Not so Easy as it Seemed.

Manawatu Herald, 28 April 1894, Page 3

Not so Easy as it Seemed.

» The late Dr Brierre de Boismont j had for 40 years one of the bestknown Parisian madhouses, and he was the friend of all the artlistic and literary celebrities of his time, who dined with him frequently, the latter often for the purpose of making studies of the various stages and sorts of insanity. One day an animated discussion took between 'the doctor and a rich banker, who held that madness could be easily detected even by a non-expert. "On the contrary," gaid the doctor, " I have a dozen patients in my keeping who, outside of their pet idea, are as sane and sensible as you, or at least seem to be as sane and sensible as you. I will make a wager that I will introduoe you to a small dinner party at which one of my guests will be one of my most hopeless cases, and that you will pass the evening without discovering." " Done !" said the banker, and the dinner was set for next Monday night. When the party was about to break up, the doctor approached the banker and asked with a smile, " Well, did you discover the madman ?" " Discover the madman ?" echoed the banker with a contemptuous curl of the lip, " why, I picked him out before we had been at table five minutes — the man on your left. Anyone could do it after hearing him talk about his chimerical enterprises, which were to yield fabulous sums. Mad as a March hare ! I could not help remarking as much to the gentleman who sat beside me." " Which one ?" " The one on my left— a very quiet, gentlemanly, well-informed man, too. Who was ho?" "Oh, he was the madman ! The gentleman on my left was the novelist, Honore de Balzac "— " Great Thoughts."