Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1877-08-30
miscellaneous &eading.
THIEVES BY BIRTH.
PERSONS IN WHOM THE PROPENSITY TO STEAL

PERSONS IN WHOM The PROPENSITY III SiEAL
IS NATURAL AND IRRESISTIBLE.
I was invited to a Jail in Massachusetts by
,vr; whu has stnce bccume 6nfrId
States Senator, to examine 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 we described the young
man as being abnormally acquisitive, or sell.
fish 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 consci.
entiousness and very large acquisitiveness 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 mi ght tell what he had told him (the
lawyer. He went on to relate that he had
been in the habit of stealing everything,
whether he wanted it or NOT that he would
go to prayer meeting and take the opportuni-
ty of prayer two or three times during the
evening, and sometimes on the way home he
would be inspired with devotional 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, ifhe saw a hoe hanging on a
farmers fence, or whif1e-tree chain, or pin
of cart neap, or beetle and wedges, or an
old axe, half.worn, he would steal it, and af
terward 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 remarked that there was hollow log ly-
ing in small piece of wood in which he had
secreted the articles which he had stolen be.
cause 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 re-
ligious devotions, and exceedingly happy in
their performance, he seemed to himself to be
left to the temptation of the devil when any.
thing which might be stolen was left in his
way.
A man who was a minister called for an
examination, and at the end of a long and
sharp analysis of his character, in which &C.
quisitiveness and secretiveness had been des-
cribed as strongly developed and very active,
and also conscientiousness and cautlousness
had been estimated as large, he seemed unwil-
ling to go, but walked up and down the room
for several minutes, as if he had some bur-
dened question he wanted to ask and yet was
afraid to ask. Turning to him, I said "Do
you wish TO ask any questionsS" "Yes," he
said "there is one thing about me which you
do not seem to haye described. If you will
tell me that, will believe in phrenology." I
instantly replied: "You have an inclination
to steal but probably manage to refrain
from it." He opened his eyes with terrified
astonishment, and, giving me such a fierce
gaze as never will be forgotten, remarked:
"Sir, that is true. That is my trouble. I am
a clergyman, sir, and hope that l am a true
one; yet I have, all my life long, been tempt
ed to steal, and in my parochial visits, often
have an impulse come over me to take some
thing; and if left alone in room I do take
it and sometimes it requires half an hour to
find convenient opportunity to get the arti'
Gle thus taken out of my pocket and back
upon the shelf or table where it belongs. 1t
may be 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 I do not need,
and could not use if did need them, without
the theft being detected" And he remarked,
with tears tumbling down his face: "Ry the
help of God, I have been able, hitherto, to
refrain from carrying away anything which !
had thus, under the impulse, stolen,''
Twenty live years ago there was well-to-do
farmers wife in Connecticut who had an i'm.
pulse 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 wa.
gon were we'll known, and she caught sight of
pair of blue stockings hanging on a line in
the yard With other clothing, she would stop
her team, get out Of the wagon, 60 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, re-
turn to her wagon, whip up the team and get
out of the way. IF she had been stranger,