The Argus

Strange Hallucination of an Indiana Man-Walking in a Circle for a Year and a Half-Prophesying the End of Time.

HARTFORD CITY, Ind., Dec. 21.-Over a year ago John Owen Snider, a farmer living seven miles southeast of this place was seized with a mania for pedestrianism, being impressed with the strange hallucination that three layers had suddenly appeared upon the bottoms of his feet, and the only remedy for their removal was to walk them off. He at once took up the line of march, traveling in a circle, in the rear of his dwelling, about twenty-five feet in diameter. Around this beaten path he has traveled now for over one year, until within the last few days.

No friend or relative could induce him to stop, and it was necessary to travel with food and give him drink as he traveled on his tireless journey. He was persuaded to follow the plow, but if the plow struck any object he would let go the handles and travel on from right to left in a circle about the field. In dropping corn he always dropped it in a circle. The family history reveals no insanity on either side, and medical men are at a loss to divine the origin of the strange hallucination, nor can they devise any remedial agent that will give relief or remove the strange malady that so afflicts him.

He has been tramping now over one year and a half, and the last twelve months almost day and night for at least sixteen hours of every twenty-four. He always sits in a chair while sleeping, and never removes his clothing. He leaves off his pilgrimage about 1 in the morning, and immediately falls asleep in the chair provided for him. At 5 he again starts upon his tireless round, he travels at the rate of five miles an hour, or eighty in twenty-four, and in the last twelve months has walked 25,000 miles, or once around the world. This is no exaggeration, but every statement is founded upon facts as they exist. He seems perfectly sane upon all subjects except the imaginary one afflicting him.

Last summer he was pronounced insane and sent to an asylum. He walked to the train, and continued his pilgrimage while on the way. At the asylum no means devised could compel him to desist, and on he went If compelled by force to stop, his feet are lifted alternately and thus kept in motion. The authorities regarded him as harmless, and he was sent home. For a few days past he has been forced to keep inside his dwelling in a room provided for him, and on he goes; and, considering himself a prisoner, it has aggravated him, and he has accelerated his pace until he fairly flies about his apartment.

He has taken to prophesy and remarkable stories are told of his predictions. It is claimed that he foretold the death of Gen. Grant, and that he observed after the fall election that poor Hendricks would not be alive one year from the time of his inauguration. Many other events that have occurred he has foretold with marked precision and accuracy. And now he predicts that within the next decade the greatest war since the formation of the government will be in progress. It will commence in foreign lands, and America will be compelled to engage in it before it is ended. He predicts the end of time within the next twenty years; says the sun is cooling and getting ready for combustion, etc. He is clear and lucid on all subjects except the imaginary trouble with his feet. In response to the inquiry how long he expected to continue his pilgrimage before relief is obtained, his reply is that 50,000 miles of travel will be necessary to remove the imaginary morbid growth, and that he must make haste to compass that distance; and then away he goes with a bound that fairly startles his inquisitor. It certainly is a most peculiarly remarkable case and without a parallel in the history of maladies that afflict mankind, imaginary or otherwise.