Are human quirks weird or crazy?
The line between eccentricity, folly and insanity is rather shaky, and therefore we will consider some representatives of these categories of strange people together, leaving the reader the right to independently diagnose each of them.
Here, for example, Madame de Breeze, a wealthy Parisian who lived in the 19th century, was remembered for her eccentricity, which manifested itself in her posthumous will. A few days after Madame's death, the lawyer gathered her relatives to read the will. It was short. It said that the deceased bequeathed her 125,000 francs to the snowmen: she wished that they were always dressed with taste, as is customary among people. Madame's relatives said that their beloved relative was not herself when she made out the will. Perhaps, out of a sense of admiration for Madame de Breeze's act, the judge refused to amend the will. She ended the trial with these words: "Paris, as the capital of world fashion, will have the most fashionable snowmen in the world!"
There have been many insane kings in human history, but not like King Otto, who was crowned in 1886. All would be fine, but the king was clearly not himself. He spent 14 years locked up, his own family was afraid to be with him. Otto was not worried about his imprisonment, he remained alone for a long time with the spirits that lived in the drawers of his wardrobe, and for days on the fly he talked with them. The Tsar believed that if he killed one peasant every day, he would never get sick. It was not difficult for the mad king to choose his victims - this was done by his servants. One of them handed the tsar a pistol loaded with blank cartridges, the other, disguised as a peasant, was hiding in the bushes. When the tsar showed himself in the window with a pistol in his hands, he came out of his hiding place and, hearing a shot, fell down …
American millionaire Hattie Green lived like a beggar. She was born in 1835 in New Bedford, Massachusetts and inherited a substantial fortune from her father. The millionaire invested her money with great care and skill, and after a short period of time her inheritance multiplied, reaching $ 100 million. She was known among the financiers as the wizard of Wall Street.
Despite all her wealth, Hattie Greene led a beggarly life. For example, when she and her two sons lived in Vermont, one of them - Edward - broke his leg, but the loving mother did not call the doctor, because, as she believed, it would be a very big expense, and took the baby to the hospital Red Cross, posing as a beggar. Unfortunately, Edward did not get better there - in the end, the leg had to be amputated. Hetty made it so that the operation was performed in a guest house so as not to pay for the hospital stay.
In the last years of her life, Hetty lived in a house where there was no central heating, she ate a meager diet of onions and raw eggs in order to save gas. I did not use hygiene products, I washed only one part of my clothes, for example, a part of a skirt. In the meantime, her fortune continued to increase. She passed away in 1916. By that time, Hetty Green's savings were $ 125 million.
Leona Helmsley - nicknamed the "queen of stinginess." She once served 18 months in prison for tax evasion. A feature film was made about how Helmsley saved every cent and kept her husband's business tight-knit. She loved her Maltese lapdog named Trouble ("problem") much more than her husband, and therefore did not spare money for her dog-friend. After the woman's death, the lapdog inherited most of her fortune - $ 12 million, which infuriated Leona's relatives. Through litigation, they were still able to reduce this amount to 2 million.
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23-year-old American actress Wendy Dorkas married millionaire filmmaker Roger Dorkas. He was almost three times older than Wendy, and the actress expected that over time, millions of her husband would transfer to her account. After a year of family life, Roger died suddenly. But when the lawyers read out his will, Wendy was furious and there was something: she inherited … 1 cent. All the rest (and this is $ 64 million) the millionaire bequeathed … to his dog Maximilian.
The court took the side of the dog, but the actress found a way to keep millions for herself - she … married Maximilian. It turned out that when Dorkas opened an account for a dog, he had to register the dog as an American citizen in order to pay the necessary taxes. The marriage of the actress with the dog was even registered - the dog's papers were in order. And when Maximilian died, the "widow" inherited all his fortune.
1595 - Mohamed III (1567 - 1603) ascended the throne of the Ottoman Empire. Even during the reign of his father, Murad III, power in Turkey became unstable, because the sultan lived under the influence of his harem. Although the generals won several impressive victories, his son Mohamed believed that the power left to him by his father was a kind of hanger that could fall at any moment. Therefore, in order to strengthen his power, he decided to establish a policy of terror in the state and, for a start, ordered the killing of all his 19 brothers, so that their death would serve as a threat to anyone who has any plans to seize power. Despite the bloody massacre, Mohamed ruled for only 8 years - death decided to reunite him with his brothers.
Long before the Englishman William Beckford had a passion for building giant towers, he inherited from his father a plantation in Western Asia, a million pounds sterling and a luxurious English estate from his father. His guardian made sure that William received the best possible education. The boy studied music with Mozart, he was taught Arabic and Persian. In 1786, at the age of 26, Beckford wrote a novel in Arabic called Vatek, a much beloved by Byron and studied in many universities around the world. For reasons unknown, Beckford translated the book into French and then hired a translator to translate it into English, and it was in that language that it was first published. It told how one Arab sultan built a huge tower in the hope of using astronomy to reveal all the secrets of space.
1790 - the dream of the protagonist of the novel was passed on to its author. In order to explore the world with a telescope, Beckford hired the most famous English architect James White to build him the same amazing tower that the hero of his book erected. Beckford was anxiously awaiting the completion of Fontil Abey, as he christened his dream. On the construction of the tower, 500 people worked day and night in two shifts. For a large fee, the builders completed the project - in 1800 the 130-meter tower was erected. Beckford did not manage to get into it - a week after the completion of construction, the tower broke in half.
