Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1873-07-03
KIeptOmania.


the above heading in the forth-com-
ing volume of McClintock and Strong's
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological
and Ecclesiastical Literature, publish
ed by Harper d Brothers, we take the
following entertaining anecdotes:
Kleptomania is usually exhibited bv
persons who have no motive to steal,
and is frequently satisfied by purloin-
ing articles of no value. A baronet of
large fortune stole, while on the Con-
tinent, pieces of old iron and broken
Crockery, and in such quantities that
tons of these collections were pre-
sented to the custom house officers. III
the second volume of the Medical Crit
ic the case Of female is detailed who
could not resist the impulse of appro-
priatiHg every thing within her reach.
In searching this woman on one occa-
sion there were found fifteen bags up
on her person, in which there were
1852 articles, mostly worthless, viz,
1O4 bits of paper, 80 sewing needles,
Is old gloves, ID moulds for wax
leaves, 19.buttons, go feathers, Is par
cells of dried fish, 135 bits of ribbons,
8 bottles, 81 lozenges, and a variety
of other articles, the refuse of the
place, to which she had at various
times taken a fancy.
Another case reported by high med
ical authority is that of rich, but &C.
centric gentleman living in an old
manor house in Lincolnshire, England.
He was good business man, and
managed his estate with care and pru-
dence, auditing his stewards yearly
accounts with the skill of an expert.
His neighbors were all kindly dispos-
ed toward him, and he was charitably
disposed toward the poor. Even the
servants who saw him every day, al
though they confessed that he was
certainly very peculiar at times"
never once dreamed of impugning his
intellect. He was insane in one direc-
ton only, and one might have passed
a lifetime with him without discover
ing it. He would be seized by sud-
den determination to travel, and on
such occasions he Wovld travel in
state, with retinue of servants. AT.
ter fortnight's or perhaps months
absence, he would return home. In
variably, on the morning of the next
day after his return, towels, which had
5oen taken from an open Portmanteau,
were found scattered about the room.
After breakfast, his custom was to re-
tire to the library and write the ad-
dresses of all the hotel keepers at
whose houses he had slept during his
absence on so many slips of
writing paper, with directions to his
servants to inclose to each address the
number of towels specified upon each
piece of paper, and to copy such and
other writing as they might find there,
and send this in a letter, with the
towels, to the hotel keeper. This gen.
tleman was one of the unhappy race
of kleptomaniacs, whose particular
mania impelled him to purloin towels.
He subsequently gave to friend his
tory of his case, and said he was goad-
ed to these journeyings and pilferings
by an irresistible impulse, which he
insisted was the result of demoniacal
possession. He was never impelled,
however, a second time on the same
Tourney, so that, while no hotel-keep-
er would be likely to suspect, during
| Ills fISlGs q ROuOlOuAGAu VI L4lS AelL4h ANA
style as one who would steal his tow
els, it never transpired publicly, so
far as is known, that he was a thief, al
though his own consciousness of the
fact imsittered his existence.
Sometimes, in the case of this form
of monomania, there exists in the
mind of the sufferer the deiusion that
what he steals is his own property, OF
has been stolen from him, and that he
merely reclaims his own. Sometimes
he imagines that God orders him to
!, steal The case is recorded of 8
Scotch clergyman, charity: he stole
Bibles with special view of the glo-
ry of God by the preparation of the
Gospel. His manse was little "mis-
; sionary society of stolen Bibles" and
he was as much in earnest in the con
version of souls by the coutraband
process as the most enthusiastic for
eign minister could be in his calling
He was at last detected in wholesale
Bible stealing. 1t was further discov
cred that he had organized wide mis-
sionary district, and left bible or {
: Testament at every cottage where i
= was needed along the route. Tht
most touching fact in the story is thai
: he was arrested while on his knees by
: the bed side of dying old man will
a stolen Bible lying wide open before
: him on the bed. "What made yol
: steal the Bibles, Mr.. B-?" asked
! the sheriff, with pieus horror upon
his face. God made me steal them
: good man. was the reply; He wa
\ weary of seeing His poor people per
= ish of Gospel hunger because theSricl
} Bible Society could not afford to feet
them without the baubees, and 81
God sent for me to steal them ant
:, save them" He could not be per
II suaded that he had done wrong. Th
: delusion of the clergyman, who was
: very poor man, naturally suggestet
= insanity. But he was perfectly san
- upon all other points, and it is doubt
- full whether he would have receive
, the benefit of his malady-whether, il
: deed, it would have been admitted as
: malady at alI-if a learned and philo
II sophical physician in neighborin
town had not positively sworn that b
- was the victim of moral mania"
S, 1t was at the second battle of Bu
'e Run that cannon ball carried off
poor soldiers leg.
Garry me to the rear!' he cried, I
tall Yankee companion who ha
d, been fighting by his side
-, The Yankee caught the wounde