Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1895 — A Wonder of Relationship. [ARTICLE]

A Wonder of Relationship.

In an old scrapbook which hna been in ffie family of the editor of "Notes for the Carious” for twentyfive or thirty years, and which contains a number of clippings without date. I find the following: “William Harman, who committed suicide at Titusville, Penn., a short time since, did so because some one had convinced him that he was his own grandfather! Here is a copy of the singular letter he left: ‘I married a widow who had a grown-up daughter. My father visited us often, fell is love with my stepdaughter and mar* ried her. Thus he became my son-in-law, and my stepdaughter became my mother, because she was my father’s wife. Soon after this my wife gave birch to a son, which, of course, was my father's brother-in-law, and my uncle, for he was the brother of my stepmother. My father’s wife also became the mother of a son. He was, of course, ray brother, and also my grandchild, for he was the son of my daughter. Accordingly my wife was my grandmother, because she was my mother’s mother. I was my wife’s husband and grandchild at one and the same time. And as the husband of a person’s grandmother is’ his grandfather, I was my own grandfather!’’’ Was it any wonder that the poor man rid himself of such tangled relationship?