UNACCOUNTABLE ECCENTRICITIES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3956, 25 March 1884, Page 4

UNACCOUNTABLE ECCENTRICITIES.

The eccentricities of some people pnss all comprehension, particularly -when they take the form of neglecting , to provide thorn with the ordinary comforts of life, though possessed of ample means to doso. But from the days of the miserly Smith, ■who lived in wretchedness in a house in the Seven Dials, though possessed of property worth. £100,000, to the present time, there havo been frequently recurring instances of persons leading secluded lives, and not only neglecting their personal comfort to an almost incredible extent, but violating every sanitary law Wo havo before us the details of a singular case of this sort which Was brought to light at Southsea. A retired Custom House officer, in the receipt of a pension of a hundred a year, it is said, and possessed of considerable house property, has been living in a most, deplorable way since both he and his wife became unable to go out of doors. Some weeks ago the hitter met with an accident, which disabled her, and as her husband could not walk owing to dropsy in the legs, food has been obtained, it would seem, from persons who supplied it by handing it in through a window. But at last tho local police were informed of the wretched way in which this couple were contriving to support life and tho house was entered. The ailing man and his helpless wife were found ailing in a kitchen, badly lighted, and the placo was thick, it is stated, with accumulations of dust and filth. Indeed, the condition of these two persons is alluded to as " indescribable." One of the first acts of the police when they entered, owing to tho polluted slate of tho air, was to disinfect tho house. Tho wretched couple had then to bo conveyed to a hospital in blankots, and tho woman is believed to be in a critical condition. There was plenty of money iv the house, which was well enough furnished ; yet these people were actually in a far worse condition than the inmates of a casual ward. —Chronicle.