Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-07-04
ROBERT DALE OWEN.
1he First OF EpIrIfusIIsis - one Clean
DEn-sad End Of u SobIe Life
Chicago TribUue.1

! chicago Tribune
a dispatch OF this morning tells scr
! TOwiul story. Robert Dale Owen h, s
| become insane. After 8 long life Of ear
nest, unselfish effort for the good Of
mankind, this terrible infliction GENES.
The cause of it probably does not lie
many months back. When the heart
less impOsture OF the Holmes mediums,
the Philadelphia conspirators with
Katie King" was exposed, the shock
to Mr.. Owen was tremendous. He had
accepted the pretended "msnifesta-
tons" of these rsscsls with implicit
faith. He lived some time in Phila-
Gelphia in order 20 miss none
OF the seancas. The repeated
apparitiOns of "Katie' were to him
conclusive proof of Immortality. He
pinned his faith in the life hereafter, in
reunion with his father and his wife, on
what spirituallsm, and especially upon
what this pretended spirit showed him.
Readers of his article in the atlantic
Monthly upon "Kstie King" will re-
member the syllogism which the good
ole man painfully constructed theie iD,
by which he proved, to his own perfect
satisfaction, that the visitor was indet d
disc mbodied bit of supernaturalism.
The day bsfore the article app cared the
freud was exposed. Mr.. Owen wept
bitterly, it IS sad, when q con-
viction that he had, been made the
dupe OF trio of knaves forced
itself upon him. He telegraphed to
Boston to cut out the article, but it was
too late. The magazine was already
printed. A thin slipof paper, disclaim-
Ing any editorial possibility and thus
n loo alrTs =,
was prefXed to the sketch. And thus
it came TO pass that Robert, Dale Owens
syllOgistic proof that "Kstie King" was
q spirit and "Katie's" own confession
that she was a fraud were published to-
gether throughout the country. The
mind once so vigorous could not stand
the blow that shook the faith of life
time. The insanity feared at that time
has at last come. The sun that rose in
splendOr sets in gloom. The life
so sorrOwfully ,ended-fOr insanity is
death or worse than death-began in
1904, at New Lsnark, an industrial set
Element near Glasgow, Scotland, which
was long monument to the philan-
thTOpy Of his father, Robert Owen. The
sons fame has never equaled that Of
the size, but he has been even more
selt'sacriiCing in his efforts to benefit
mankind. When the father came to
America in order to carry out his COM
muuistic dreams, the son was his faith
full assistant. He edited the paper that
ser yed as the organ of the "New
harmony" colony. When that brave,
+ ,olish experiment failed, and the elder
owen returned TO England to conduct
like failures there, to SOW the seeds of
cooperation, labOr-leagues, and chart
ism, 10 found infant schools, and to
preach SpiTitualism, Robert Dale re-
manned il America He was by nature
a pOiitii OF the old school, the coed
seAOol, anu he was soon in the Indiana
Legislature, where he succeeded in eman-
cipatiDg women from the slavery
of the common law, then in con-
gress, and finally in the diplomatic
service of the country. President Pierce,
who sent Hawthorne to Liverpool, and
SO endowed the word with marble
Faunn and "Our Old Home,n made
Owen minister at Naples. Since he re.
tired from that position in 1855, he has
been student, writer, amateur pOliti.
clan and professional philsnthropist.
His published works fill nearly
dozen volumes. No one, we Ore.
sumo, reads NOWADAYS his unpopular
Popular Tracts, his P,dnk ORadS, and
his P0cohOntaS, q Drama. We trust
that no one will try to read his Beyond
the Breakers. But book-making was
not his forte. A kindly, genial, whole.
souled man, the Iradestined prey of
plausible rogues, the friend of every
scheme of reform, combining the purity
of childhood with the vigor Of manhood
he has met a fate worse than death, a
fate for which s trio Of sordid swindlers
are probably responsible.