Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1876 — Fifteen Tears Without Sleep. [ARTICLE]

Fifteen Tears Without Sleep.

Amt person who has traveled along the highway between this city and West Troy could not help noticing or at least casting a casual glance at a neat, tidy little cottage situated a short distance below Cedar Grove, between the highway and the Brie Canal. The house in question is a model of neatness, as are all its surroundings; and well it may be, for the owner of it, Clarence Friabyrhas.not closed his eyes in sleep for the past fifteen years, and, consequently, had lots of time to make his house and garden look neat. Mr. Frisby is now thirty-eight years old; is hale and hearty for Ills age, eats well, works hard, but sleeps none. The circumstances of his not sleeping any haring reached the ears of an Edgle reporter he directed his footsteps toward Mr. Frisby’s residence yesterday afternoon. The house is about fifty rods from the road and surroundsd with trees, some of which are evergreens, which make the surroundings of the house look cheerful, even at this inclement season. The reporter found Mr. Frisby in, and he gave the following narrative: “When a young man I contracted lazy, indolent habits, and was scarcely able to do anything but sleep and eat. This habit continued and 1 was growing worse day by day until v finally, 1 could lie in bed all day and night, and I would still want to remain longer. I began to get disgusted with myself, bqp all efforts to shake off my dormant habits were useless. My parents, brothers and sisters got down on me, and I had no peace or comfort in the house; still I wanted to lounge, and would retire to the barn when I had no peace in the house, and would lie down there and go to sleep. Well, that kind of life lasted until the 15th of June, 1861. I was sleeping in that room in there,” said he, pointing to a bed in the sitting-room, “ and felt something biting my left leg. I put down my hand to see what was the matter, when, oh horror! there was a huge rat snapping at me, and a large black-snake lying by my side. I roared with all my might, and jumped out of bed nearly scared to death, and then beheld my eldest brother ana father crouching behind the head of the bed and laughing with all their might. My brother held a string in his hand, which was attached to the rat’s body, and by that means kept it in the bed. I was then told by my father tliat he consulted a fortuneteller in Troy as to how I could be cured of my indolent habits, and was informed by the necromancer that a rat and snake put into my bed when asleep and left there until I awoke would have the desired effect. My father and brother resolved to try the experiment and did so, and the result was even better than their fondest expectations, lor I never closed my eyes in sleep since that never-to-be-forgotten night.” Our reporter then asked Mr. Frisby if he ever took laudanum to get him to sleep. He said he had tried everything. Laudanum got him into a kind of stupor but not to sleep, and its effect wore off after a very short period of time. Other medicines, too, had a like effect. We asked him how it was that ills wonderful case was not more generally known, and be said he told it only to a very few persons, and that even some of his immediate neighbors were not aware of it We asked him if he did not feel tired and weary for want of sleep, and he shook his head and said that when he was tired he laydown and-rested, but never went to sleep. He said that for the first few years it seemed to him unpleasant to remain in the house at night, or lay beside any person in bed, as it made him feel bad to see other persons enjoy what he could not; but, said he, then, with a laugh: “I have got bravely over that.” Mr. Frisby is married for the past eight years and is the happy father of two children. His wife smilingly said to our reporter that she was glad he did not sleep, as she was never called upon to light fires in the morning, something that the newspapers take a good deal of stock in lately. Mr. Frisby Is of medium size, well proportioned, and seems to enjoy good health. — Cohoe* (N. F.) Eagle ,