The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1913-10-31
WORLDS QUEER FOLK
MANY OF THEM. IN ACTUAL LIFE
AND IN BOOKS.
Freaks and Caprices of Nature, Added
to Almost Daily, a Source of
Wonder and Matter for
Study.

We read in the old books catalogued
by booksellers as quaint" books like
the Wonderful Museum or the &c
centric Biography" about misers. her
mits, gargantuan eaters, strong men,
men with horns, women with whisk-
ers, and we wonder at the freaks and
caprices of nature, but there is ma
terial every year for still more en-
cyclopedic volumes, year books OF
Living Marvels." Read the neWspa-
pers. There are wild men in the New
England states. Mr. John D. Rookie
teller. not believing in holidays, be-
cause they too often lead to extra
vagance," kept the laborers on his
estate" hard at work on September
l. Letters to the New York Times in
form us that there are persons, other
wise sane who are endeavoring to
color meerschaum pipes.
There was hermit in the heart of
London few years ago. He lived in
a cellar, the sole vestige of a house
in Clare Market, pulled down and for
gotten by it's owners" Tradesmen Of
the neighborhood gave him food, and
he was lazily happy until Journalist
discovered him. The hermit was then
interviewed and photographed, and the
workhouse authorities pulled him out
Of his cellar and cleaned him, so that
his glory as hermit faded Mr. Chris
Granger of Brooklyn on August "a
ate 80 Holsters weighing from pound
to a pound and a quarter Not long
ago he ate a 15-pound blueish, six
green peppers, nine potatoes, two
loaves of bread at a sitting, and, heed
ing not physicians who advise against
drink at table, galy put down 10 bot
ties of beer. Truly, this is a little
world of great wonders.
Go back few years. Did not John
Ruskin deserve a place in an 'Encylo-
paedia of Wonders?" We do not refer
to his handing over Mrs. Ruskin to
his artistic friend, Mr. Millais; we do
not allude to his crusade against rail-
ways and factories. When he suffered
from any malady, he always asked
what would be the worst for him;
then he ordered it and ate it. The
physicians told him that pepper was
dangerous. He scattered it profusely
over every dish. An obstinate man,
when he was most disobedient, reck-
lessly perverse, he recovered.
Some of us remember the old man
who for 40 years had telescope at
Fifth avenue and Twenty-third street,
in New York, Mr. Frederick j. Sey-
bold, known to thousands only as the
professor. This learned stargaZer in
vited the public by little placards to
see the Man in the Moon or the
Mighty Jupiter. He had studied medi-
cine, chemistry, law. He was a pro-
found astronomer and an ingenious
inventor. He was a member of the
Grand army. Why did he become
street astronomer? No one knows,
and when he died few days ago in
a hospital at Hoboken, all that could
be said of him was that he died chiefly
from starvation. Living on the canal
barge on the Hudson, he had burned
all his papers
Did Edward Harrigan have him in
mind when he sketched the part of the
street astronomer in "Squatter Sover-
eignty?" 1t was not one of Harrigan's
best parts; yet the performance was
amusing.-Philip Hale in Boston
Herald