A STRANGE STORY.

Evening Star, Issue 3421, 7 February 1874, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY.

(To the Editor of the * Lancet,'.) Pie, —Before the subject and witnesses of it pass away, allow mo to record, in a few words, a strange story. Eli H- aged about seventy-five years, is now living in a village near this town. Before he was born his father made a vow that if his wife, then pregnant, should bring him a girl, she having had three in succession, he would never speak to the child as long as he lived. The child turned out to be a boy. And now what is most strange and remarkable occurred. This boy would never speak to his father. Moreover, during his father’s lifetime, ho would never speak to anyone but his mother and three sisters. As soon as his father died, he being then thirty-five years old, his tongue was unloosened to everyone, and he has remained an ordinary loquacious individual ever since. 'I he verification of this strange story is easy enough. Every one in the village was acquainted with “dumb Eli,” and numerous living witnesses remember his dumbness passing away. Of course, this man’s condition was popularly regarded as a judgment. It was at least a most curious instance of mysterious influence which may be interesting to many of your readers.—l am, Jc., F. Mayhew. Glastonbury, Nov. 6, 1873.