Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1879 — Why William Sharp Went to Bed. [ARTICLE]

Why William Sharp Went to Bed.

The passion of love often reacts strangely on undisciplined minds, and frequently produces on them most un-looked-for results. At Keithley, at the beginning of the present century, lived a young man named William Sharp. He fell desperately in love with a girl, the daughter of a neighboring farmer. Everything went smoothly till the wedding morning, when the fathers could not agree how much to give the young couple to start them in life; and literally at the last moment in church the match was broken off. This was too much for the weak mind of William Sharp; he went home, went to his bed, and never rose from it again. He was just 30 when he thus isolated himself from active life, and he died in his bed at the age of 75. His room was about 9 feet square. The floor was stone, and generally damp. The window was permanently fastened; some of the panes were filled in with wood; and at the time of his death it had not been opened for 38 years. In this dreary cell did this strange being immure himself. He obstinately refused to speak and gradually every trace of intelligence faded away. His father left an ample provision for his eccentric son, and he was well looked after. He ate as much as an ordinary day laborer, and at his death weighed above sixteen stone. In Harrogate, several years ago, lived a woman who for the same cause behaved in exactly the same manner. Her parents having prevented her marriage years; and, if not dead, is probably keeping it still.— Chambers' Journal.