Year: 1873

We remember one old man, says an
exchange, with mania for litigation,
whose favorite amusement was suing
his sons and daughters on all imaginable
pretexts. Once in suit, no matter
how small the amount at issue might be,
he would spare neither money nor time
to push the litigation just rs far as the
law would let it go, and that too in spite
of the fact that in all other matters he
was as penurious as miser. We knew
another man once who, in riding on
horseback, would always sit with his
back toward the animals head, because
he believed it sin for anybody to sit
otherwise on horseback since Baalam's
time. Another, a neighbor of this one,
would always go out without his hat as
soon as a rain began, and would walk
thus for hours over his farm, returning
only when the rain ceased or night set
in. Another would not allow on his
table sweet pickles or any salad-dress-
ing in which vinegar and sugar were
mixed, even though he was abundantly
supplied with pickles or dressing to his
taste. In the same neighborhood lived
(and still lives, we belieye) gentleman
who has belonged to seven different
churches, and whose oddities of other
kinds are innumerable. For many years
he thought walking the only proper
mode of loeomotion, and 30 he walked
everywhere, even to the city, forty miles
away. Suddenly he became convinced
that walking was not the proper thing,
and ceased to walk altogether outside
the house.


Somewhat less strange than these was
the case of a gentleman of high culture
and courtly manners, who would never,
on any account, bid any one adieu, even
when the separation was to last but a
day. He would lay deliberate plans to
avoid this without seeming guilty of
discourtesy, and rarely ever failed to
accomplish his purpose. But in any
event he positively would not say good
bye and if he could not eyade it by
taking French leave or in any other
way, he would abruptly turn his back
upon his friends and leave without a
word. He went to Europe once for a
journey of many months, and gave no
notice whatever Of his intention to 60,
even to his own family. He left the
house without baggage, apparently for
a ten minutes walk, and sent back a
note by servant, saying that he would
wait in New York for his trunks to
arrive by express.


A good many peculiarities, Of which
we are too apt to make sport, are the
insult of nervous disease. Several
cases of the kind have come within our
own knowledge. One of them was that
of a young man who would be seized
with an irresistible impulse to touch,
with hand or foot, some object within
sight. He would rise from his desk,
when writing, and cross the office to
touch a particular spot on the wall or
the leg OF particular chair. When
walking along the street he would feel
bound to touch post here and a tree
there, 80 that his progress was often
seriously impeded by the nervous ne
cessity. Sometimes the impulse would
seize him after he had passed the OBJ
ject, and he would be compelled to
return to it. His first meeting with the
lady who afterwards became his wife
was at a party where, seeing her, a
stranger, on the opposite side of the
room, he was suddenly impelled to cross
the floor for the purpose of laying his
finger on her nose, proceeding which
friend of both had to explain and
apologize for in an interview with the
lady next day. The explanation led to
an acquaintance which ripened into a
friendship and ended in marriage.
But if any novelist had told this life
story in a book, who wouldn't have
thought it an utterly improbable one