Beckford went back to work, only this time with the intention of making the tower more solid. In its construction, he invested 273,000 pounds and 7 years of life. Beckford lived for 15 years in his building, until financial difficulties forced him to sell the tower to a certain John Farquhar. After a short period of time, after the new owner took root in the miracle tower, it collapsed again. Beckford's next and last building was a modest 40-meter tower on top of a hill, which he inhabited with dwarfs. Already in adulthood, Beckford was seized by a feeling of hostility towards women, he built their stone figures, and in his corridors he built special shelters for the maids who were supposed to hide in them, barely hearing his steps.
But the poor American vagrant John Chapman for 44 years did nothing but plant apple trees. All apple orchards that exist in America today are monuments of his love for the earth and the people living on it. This strange man, better known as Ivanushka Apple Seeds, was born in 1775 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Almost nothing is known of his childhood and youth, except that sometime in the late 18th century, he distributed apple seeds and seedlings in Pennsylvania to families who were heading east. In 1801, John showed up with a bag of seeds in Clickwend Canton, Ohio. He took these seeds from apple wineries in Pennsylvania and New York. From that time until the day of his death in 1845, Ivanushka Yablochnye Seeds sowed apple trees over 160,000 square kilometers. He used to walk several times on the same roads to trim and plant the trees he had planted. When he wandered along the roads, he attracted the attention of passers-by with his clothes instead of a shirt, John wore a coffee bag, instead of a hat - a saucepan in which he prepared his own food. That's all he needed Together with the seeds. John also distributed Bibles. Over time, John became a folk hero. Over the years, the legends about him continued to multiply. Over the years, the legends about him continued to multiply. Over the years, the legends about him continued to multiply.
A story has come down to our time about how one of the most outstanding poets of the Earth - Virgil (70 - 19 BC) spent a fantastic amount on the funeral of a fly! The poet immortalized his name with the poem "Aeneid", which brought him worldwide fame. In addition, he was a rather charming and extremely witty person, as evidenced by such an incident. When in 49 BC. e. power in Rome was seized by a triumvirate in the person of Mark Antony, Emilius Lepidus and Guy Caesar Octavian, a decree was issued on the confiscation of land allotments for distribution to retired soldiers. Land allotted for mausoleums and cemeteries did not fall under the decree. Vergil, worried that his estates near Rome could be taken away from him, arranged a grand funeral for a fly in his house, which, according to him, was his favorite. Several dignitaries made farewell speeches,Virgil himself also warmly said goodbye to the fly. The funeral procession cost the poet 800,000 sesterces, by today's standards - slightly more than $ 100,000. The funeral rituals performed by Virgil turned his estates into a mausoleum. Thus, the poet saved his lands from being seized by the authorities. Whether to consider the way he did it as eccentric is up to the reader.
And here is the story of an even greater love that the Marquis Margaret Teresa felt for her husband, the Marquis of Vaubrun. Even his death did not put an end to her feelings. Having received the news of her husband's death in the city of Altenheim (Germany) on July 30, 1675, Margaret Teresa did everything necessary in a short time so that the heart of her beloved husband was sent to her in France. The widow gave the order to embalm the heart and place it in a glass box. Throughout the next 29 years of her life, Margarita Teresa spent 7 hours a day, looking at the heart of her beloved and longing for him.
Englishman William Nordmore (1690 - 1735) was a born gambler. Most of all, he loved to play cards, although with the same passion he bet on horses and on politicians. For several years in a row, he was incredibly lucky, and so it was until he put his fortune, estimated at $ 850,000, on the line and lost. Nordmore vowed not to play again, but it was too late. Luck briefly left the impoverished young man, but returned to him again - only not at the card table, but during the election campaign. People, sympathizing with Nordmore, supported him in the parliamentary elections in 1714. He had this support in the subsequent elections, up to the day of his death. Thus, he earned a solid political capital.
At the beginning of the 12th century, the Japanese emperor Shutoku was sent into a 3-year exile. During this time, he wrote religious Buddhist works in red ink. As it turned out, this ink was nothing more than his own blood. The Emperor's 135-page book contained 10,500 words. Shutoku believed that his efforts would not go unnoticed by the Buddha, that the great God, patience and work would return his lost throne. Historical records show that Shutoku regained power in 1114 and remained the emperor of Japan for another twenty years.
Dentist Giovanni Orsenigo, who practiced in Rome, kept all the teeth he removed from patients during the period from 1868 to 1904. In the collection collected by the dentist, there were more than two million pulled out teeth! It turned out that in one day of work he extracted 185 teeth, or six full jaws … Since such a speed of removal was impossible in those years, and there was no need for such speed, it should be admitted that Orsenigo for some reason borrowed the teeth removed in other patients by his colleagues.
Ferdinand Wilde Demera of America is one of the most skillful deceivers in human history. This man did not want any insignificant but missing document to interfere with his professional career. By fraud and deceit, Demera opened for himself all the necessary doors to secular society, which were previously unapproachable to him. Knowing in advance that he would need excellent characteristics and excellent recommendations that would delight the right people, he composed a fantastic list of “his” former merits and concocted papers for himself, under which there were fake signatures or invented names.
During the Korean War, Demera managed to get an invitation to board one of the ships of the Canadian Royal Flotilla as the chief military surgeon. It should be noted that when he was invited to operate, he performed operations on 19 sailors, and, according to the entries in the logbook, they all went well! Another Demera scam in the pseudo-professional field, when he pretended to be a professor of psychology with solid teaching experience at various universities, he also succeeded. He was respected and respected by students, professors and the administration of the university where he taught. When the fraud was uncovered, Demera's activities quieted down for a while, to be reborn as a boarding consultant in a Texas prison. Once again he played his part brilliantly,laughing at the level of professional training of their legal competitors. Never a single institution in which he worked began a trial against him, fearing for its own reputation. A film about his life was made in Hollywood, and since that time nothing else has been heard about him. Nevertheless, some of the burned believe that Demera still poses a danger to overly gullible people …