名门望族的崩塌，这大概是最悲伤的真实故事

几个月前读过一本很喜欢、内容十分离奇的小说《纽约兄弟》。出身贵胄的两兄弟，一个在疾病中失去视力的瞎子，一个在战争中失去旧我的癫子。他们的屋子不是空间，是一段彼此依赖前行的时间旅程，失去和囤积，在其间逐渐忘记为人的概念。……太悲伤了，简直是纽约版许三观卖血记。

今天读旧闻才惊恐发现，我的个神啊原来真有其人……在纽约最为繁华的第五大道上，确实曾生活着这样一对家道中落、相依为命的名门望族之后。警方接到发现尸体的匿名报案后，破门而入的意图无法实现，最后打破了二楼窗户才进入屋内。

清出来的囤积物品足有140吨。

小说里荷马（译作霍默）是弟弟，兰利是哥哥，不清楚是译本的问题还是怎样。这篇旧闻写清了他俩出生时间“Homer in 1881 and Langley in 1885”，他们于1947年双双不幸死去。

警察在囤积品中搜寻了两小时，才在书堆和垃圾旁边发现了哥哥荷马的尸体，弟弟兰利不知所踪。

纽约民众将街道围得水泄不通，看警方清理垃圾，寻找兰利的踪迹。

警方四方搜寻兰利无果，直到三周后，竟发现他的尸体就埋在荷马十英尺之外。

据分析，兰利的死亡在先，他是在给盲眼的哥哥荷马送食物时，被他自己设下的防贼陷阱压死。而荷马……我说不下去了。

《纽约兄弟》小说中，兰利给荷马每周吃成百个橙子，相信这样能够恢复他的视力，囤积了每一份报纸，待他复明后阅读；还有他们收藏了人体器官、T型汽车、14架大钢琴、数百码丝绸和布料、马车、more than 25,000 books……这些细节也都是真实的。

最后，再次推荐这本小说。

以下 原文： Homer and Langley Collyer were an extraordinary pair of brothers. They were born into one of New York City’s oldest families (Homer in 1881 and Langley in 1885) and lived in a mansion on Fifth Avenue near 128th Street, at a time when the Harlem address was fashionable. The pair obsessively collected books, furniture, musical instruments, and myriad other items, with booby traps set up in corridors and doorways to ensnare intruders. In March 1947, both were found dead in their home surrounded by over 140 tons of collected items that they had amassed over several decades.

The discovery of just how bad the Collyer brothers’ hoarding was came to light in March 1947 when an anonymous person reported there was a dead body in the Collyer residence.

The authorities did not have an easy time gaining entrance to the home. They started by trying to remove tons of garbage from the front foyer, which consisted of newspapers, phonebooks, furniture, boxes, and other miscellaneous debris. Unsuccessful in their attempts, a patrolman broke a window on the second floor in order to gain entry. After climbing through junk for two hours, he found the body of the elder brother Homer among the boxes and trash. Missing from the home, however, was Langley, the younger of the two recluses.

The hunt for Langley began, and authorities searched for him as far away as Atlantic City. A disturbing realization took place three weeks later, unfortunately, when Langley’s body was was found ten feet from his older brother’s. Because of the vast amount of garbage in the house, his body wasn’t unearthed until then. Langley had been crushed to death by one of his many booby-traps that he had made to deter people’s entry into their palace of junk. Langley actually had died first. He was crushed while bringing food to his elder brother, who was blind. Langley fed Homer a diet of one hundred oranges per week to try and restore his sight. Believing that the diet of oranges would restore Homer’s vision, Langley also saved every newspaper so that Homer could eventually read them when his sight returned.

Authorities eventually removed more than 100 tons of trash from the Collyer brothers’ house. Some of the more unusual items included human pickled organs, the chassis of an old Model T, fourteen pianos (both grand and upright), hundreds of yards of unused silks and fabric, the folding top of a horse-drawn carriage, and more than 25,000 books.