The star of Pascagoula. [volume] (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1873-1878, 1877-08-17

Thieves by Birth.
| was invited to a Jail in Massachu-
sets by a young lawyer, who has since
become United States Senator, to ex'
anime the head of a client of his whom
he was to defend on the charge of steal
ing. No information was given as to
his alleged crime, and we described the
young man as being abnormally &C.
quisitive, or selfish in respect to pos
session; that he had very strong vener-
alton, and would manifest much re-
ligious devotion, and would be sincere
in it while with his small c~sutiousness
and conscientiousness, and very large
acquisitivcness he woHld 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 (the lawyer. He went
on to relate that he had been in the
habit of stealing everything, whether
be wanted it or not; that he would 60
to prayer meeting and take the oppor-
tunity of praying two or three times
during the evening, and sometimes on
the way home he would be inspired
with a devotional feeling, and would
kneel down in the corner of the fence
alone. and have a season OF prayer that
was sweet and heavenly to him and,
strange as it may seem, II he saw a o
hanging on q farmers fence, or a Whit
file. tree, or chain, or pin of a cart neap,
or a beetle and wedges, or an old axe,
half.worn, he would steal ii, and after
ward it would occur to him That he
could not use the articles, nobody would
buy them, and his only way was to con
ceal them and he remarked that there
was a hollow log lying in asmall piece OF
wood in which he had s%ecreted the arti-
cles which he had stolen because be dare
not carry them home o offer them for
sale. But it seemed to him that he
could not help stealing them the i'm
pulse came on, and though he was sim
core in his religious devotions, and
exceedingly happy in their performance,
he seemed to himself to be lett to the
temptation OF the devil when anything
which might be stolen was left IN his
way. 49,. ~
A man who was a minister called for
an examination. and at the end of a long
and sharp analysis of Ills character, in
which acquisitiveness and secretlyeness
had been described as strongly deyel-
gped and very active, and also censclen-
tiousness and cautiousness had been
estimated as large, he seemed unwilling
to 90, but walked up and down the room
for several minutes, as if he had some
burdened question he wanted to ask and
vet was afraid to ask. Turning to him,
/ said "Do you wish to ask any ques-
tons 2" YES" he said; there is one
thing about me which you do not seem
to have described. II you will tell me
that, | will believe in phrenology." |
instantly replied: You have al i%nclina-
ton to steal; but probably manage to
refrain from it," He opened his eyes
with terrified establishment, and, giving
me such a fierce gaze as never will
be forgotten, remarked "Sir, that is
true. That is my trouble. ] am a
CLERGYMAN, sir, and hope that | am a
true one yet | have all my life long
been tempted to steal, and In my par
ochial visits often have an impulse come
over ne to take something; and ii left
alone in a room | do take it and some
times it requires half an hour to find a
convenient opportunity TO get the artl,
Gle thus taken out of my pocket and
back upon the shelf or table where 1t
belongs. 1t may be a shell which every
Sunday-school child in the parish knows
it NAV be an old hymn book with a
name written on it, and half worn out
things which | do not need, and could
not use if | did need them without the
theft being detected !" And he re-
marked, with tears tumbliug 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 a
well-to-do farmers wife in Connecticut
who had impulse to steal only one kind
of an article, and that was blue stock.
ings. If she were driving, in the mid
die of a bright afternoon, a mile IRON
home, where she and the horse and
wagon were we'll known, and she caught
sight of a pair blue stockings hanging
on a line ia the yard with other cloth
ing, she would stop her team, get u oil
the wagon, 20 into the yard IN front OF
the rooms where the family were work
ing and Jerk those stockings off the line,
leaving a dozen pairs of other colors,
return to her wagon, whip up the team,
and get out of the way. If she had been
a stranger, whose popularity is un,
known, she would have been followed
and arrested and punished but every
body knew that she had that queer
monomania for blue stockings.
I examined a mans head and des
cribed him as being very fond of money
happening, of course, to use that term
money, instead of property, and it made
quite a sensation because it was known
that he would steal money, and he die
not hesitate to talk about it himself
But he would steal nothing else, NJ
matter how valuable, though he knew
he might be detected.-NelSon Siaer, Il
chronological Journal.