Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-05-15


There are a good many strange things abou
the character and career of the murderer Rul
loft; but one of the strangest is the fact tha
men generally reputed sensible and well in
formed think they can see, in the reported con
versation between him and the medical COM
mission, evidence Of great natural powers OF
mind and of profound learning. The doctors
themselves were manifestly impressed with his
stupendous attainments, and because they
could not understand him, accepted his own
estimate of his pathological theories and his
linguistic knowledge. Knowing the man to be
q robber and murderer, not person in whose
assertions one could put implicit confidence, as
soon as he began to talk about language they
seem to have surrendered at discretion. With
out any means of testing its correctness, they
believe his statement that he could read ''all
the European languages except the Sclavonic,"
and even improve upon it to the extent Of as
sorting that che can converse in any language
huently except the Russian" Of his book DIR.
Vanderpool modestly says: 81 did not judge its
merits. | believe only men of his calibre can do
that" But he has no hesitation also in saying
of this same book, which he could net judge,
sit is very profound, and evidently the product
ofgreat study and research. am surprised that
pathological scholars have not taken more inter-
est in the work than has thus far been mani
Tested" II might perhaps have occurred to this
credulous physician that, since Rulloff has al
ready indicated the nature of his speculations,
the reason why pathological scholars show no
interest in them is that they are manifestly
trivial and valueless, not to say utterly absurd.
The man is a curiosity, because learned burg
lars are rare, and this it appears is at least
familiar with some Greek authors, and has
speculated not more erratically and incense
quently than some other men probably more
learned than he, on the origin of language.
There is not the least evidence that his theories
have any value or interest for scholars except as
the curious vagaries of an unframed intellect,
but there is abundant reason in the few frag-
ments disclosed in his conversation and his petit
ton to the governor, for pronouncing them illog-
ical and at variance with the teachings of OBJ
servation and sound scholarship. The following
precious bit of the history of language was ac-
cepted among the rest by the admiring doctors
as evidence that they were conversing with "one
of the most learned men living p" The letter
'R' was not found in the earlier Greek In
writings up to that time that letter was not
necessary, but when Bacchus came out of Me
dia and Bacchanalian life with its revels, orgies
and carnivals began, it then became necessary
to use hitherto unknown letters to properly
designate the words necessary to describe
the new conditions of life" That is to say,
apparently, when orgies, revels and carni-
walls were introduced, the letter or" was
invented because these words could not be
spelled without 1t. If the Greeks of that time
had had the ingenuity Of our modern jewellers,
they could have devised names for the new ex-
cesses without resorting to an additional letter.
The fast men of our time could supply great
variety of names for these things without using
the letter which the Greeks thought indispen-
sable. They even show the exuberanee of their
invention by dropping this peculiarly Baccha-
Dalian letter, from word where it legitimately
belongs, calling an excess of noisy conviviality
"bust."
The doctors pronounce Rulloff sane and there is
nothing to stand between MIN and the gallows
which few men have more fully deserved. He is
not only a robber and the leader and educator
of robbers, but has without doubt committed
two murders besides that of which he is now
convicted. His shallow speculations about Ian
guage and the admiration of credulous people,
who mistake his self assertion for evidence of
wonderful talents and knowledge onght not to
save him from the fate he has brought upon
himself