Eccentricities of Great Men.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1815, 25 July 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

Eccentricities of Great Men.

Suatonius said that, during tho winter, A liustua would wear four tunics beneath a iuicli toga ; to the3B were added a shirS and a woollen undergarment ; hia limb 3, also, were as carefully protected. In eumraer he would Bleep with both doora and windows open, and frequently under the psriatyle of hia palace, where jeta of fresh water refreshed the air, and where, moreover, wag posted a slave, whoee duty it waa to fsn him. He could not endure the sun — not even the winter sun — and he never walked abroad without a broad-brimmed hat on his head. "Ferdinand 11., Grand Duke of Tuscany, who died in 1870," says the Abbe Arnauld, in his "Memoirs," "was the slave of his health. I have frequently seen him pacing op and down his room between two lorge thermometers, upon which he would keep his eye constantly filed, uncaaßingly employed in taking off and putting on a variety of skull-caps of different degreeß of warmta, of which he had alwsya fivo or six in his hand, according to the different degreeß oS heat or cold." Tho Abba de St. Marbin, who, in tho seventeenth century, rendered himself se> ridiculous with his pretensiono and hia manias, always wore nine skull caps upon his head to keep off the oold, with a wig over all, which, by tho way, was always awry and dishevelled, bo that his faco never appeared to ba in its nataral position. In addition to his nine skull-caps, he wore, also, nine pairo of stockings. Rjs bed was made of bricks, undsrne&th which waa buli a furnace, so constructed ss to itapart t!jo precise degree of heat ho might rcq-.i.s. Tuh bed had a very small opening, through which the abbe used to creep when he retire d £t night. Four;er, tha learned French mathematician, nad returned from Egypi a martyr to rheumatism, and with a constant sensation of cold ; ha suffered dreadfully whenever exposed to an atmosphere lower than twenty dtgress 11 aumur. A servant followed him everywhtro with a mantle in readiness for auy eudden change of temperature. . Daring the latter years oj.' hia hfo, exhausted by an asthma fiom which he had been a sufferer from hid youth, he kept himself, for the purposes of writing and speaking to his friends, enclosed in & Bpceias of box, which permitted no deviation of tbe body, and left at liberty only his head and hands. Donatello, the Florentine soulptor, who died in 116 % among other --singularities, had the habit of keeping hi 3 money in a basket which hung from a nail in the wall of his room. Into this basket hia workmen and friends used to dip at discretion. Beethoven had two imperious habits by which he was constantly swayed. That of moving hia lodgings and thst of walking. Scarcely was he installed in an apartment ere he would discover some fault in it, and commenoa looking out for another. Every day, after dinner, despite the weather, he would take a long walk. Socrates did not blush to play with children ; Tycho Btahe diverted himself by polishing glasses for all kinda of spectacles ; D'Audilly, tho translator of "Josephue," after seven or eight hours study every day, amused himself in cultivating trees. Balzac amused himself with a collection of crayon portraits; Politian, in singing airs to his lute. When Pctavius was employed in his " Dogmata Th6ologica," a work of extreme erudition, his great recreation wag, at the end of every hour, to twirl hia chair for five micutea. Dr. Samuel Clark used to &muse himself by jumping over the chairs and tables ; Dean Swift extrcis&d himself by running up and down the deanery, and, even in his latter days, when hia constitution was almost broken down, ho^was, says Dootor Johnson, on his legs ten hoars of the day.

Young Doctor (to patient) : " That preBcription 1 left last nighf, sir, was a mistake. It waa intended for another patient. Did yea have it filled?" Patie.ni: "Yea, doctor." Doctor : " Well, how are you feeling thia rtorning ?" Patiekt : •' Much better." Deacon (to minirter) : " I B'pose, parson, that the advance in your salary from five hundred to six hundred will be a big help to you." Minister: "Yes, indeed; the additional ono hundred will enable me to hire a man to collect the five hundred." "Are you familiar with Thackeray's works, Miss Sooter?" asked Mr. Miles Standish of the girl, and she artlessly responded : " Can't say that I am. Ido not keep tha run of half the foundries they are putting up in the city."

Mrs. Forkem : '• Anything fer me ?" Rural Postmaster : " I don't see nothinV* Mrs. Forkem : " I was expeotin' a letter er postal from Aunt Sally Spriggs, tellin' what day she was comin'." Eural Poßtmaster (calling to his wife) : "Did ye see a postal from Mrs. Forkem'a Aunt Sally, tellin' what day she was com* in' ?" Hia Wife: "Tee; Bhe'fl comin' Than-, day." 74t