A QUEER FREAK OF INSANITY. For Seven Years a Wanderer from His Home.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 182, 11 December 1886, Page 3

A QUEER FREAK OF INSANITY. For Seven Years a Wanderer from His Home.

Thk caso of Mr Conant, editor of " Harper's Weekly,'' who left home, Mends and business long months ago, and has not yet been found by those searching, is paralleled every week in the year. One of tho many strange cases was that of a citizen of Wisconsin named Edward Myers. He resided in a village of about 3,000 inhabitants, and owned a store, a flour mill, a tannery, and other interests He was, in fact, the leading man of the town, and at the time of his disappearance was looked upon as a shrewd, keen - witted, and level • headed nym One October evening just at duak he took a pitcher and started to cross the street to the house of a neighbor who had that day brought home a barrel of new cider, and when he passed through the door hia wife and children had seen him for the last time in seven years, After a couple of hours had passed one of the family crossed the street to look for him, and found that he had not been at the house. Next dny a search was made, and for the next month probably 2,000 people were on tho lookout tor some trace of tho miy-ing man. It was a case to puzzle everybody. Here was a man doing good business, iorty fiv9 years old, and in good health, having a nappy home and owing no man a dollar, with no known enemies, who disappeared as complefct-ly as if a cyclone had blown him out to sea. It- was natural to conclude that he bad been murdered, but his wife could figure that he did not have more than $i 0 on his person. Besides, how could the murderers havo spirited the body away bo that no trace of ie could be found ? Late in the day a detective advanced the theory that Myere had been Killed in the street, and his body placed in a vehicle and driven off to be chipped to some medical college. Some people were satisfied with this explanation, and others mado themselves be lieve that he had committed somo secret crime and had fled for fear of exposure. In a few months tho mysterious disappearance had become an old story to all except the family. There was one son twenty-one years of age and another past eighteen. The older one took up the management of the business, and the younger, accompanied by a detective, set out to search the world, if need be, to find the fathor, liviDg or dead. By the advice of a physician they abandoned all other theories and began to search for a demented pereon. The first clue was struck at Baraboe, 40 miles from home. The pitcher which Myers had taken had been made to order and boro the family initial. It waa found in a beer saloon, where he had sold it for 30 cent?. Tho buyer did not lemember much about the man, ten months having now elapsed. An oldish man, who had evidently travelled a good distance by highway, had entered the placo one ovening and offered the pitcher for sale, and it had been purchased at his offer, Como to think of it, he did act rather queerly, stating that hia family had driven him from home, and seeming greatly affected, but the saloonkeeper "waB busy and did not give him much attention. It was six months later beforeanother trace of Myers was discovered. It was then found that a man answering hia description and looked upon as light-headed had worked in a caw-mill at Galena, 111., for a couple of months, and then suddenly departed without a word to anybody. This waa the last heard of him until he had boen missed three i years. He was then heard of at Nashville, Term., where ho had worked in a liveiy stable for several months. He had been gone a month when the son reached Nashville, and although five or six men were enlisted in the search, not another trace of him could be discovered for two years. Then he turned up in Sedalia, Mo., ad a farm hand. The owner of the fai-m believed the John Thomas to be none other than the miaeing Myers, and he wrote to the family, but before the son arrived the father had walked away again. There was something unfathomable in his goings. Search as they would and did for fifty miles around, no one could be found who had seen him on railroade, steamboats or highways. It ia likely that he feared pursuit, and therefore travelled only by night, and by unfrequented routes. Two years more passed without a clue, but this was accounted for later on. Thomas had gone up into lowa, fallen in ■with some tramp 3 who burned a barn, and all were sentenced to prison Thomas got two years, and about a week before his sentence expired he told the Warden some points of his history which led the official to suspect his identity. Tho son arrived and fully recognised the father, but the latter had no remembranco of him "When taken home he called his wifo by name, recognised all the old friends, but persisted in being a stranger in his own house. He wa3 sent to an asylum, and a year aftor returned, perfectly restored to reason. He picked up all things from tho point where he had left them sovon years before, and could not be induced to believe that more than a few weeks had olapaed. He died at the age of fifty eight, porfoctly sane and in the full tide ot business success. His insanity was a matter of controversy among the doctors, and no one was ever satisfied as to tho cauae. Fiom the time his reason was restored to the time of his death he dated all bis letters oight yoars back, refusing to beliove, as has been related, that such a term of years had dropped out of his Hie.