The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1877-08-16
Thieves by Birth.

become United States Senator, to ex-
anime the head of q 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 ac-
quisitive, or selfish in respect to pos
session; that he had very strong vener-
alton, and would manifest much re-
ligiorls devotion, and would be sincere
in it; while with his email cautiOusness
and conscientiousness, and very large
acquisitiveness he wOEld be likely to
TIRE spass 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 1.-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 90
to prayer meeting and take the oppor-
tunity of praying two or three times
during the evening, and sometimes on
the way h6me he #ojlld 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, if he saw a hoe
hanging on q farmers fence, or q Whit
Ae-tree, or chain, OF pin of a cart neap,
or beetle and wedges, or an old axe,
half-wOrn, he would steal it, and alter
ward 1t 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 hollow log lying in small piece of
wood in which he had secreted the arti-
al og HI oh ho hod ufnlaT7 hoooyTca he 1oro
not carry them home nor 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 sin
core 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 acquisitiyeness and secretiveness
had been described as strongly devel-
| eped and very active, and also censcien-
! ti0usness 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 ques-
tions ?" &" Yes" he said there is one
thing about me which you do not seem
to have described. 1t you will tell me
that, l will believe in phrenology." I
instantly replied: You have an inclina,
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. l am 8
Clergyman, sir, and hope that l am q
true one; yet I have all my life long
been tempted 10 steal, and in my par
Ochial visits often have an impulse come
over ne to take something; and if left
al )ne in room l do take it and some
times it requires half an hour to find 6
convenient opportunity TO get the arti
Gle thus taken out of my pocket and
back upon the shelf or table where il
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 did need them without the
theft being detected ! " And he re
marked, with tears tumbling down hi
face, " By the help of God I have beer
able, hitherto, to refrain from carrying
away anything which had thus, unde
the impulse, stolen"
Twenty-Five years ago there was
well-tO-dO farmers wife in Connection
who had impulse to steal only one kline
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 anC
wagon were well known, and she caugh
sight of a pair blue stockings hanging
on line in the yard with other cloth
ing, she would stop her team, get out o
the wagon, go into the yard in front o
the rooms where the family were work
ing and jerk those stockings off the line
leaving a dozen pairs of other coloIs
return to her wagon, whip up the team
and get out of the way. If she had beer
a stranger, whose popularity is un
known, she would have been followed
and arrested and punished but every
body knew that she had that quee
mOnomania for blue stockings.
| examined a mans head and des
cribed him SIS being very fond of money
happening, of course, TO use that term
money, instead of property, and it mad,
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.-NeLsoa jSi1er, Il
chronological Journal.