Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-12-20
Guiteau,s Boyhood Dcpraxitv.

| To the Editor of The EVENING STAR:
| In the Washington correspondence of the New
| York Tribune of December II is report of an
interview with one of the insanity experts, in
which the following passage occurs:
what general considerations lead you to be-
| feve him fGuiteau) sane?"
| We'll, look ut his career. From his birth
until he was l6 or II years of age his life was
| that OF an ordinary. studious quiet schOoi-bOy.
| He did act during that time develop any I'M
usual traits of wickedness. and did not show
| that hereditary tendency to insanity which the
| defence has attempted to prove. When
| ne reached early manhood his system changed
| greatly. of course. He has evidently been a
! man OF strong passions. and that fact explains
! many things in his career. He did not smoke.
| chew or swear. He preserved the outward
inoraiities He went at an early age to the
| Oneida Community. where he aspired to be a
| leader. which would mean that he would have
| exceptional liberty. Leaving the Community
because his life did not suit him, he went to New
J orh. and ever since that time has been tending
| toward criminality."
Mr.. Scoville, in his opening argument for the
defense. makes similar statements and tries to
give the same impression as to the boyhood
innocence OF the prisoner. He says: Ellis
father was an intense religiOnist. He probably
did not give that personal att entiOn to the boy
tnat he ought to have given. and yet the boy
grew up bright intelligent, gentlemanly, gentle.
loving, with no hayward ways, habits or acts. -
This is the character Mr.. Scoyille gives him up
to his going to Ann Arbor, and finally to the
Oneida Community. Now, is it true that up to
his joining the Oneida Community Guiteau had
been the immaculate, gentle boy, he is repre-
sented to have been in the above eXtracts1 It
is not true. Here are some facts on the other
side. which paint different picture of that boy
hood. Soon after he went to the Oneida Conf
munity, his egotism and self-conceit. which
were then of enormous proportions, subjected
him to some severe criticism, one result of
,jft
confession showed that he had from
early years been rey dsobedient bog to
his father: that he had. while clerk in a BUSH
1854 to 1851, i.e., from his thir-
teenth to his seventeenth year, robbed
his employers money drawer repeatedly of
considerable sums of money; that he had fire.
quented brOthels, and had had venereal disease,
and that he had been addicted to Selt.abuse to
the extent of seriously injuring his health.
In regard to his disobedence toward his
father, he confessed that on one OCCASION when
he had been refused some request. he attacked
his father over-powered him, threw him upon
the floor. and held him there till he yielded to
the demand made upon him.
This attack upon his father was also described
to me once by his father (whom l knew person.
ally and quite intimately for a score of years..
He represented his son as having very angry
spirit toward him. and that he yielded to the
demand because he feared that Charles might
Kill him if he did not-he felt that he was deal
ing with a murderOus spirit.
The testimony of Luther w. Guiteau as to his
SON character was that he had been very DISC
bedient from his early years; and l know that
one OF the great SORROWS that the father carried
With him to his grave was that he had found it
Impossible to secure obedience in Charles during
htS 6OytOCd. First and last he suffered more
from his wicked son than President Garfield did.
For more than a quarter of century he carried
burdens of heart and mind about that son W hich
saddened his life and made him old before his
| the weeping" when his sons browning act of
disohedience came-disebedience to all that his
| father had taught him. disobedience to all
authority and government. disobedience to
! God--In the murder OF the President.
One of the objects of the attempt to make it
appear that Guiteau's bOyhOOd was career of
Innocence up to the time of his joining the
! Oneida Community, apparently is to create the
impression that his after career of criminality
Was the result OF his sOjOurn in the Community.
The insanity expert quoted by the New York
tribune gives that Impression. The drift of all
OF MI. ScOvieS treatment of the prisoners con-
nectiOn with the Community seems to give that
impression. Nothing could be more untrue.
The truth is, that the six years which the assas-
sin spent at the COMMUNICATIVE. perhaps.
brief period before and after that tine-was the
one oasis of comparative purity in his life since
pubeTty-the one period when his passions were
under wholesome restraint when his seltishness
was crucifed. when he was not drifting in the
direction of disobedience and ''devilish deprav-
ity." T. L. p