The Sun. — 1869-02-09 (London, England)

VII., Charles 11., and Queen Elizabeth, all given without hesitation, and with a 'gabbling volubility which suggested a piece of rather clumsy mechanism just wound up and uttering sounds by steam. Learning that he had been busying himself with astronomy, we inquired after the planets Saturn and Jupiter, to be forthwith overwhelmed with a torrent of scientific terms, and au intimate description of the rings of the one and the moons 'of the other. The chief confusion perceptible in this idiot's answers was a tendency to describe Julius Czesar as Jupiter, with facetious allusions to his moons, and to dwell upon the twentythree wounds inflicted on the planet, which caused his death, `as every one who's read Roman history knows.' This we are assured was fun." Where (asks the Daily .News) is the line separating this idiot from the sane One youth (continues the writer), has the gift of mental arithmetic, and adds sums together and multiplies three figures by three figures, giving the product with lightning rapidity. Another and older man is a humourist, whose bent is peculiar. He cannot read, but if given a newspaper will pretend to read paragraphs from it. Out of the advertisement page of the Daily News he read three railway accidents, each with separate characteristics, and all with a specific number of lives lost and a closely particularised variety of injury to life and limb ; two fu-es with some appreciative praise from "we" on the gallant conduct of the firemen ; some suicides, and a variety of general intelligence of a less exciting kind. Each imaginary paragraph was read off without a pause, and all sounded real enough save when the burlesque element was introduced purposely, as when " the coroner's jury, having considered the case very carefully, found him guilty of an interrogation." But the most interesting case is that of the mechanic. He has constructed a model of a man-of-war and an allegorical vessel which was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1562, both exquisitely finished, and he is now busy upon carefully-proportioned model of the Great Eastern. He worships mechanical and scientific knowledge. This man is an admirable carpenter, and works so many hours a day for the asylum, using the remainder of his time in the designing and manufacture of his models. Elementary treatises on geometry and naval architecture lie on the table of his private workshop, plans and drawings adorn its walls. His face is intelligent, his manner eager, but chastened by •self-respect. Yet this man is as incapable of exercising the commonest faculties, out of his special calling, as any idiot of them all, and employed his mechanical genius in laying a trap for a former physician to the asylum, which might have injured him for life. The doctor had offended him, and a huge and heavy block of wood was so arranged over the doorway that the first person entering would bring it down upon his head. The arrangements were completed just before an anticipated visit was paid, and it was only by the narrowest chance that the intended victim escaped. The only other instance of spite we became acquainted with during our rounds was in an idiot who has a weakness for funerals, and who keeps a close mental record of all the deaths occurring in the house. This poor fellow expressed great anxiety to follow a man to the grave against whom he has a real or fancied grievance, adding that he would kick his coffin with pleasure.