Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-06-19

which he told her his scheme had sue
ceeded, that he was to be invalided on a
certain day, and desiring her to make good
cheer against his arrival The feelings of
the malingerer may be imagined when
his own letter was read to him. A
soldier who avowed that he had
lost the power of locomotion was de-
tected by very simple ruse after other
means had failed. The doctor gently tap
ped at the window of the yoom in which
the paralyzed man was sitting alone after
dark, at the same time softly calling his
name, when he at once appeared at the
window. "How long have you been
dumb, my friend?" said passenger on
shipboard once to a pretended mute
Three weeks sir" replied the incautious
simpleton An old device Of army sur
geons, in suspicious cases of deafness, was
to commence conversation in a high
tone, and gradually to lower the voice to
an ordinary pitch. A common malingerer
would probably continue to reply to the
questions put from not observing
the alteration The most remarkable eX-
ample on record Of success in Stimulating
deafdumbness Tor deafness from birth) is
that of a Frenchman, best known under
his assumed name of Victor Foy, at the
beginning of the present century. This
young man travelled about, ostensiblv in
search of his father, but really, in his
character ola deafmute, to escape mill
tary CONSUMPTION. For four years his
extraordinary ingenuity baff1ed all the
tests to which he was subjected by some
Of the most scientific men in France, Ger
many, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy. In
Switzerland he was tempted to avow the
deceit by young, rich, and beautiful
woman offering him her hand; but even
this bait did not take. In the prison at
Rochelle, the turnkey was ordered to
watch him closely, to sleep with him, and
never to quit him; and even the prisoners
were encouraged to make him betray
himself. To throw him off his guard, he
was often violently awakened out of sleep,
but his fright was expressed only in the
usual plalntive cry of mute; and it is
said that even in his dreams only cultural
sounds were heard. At last, the Able
oicard, director of the institution for deaf
mutcs at Paris, to whom specimen of his
writing had been transmitted, promptly
pronounced him an impostor, on the
ground that his blunders in spelling were
phonetic in their character-that he
wrote, not as he saw, but as he heard. NJ
Slcard afterwards subjected him to a per
sonal examination, at the end of which he
was Obliged to confess the imposition
A very simple incident will often suf
flce to throw a good simulator off his
guard. The letter-carrier, on entering a
french barrack-r0Om on one occasion,
called out the names of the men for whom
he had letters, and among them that of a
man believed by everybody to be laboring
undo almost total deafness. For one mo-
ment ne forgot his part, and answered to
his name. Casper, the celebrated German
medical jurist, on one occasion neatly ex-
posed a case of counterfeit deafness in
open court. The panel, an old woman,
pretended to be deaf as post ''You are
| accused" roared Caspar in her ear, "of
severely injuring the woman Lemke." at
| is not true" But" roared Caspar AGAIN,
| 1.-The woman Lemke asserts that it is true -
and then rapidly added in low tone, land
she is certainly not a liar" Her wrath for
a moment got the better of her consistency,
and she rejoined, to the amusement of the
whole court, Yes, indeed, she as a liar.n
| Possibly the nationality of the hero of the
following incident is chargeable with the
| lmpulsive imprUdence which BETRAYED
| him. An Irish army recruit who had sud
denly lost his hearing was sent into hos
| pltal, and put, by the doctors orders, on
spoon-meat For nine days the lat
ter in his visits passed the deaf
| mans bed without seeming to notice
him; on the tenth day, after examining
the state OF his tongue andpulse, he asked
the attendant what kind Of food the pa
tlent was getting. On being told he was
on spoon-meat, he affected to be very an
Cry: Are you not ashamed of YOURSELF"
| said he to the nurse. The poor fellow is
almost starved to death. Let him at once
have beefsteak and a pint of porter"
God bless your honor,' blurted out the
deaf recruit; you are the best gentleman
J have seen for many day." Under the
influence Of strong. emotion of any kind,
only limited class of malingerers have
sufficient selfcommand to play their
parts. An amusing example Of the way
IN which, in the heat of passion, every
Vestigc of pretence is sometimes thrown
away, is related by a surgeon of the navy,
to whose experiences we have already
been indebted. A seaman on board a
trigate, who pretended to be totally blind,
and was believed to be 50, was on one oc-
casion allowed to go on shore with an at
tenoant to lead him. The pair happened
to quarrel, and come to blows, when the
blind man, finding himself suddenly han
dlcapped, instantly regained his sight, and
S't tliC DFttCI VI HIS aSiOulSltu Sulut.
The latter took to flight, was pursued
through great part of the town by his
late protege, and finally got severe drub-
blng from him. The application of the
cato -nine-tails next day to the back of
the impostor, etiectually cured him of any
further tendency to defect of vision
The amount of fortitude-call it obsti-
macy, if you will-displayed by some of
this class of impostors is something
amazing. Day and night they will remain
III the most constrained and irksome po-
sltlons. For weeks, and even months,
men nave sat and walked with their bod
les bent double. A man feigning palsy
OF the lower limbs was placed by himself
in room with food which he could reach
only by walking to the place where it was
laid, and at the end of two days h had
not tasted it. Another, simulatingS rally
sis of the arm, allowed the amputating
knife to be placed beneath it, and would
have submitted to the operation for its re-
moval. A soldier counterfeiting blind
ness was placed on the steep bank of q
river, and ordered to march forward,
which he unhesitatingly did, and fell into
the stream. The medical writer who re-
lates this case queries whether the cheat
would have gone forward had precipice
instead of river been before him No
doubt these may be called exceptional in
stances of fortitude, as the great major
lty OF malingers are made of
more commonplace stuff. A mere hint from
a navy SurpaOO that an aoYivoca1 CON, nj :. /; n