Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-22

'VEMBER p, 1881.
that call reasonable. He is not positively crazy
but there is that lacking In the mind that totally
| units him for business He is unable to under
stand that he can't succeed There may be only a
| slight defect In the mind. man starts out with
| false proposition; he begins to reason from il,
and from that time on reasons as correctly as any
one could, yet having started out with false prem
iseS, his conclusions are false.
THE CAUSE OF INSANITY.
| There was one thing the experts could tell them
with toSerable certainty; and that was, the cause
| of insanity. Unless it was case that was per-
| fectly plain at first sight, these experts began to
inquire of the previous life Of the subject and his
family history. The peculiarlties of the parents
often.he was about to say invarlably-appear In
| the child. Insanity was hereditary. One of the
| principal things to be inquired about was as to
| the parents There were, however. a great many
| Immediate causes which always acted more readily
| II there was taint In the blood. This derange-
| ment OF the mind, as he understood, came from
| some defect OF or influence upon the brain. That
| son was In the brain. Sometimes it was found
tlat there was malfOrmation of the brain; some
e5Sw tSapt Spfn se head INSANITY
insane on account OF blow received on the head.
MANIFESTATIONS OF INSANITY.
insanity did not always manifest itself in the
| same way, though there was some uniformity in
This respect 1t was frequently the case that an
insane person will plan or lay out work to do. He
was told yesterday OF the case OF a man from
| Illinois, at the time Hayes was elected. He came
| here just before Hayes was inaugurated He had
diagram Of the Capitol, showing where the Pres
purpose OF getting position where he could shoot
! the President He was arrested and sent to an
insane asyium-yet his plans had been laid with
| great precision. He was told that one element
usually present in cases of insanity was irfi-
tanlilty another element the experts would
Sion, out these evidences Were not always present
is GUITEAU SHAMMING?
1t would appear, said Mr.. Scoville, in evidence
that the defendant knew nothing bout insanity
had never studied the subject-and yet It was
said that he was Stimulating insanity. II the news
papers reported correctly, the district attorney
himself had said the man was insane. