Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/75

Rh watched, domineered over, persecuted, and shut up, and asked me for a consultation respecting a host of imaginary ills with which he believed he was afflicted, and which the medical inspector could not cure. When we asked him how he passed his time, he showed us a portfolio of exceedingly well-executed water-color views of landscapes of the region, of wonderful perspective and remarkably good shading, and which he held at a very high price. He would often go many leagues to find a new view or to draw one, in odd contradiction to the complaints he made about restrictions to which he was subjected. lie was also writing a great book, "a work of real genius" he called it, against monarchical government and in favor of the republic. A lady from Antwerp, deranged in consequence of some domestic troubles, who was domiciled in a commodious, cheerful, and well-kept house, talked on the afflictions of women, the thousand ways men had of tormenting them, the troubles of life, and the blessing of death, and repeated continually, "We must be resigned, we must live in hope." She nevertheless had a cheerful air and a pleasant and smiling face. Most of our second day at the colony was spent at Oosterloo, one of the most distant of the villages at which patients are taken. Our first call was upon a former "utility-man" of some theatre. We found him alone, in one of the back rooms, churning. He stopped when he saw us, greeted us, and performed the honors of the house. He had a plainly accentuated fancy that he was an object of persecution, and was under restraint. Yet nothing was easier than for him to go out and try to escape. There was nobody else in the house, and no one in the country would be surprised to see him walking around Gheel. His talk turned on the wonderful successes he had enjoyed in the theatre, and the malicious rivalries of his comrades who had put him down. At other houses we found a young man whose disease took the form of frequent explosions of laughter; one who was expecting to rejoin his sweetheart who had jilted him; old men in the kitchen sorting potatoes; and an old man who had a stock of wonderful stories, and boasted much of the marvelous cures he had performed of various diseases.

Our last call was at Gheel again, on a captain of artillery, who in answer to our greeting replied: "I am not here—only my body is on the earth; my soul has been in heaven, in the company of the blessed, for twenty-nine months and three days." Then, turning to my wife, "You appear, madam, in the likeness of the corpse of an aunt whom I lost a long time ago, but whose soul I meet in heaven; her earthly body was like yours." We remained for some time with this man, who spoke on other subjects with a fluency that reminded us of a well oiled steam-engine going under high pressure. He had curious theories about death, prayer, and many analogous subjects. He declared that the Protestants and the Jews were sure of eternal flames, and condemned to the same punishment numerous other persons, beginning