The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1879-05-16
EMOTIONAL INSANITY.

y remarkable murder trial has been
going on lately in Chicago. II is a case
of wife murder The victim was Mrs
Mamie \ Oung Stevens. The SLAYER was
Mr. Peter Stevens. The fact of kfIIino
Is not denied. Mr.. Peter Stevens admits
that he killed his wife. But his defense
Is that he was crazy emotional fus9n-
ity," they call il in the cant of the
courts. Mamie Stevens was thirteen
years of age when she was married.
She was seventeen years Old-a mere
child yet-When her affecti0nate hus-
band put pistol 10 her head and blew
out her brains. About a wear after her
marriage, being then a dignified matron
OF fourteen. Mamie engaged i'm an illicit
correspondence with somebody who was
not her husband. What love-letters She
wrote we do not know PERHAPS 1t was
lop-sided correspondence. The love
letters which she received We're the
things that did the business for her. A
mauied woman of fourteen cannot have
mad much experience Of that kind. She
was fond of these letters, and kept them.
no doubt, to solace her lonely hours dur
ing the intervals of Peters absence from
home. Peter was not an amiable man.
IN TACT he was quite the reverse. He
had habit of beating hiS wife. and
knocking her down. and locking her p
IN her bedroom. or the cellar. or the At
TIC, or any other place that came handy
ior the purpose. 1t is 10 wonder that
Mamie thought il a nice thing 10 get
IoNe-IetterS from persons who did not or
could not beat her and knock her down
or lock her up. Finding these letters so
NICE she put them i'm a trunk with the
intention of keepingthem. There Peter
found them. He found them and read
them- and thought about them for two
Years. Then he made up his mind to
become a raTIng maniac. He became a
IaNing maniac, and then and there pro-
Ceeded 10 blow out Namie's brains with
pistol Now he SAYS he was emotion
ally insane. Generally emotion is a
pretty rapid phenomenon. But in Pc
ter case II seems to have been extreme
" slow. HIS personal equation must he
something extraordinary. Il took him
twenty-foUr months after reading these
luNc-letterS To become a raging luuatic
Probably if somebody were t. stick him
with pin, or hit him over the head
with cane, he would not feel il for a
year. These tests were rot applied in
the course of the trial; but they ought
TO ht ElaGe Use of in the case of q man
Who PASSES two years In making up his
mind To go crazy. Towards the end of
the two years Peter had symptoms Of in
sanity. lie SAYS So himself He de
clareS That ne felt very had. 90 and that
when he feels bad he Is dangerous. and
not accountable foT what he docs. 30
he thought he would just 90 and blow
cut Nalnie's brains and then he might
feel better In point of fact after he
lad performed this little operation with
ucatueSs and dispatch he felt great deal
better and began to glow fat at once
There is something in all this that re-
minds one OF The celebrated Mrs Sher-
man. who managed during her career to
get lid of a good many husbands. and
children and steVchiidron. Mrs. Sher-
man was of a melancholy turn of mind,
She was subject To fits uf depression
she was easily discouraged. Whenever
she got discouraged She took q uD-ian TO
poison somebody. and when She had ac-
complIshed this. 10y means of lgT favor
lie eENedleut OF q little arsenic iu "a cup
uI tea. She Immediately recovered her
spirits. 30 t"o am ingenious member OF
oar state convention told an interview
ing reporter That if the state debt should
not be reFUdlaJcd 1.-The people would be
very much mortified. =" He did not tell
lis that, after becoming VERY much NOR
lifted they would 90 to work 10 hang
the louaholders: hut we suppose that
this would be the natural result ou the
stevens and Sherman theory. On the
whole we may say That MI Peter Ste
Ven's is "a little thin. Two wears cou~id-
eratIuu on tie UToprit,y of getting TO he
a temporary lmatic and then killing q
woman. as "a remedy for feeling bad. are
not exactly consistent with the Theory of
emotional Insanity whatever jhai theory
may be WORTHY. .. Pi~0utat.