Darger went to live in a Catholic mission. Apparently he was thrown out for masturbating. He was put in the Asylum for Feeble-Minded Children in Lincoln, Ill. There he became absorbed with religious rituals. He once wrote, ''I burned holy pictures and hit the face of Christ in pictures with my fist.'' At 16 he ran away from the asylum. For the next half-century, Mr. Bonesteel tells us, Darger worked ''as a janitor, dishwasher and bandage roller at three Chicago hospitals.''
He lived a life of magnificent confinement. The room he occupied had no kitchen or bathroom, and the great events of his life were meteorological. He went to Mass as many as four or five times a day. ''He would rarely speak to anyone, but if spoken to would respond politely -- always about the weather,'' his landlord, Nathan Lerner, recalled in a written statement. ''He was a remarkable mimic and sometimes there would be an animated quarrel going on between a deep gruff voice, which was supposed to be he, and a querulous high-pitched voice, which was supposed to be his superior, a nun.''