feet and was
sick for some time following"
olStoiS PECULIAR wanna,
Later Tolstoi's particular brand of
insanity prompted him to fall in 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 that instead of get
ting married he would NOW 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
fury, summed up Tolstoi's east 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 s~emi-insane genius"
Even Socrates must have had a
streak of insanity in him, for he went
iRto ~ecstacies which were almost cata-
leptic fits. At table, or in the streets
of Athens, or in the camps, he would
suddenly stop short, sometimes with
out motive. At other times, on the &C.
casion of a sneez either by himself
or one of his neighbors, he would act,
or would not act, according to whether
the sneeae 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 were 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 savants of the
nineteenth century, was undoubtedly
semi-insane when he was not wholly
insane. He wrote incoherent letters
While he was taking a walk n day
he wanted to drag his wife with him
into the Lake d'lInghein. During his
meals he would try to drive his knife
into the table, like Walter SCOTS
Highlander, and he would order the
succulent back of a pig and recite bits
of Homer
OF Cork, Prof. Grasset writes thai
he made an attempt to commit sui
eide at the age of Is and belongs tt
the category of the semi-insane who
have been termed vagabonds or wan
derers."
Guy de Maupassant died insane. HI
had often confessed to Paul Bourge
that he frequently saw his double. II
going into his own room he would SEE
himself seated upon his own sofa. TIT
roots of his disease seemed to b.
confused with the very qualities of hi
talent" Villemain had ideas of perse
cution. Jean Jacques Rousseau wa
successfully clockmaker, mountebank
music master, painter and servant
and then followed the paths of medi
cine, music, theology and botany. H,
used to mediate bareheaded in tn,
sun at midday. He fell in love at II
He would suddenly depart from a
inn, leaving his trunk behind hin
Gerard de Nerval, the political write
and poet, was subject to h~allucina
lions. He would be found on the stree
corner, his hat in his hand, lost in
sort of ecstacy. In the Tuileries h
saw the goldfish in the big fountai
putting their heads out of the waite
trying to entice him to follow them t
the bottom. The queen of Sheba wa
waiting for him. they said. He wa
found at the Palais Royal dragging
live lobster along at the end of a blu
ribbon. He tried to fly like the bird.
and one day at a moment, In one {
the streets of Paris, when he waite
with his arms spread out for his sol
to mount to a star, he was gathered i
by a gendarme because he had Or,
pared for this ascension by taking o
his terrestrial garments"
Freaks Of Men Of Genius.
Baudelaire dyed his hair green. H
was an epicure of odors, and used I
say that his soul scared upon perfume
as the souls of other men scared upo
music. One day after throwing
travelling glazier downstairs and brea,
ing every pane of glass Baudelaire e
claimed: "The beauty of life! Tt
beauty of life" He declared later tn;
he experienced at that moment an 81
finite JOY" because he was not yet i
sane, at least. not officially so.
2 MEAN MANS GREAT SCHEME.