Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-29
A SINGULAR STORY.

a olNGUlA1 oAOh1'
The story told by Mrs. Paul, of Santa
Clara, concerning the alleged attempt to
kill her made by masked man who en-
tered her house during her husbands alb
sence, is in many respects very singular
one. Some time last year this same lady
told story of conspiracy to abduct
State Senator Murphy, of Santa Clara, al
leging that she had overheard the conspi-
rators accidentally. A searching inquiry
was instituted, but no corroboration of her
narrative has been found from that day to
this, so far as we are aware. She now
states that her assailant declared his inten-
ton to kill her because she knew too much
about the Murphy case, and this is a curi-
GUS circumstance, because there is really
nothing tangible extant to show that
she knew anything about the Murphy
case, or indeed that there ever was
Murphy case of an objective character.
1t is said that her husband and his father
in-law do not believe her last story, not
withstanding the fact that she is undoubt-
edly suffering from two gunshot wounds,
and several Commissions on the head. The
chief difficulty in the case is of course that
of understanding what motive anyone could
have for inventing such narrative, and In
fiicting wounds on herself to bear it out
That her own relations are disposed to
think that nobody attacked her, is evident,
and if nobody attacked her it follows that
she must have shot herself. Before enter
ing upon any examination of this theory,
however, it is necessary to inquire what
the lady's mental condition is, for it is
highly probable. if not quite certain, that
the explanation of the whole mystery
lies in the answer to this question.
the class of morbid phenomena commonly
ranged under the generic term Hystcria,
do not require to be told that even stranger
things than this have often been done by
women suffering from such affections. In
such cases there may or may not be posi-
tive predispostion to chronic alteration,
but whether there is or not it is quite
possible for the most eccentric and unac-
courtable actions to be gone through, and
even with an assumption of conference and
system well calculated to deceive the ordi-
nary observer. An experienced alieuist
would be very likely to give useful advice
in a case OF this kind, and we are quite
prepared to learn that it is a situation in
which the services of the physician are
more needed than those of the detective.
~
THE DEMOCRATS AND WEST POINT.
The Democrats appear incapable of
avoiding fatal blunders The West Point
scandal has created very strong
and general feeling of Indignation
in the country, and a disposition
has been manifested to reform the
Academy very thoroughly in consequence
of it. But certain Democrats, who cherish
long-standing antipathy to West Point
as the training school of those Union
captains who put down the rebellion,
think the temporary unpopularity of the
institution affords good opportunity for
destroying it altogether, and have already
begun to work to that end. The only
effect of this movement can be to make
the country forget the Whitaker affair al
together, and to rally it to the support of
the Academy. The cradle of the Federal
army, the school where all the nations
most illustrious defenders and preservers
have been educated, will not be suffered to
fall at the instigation of Democrats
whose sympathy with abortive treason
is the source of their hostility to the estab-
lshment 1t has been made sufficiently
apparent that abuses have grown up at
West Point, and that the place needs
thorough reorganization; but all the re.
forms which are needed can be applied
without detracting in any degree from its
usefulness, and only wholesome and invig-
Grating changes will be consented to by the
people. West Point must be preserved as
long as the Union endures, and it must be
made more efficient and valuable instead of
less so. The Democrats who think it pos
sible to pull it down viii find, if they pro-
coed much further, that there are lions in
the path, and that the American people
will never consent to the destruction of this
national pride and safeguard at the sugges-
ton of disloyal schemers.