The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-08-16
THIEVES BY BIRTH.
Persons in Whom the Propensity to
steal is Irresistible.

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steal is Irresistible.
l was invited to a Jail in Massachu-
setts by a young lawyer, who has since
become United States Senator, to cxam-
inc the head of client of his whom he
was to defend on the charge of stealing.
No information was given as to his
alleged crime, and VIC described the
young man as being abnormally acquisi-
tive, or selfish in respect to possession ;
that he had very strong veneration, and
would manifest much religious devotion,
and would be sincere in it while with
his small cautiousness and Conscientious
ness and very large acquisitivcness he
would be likely to trespass upon the
rights of others in the way of stealing.
AT this point the lawyer told the
young man he might tell me what he
had told him (thc lawyer.) He went on
to relate that he had been in the habit
of stealing everything, whether he want
ed it or not that he would go to prayer
meeting and take the opportunity of
praying two or three times during the
evening, and sometimes on the way
home he would be inspired with a devo-
tional feeling, and would kneel down in
the corner of the fence alone, and have
season of prayer that was sweet and
heavenly to him; and, strange as it may
seem, if he saw hoe hanging on a
farmers fence, or whifiie-tree chain, or
pin of a cart neap, or a beetle and we'd.
ges, or an old ak, half-worn, he would
Steal it, and afterward it would occur to
him that he could not use the articles,
nobody would buy them, and his only
way was to conceal them and he re-
marked that there was hollow log lying
in small piece of wood in which he
had secreted the articles which he had
stolen because he dare not carry them
home nor offer them for sale. But it
seemed to him that he could not help
stealing them; the impulse came on, and
though he was sincere in his religious
devotions, and exceedingly happy in
their performance, he seemed to himself
to be left to the temptation of the devil
when anything which might be stolen
was left in his way.
A man who was a minister called for
an examination, and at the end of long
and sharp analysis of his character, in
which acquisitiveness and secretiveness
had been described as strongly developed
and very active, and also conscientious
ness and cautiousness had been estimated
as large, he seemed unwilling to go, but
walked up and down the room for several
minutes, as if he had some burdened
question he wanted to ask and yet was
afraid to ask. Turning to him, | said !:
"Do you wish to ask any questions ?"
eyes," he said ''there is one thing
about me which you do not seem to have
described. If you will tell me that, l
will believe in phrenology." | instantly
replied: "You have an inclination to
steal; but probably manage to refrain
from it." lie opened his eyes with ter
rifed astonishment. and, giving me such
fierce gaze as never will be forgotten,
remarked: "Sir, that is true. That is
my trouble. l am clergyman, sir, and
hope that am true one; yet | have all
my life long been tempted to steal, and
in my parochial visits often have an i'm
pulse come over me to take something ;
and if left alone in room | do take it !;
and sometimes it requires half an hour
to find a convenient opportunity to get
the article thus taken out of my pocket
and back upon the shelf or table where
it belongs. 1t may be a shell which
every Sunday school child in the parish
knows; it may be an old hymn book
with name written on it, and half worn
out-things which l do not need, and
could not use if 1 did need them, with
out the theft being detected" And he
remarked, with tears tumbling down his
face: "By the help of God, | have been
able, hitherto, to refrain from carrying
away anything which had thus, under
the impulse, stolen
Twenty-Five years ago there was we'll
to.do farmers wife in Connecticut who
had an impulse to steal only one kind of
an article, and that was blue stockings.
If she were driving, in the middle of a
bright afternoon, a mile from home,
where she and the horse and wagon were
we'll known, and she caught sight of a
pair OF blue stockings hanging on line
in the yard with o'.er clothing, she
would stop her team, get out OF the
wagon, 70 into the yard in front of the
rooms where the family were working,
and jerk those stockings off the line,
leaving dozen pairs Of other colors,
return to her wagon, whip up the team
and get out of the way. Ii she had been
Il stranger, whose popularity was un-
known, she would have been followed
and arrested and punished; but every.
body knew that she had that queer mo-
nomania for blue stockings.
l examined mans head and described
him as being very fond of money, hap
pening, of course, to Use that term,
money, instead of property, and it made
quite Il sensation because it was known
that he would steal money, and he did
not hesitate to talk about it himself.
But he would steal nothing else, no
matter how valuable, though he knew
he might be detectcd.-fhrcmotogical
| J0urnai
A POWDER MILL.-A powdcr-mill is
not in the least like other mills. In
stead of one great building, it is COM
posed of many rough looking little sheds,
sometimes as many as seventy or eighty:
These are long distances apart, separated
by dense woods and great mounds OF
earth, so that if one "house" is blown up
the others will escape like fate OF
some the walls are built very strong, and
the roofs very slight, in the hope that il
an explosion happens, its force will be
expended upward only. Other houses
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with earth the roofs of others arc tanks
always full of water.
The constant danger, inseparable from
the work, would be gradually increased
were there not strict rules, always ell
forced. No cautious visitor can be more
careful than the workmen themselves
for they know, if an explosion happens
it will be certain, instant death to them
So no lights or fires are ever allowed
,,< <,no 1;yoc ponror tha pi1lc than can he