The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1878-02-16
Our New York Letter.
The Madness Of Eunatics and
the LHnacy of Madmen-The
Murder Mania-P earsalIss
Bank DefalcatiOn
Etc.
NEW YORK Feb g. 1879

MurUeF Man1a-kS n n . n l.
DiscOvery-Esamk DefalcatiOl
Etc.
NEW YORK, Feb 9, 1873
EDITOR CHIEF:
l am but mad nor'-nor-West;
When the wind is southerly,
know a hawk from a hand-saw.
Hdmlct-How came he mad
edigger-Faith, cen by losing his wits
SHAKESPEARE
An eminent English divine whose
orthodoxy impressed it's stamp upon
the age and body of his time, left q
very learned work behind him to
prove that all mankind were lunatics.
Two hundred years of scholastic re-
search have not shaken the argu-
ments there adduced, and the reve-
iations of these latter days rather
seem to furnish conclusive evidence
that the learned bishop was not so
far astray. Plato, think it is, who
describes lunatics as the wards or
children of the gods, and another
philosopher, equally eminent, looks
upon madness as the highest form of
spiritualized mind OF soul. A couple
OF cases have occurred in our courts
during the past week which have set
US all to inquiring, What is mad
ness Is the criminal mad Are the
| witnesses mad 2 Are the lawyers
mad Z Is the jury mad Z Is the judge
lunatic9 And are we mad also,
who sit quietly by while Atrocities
ale perpetrated under the sacred
shadow of the justice seat aud in the
name of the law, which make hol-
low mockery of that which mankind
in all ages have regarded as their
AK, their security aud shield, when
every other hope had failed?
1t is only a few weeks ago since
savage brute tried to assassinate bis
young wife i'll tie city of Brooklyn.
He emptied his revolver and left her.
as he thought, dying on the floor.
He expressed good deal of safisfac-
tlon at what he had done, aud when
he heard she was likely to recover,
seemed sorry that he had not killed
her. And now, l understand, he is
to be sent to lunatic asylum If
ever man deserved halter, it was
this young, brutal luffian. He was
the pampered son of wealthy man.
who had denied him nothing and
who had allowed him to grow up as a
fast young man about town, without
any training or restraint. How any
father who really loved his daughter,
could have calmly committed her to
the charge of such WORTHLESS vaga-
bond, merely because his father was
rich, is one of those incomprehensi-
ble things which it is impossible to
find out. He would have denied the
suit of an honest mechanic, Though
he had the genius of franklin or
Watt.
The discarded mistress of a Brook |
lyn builder murdered him in his |
house because he had cast her off
the facts on the trial proved that he |
was d worthless, as well as heart
les wretch, and the lawyers turned |
his history to such practical account
that they succeeded in sending her
to lunatic' asylum instead of to the
gallows. When young Cornelius Van
derbllt committed a forgery in Wash
ington, an ingenious lawyer discoy-
cred in it evidence of lunacy; the |
penalty of the offense being States |
Prison, they concluded that the
easiest way to save this cratic scion
of the house of Vanderbilt was to
send him to the lunatic asylum. One
of the Astors broke child's back
anti was sued for twenty thousand |
dollars damages. Not wishing to pay, |
they tried to prove him a lunatic
but it would not work on a country
jury, SO Mr.. Astor had to pay the |
twenty thousand dollars.
Years ago brawling ward poll
tician was killed in a bar-room fight :: |
his brother swore be would have the
hearts blood of the slayer of his
brother; he followed the supposed
for months, and at last, one |
night, surprised him in the street and
shot him in the back. Long months |
rolled on and the wounded man re-
covered but he was followed by the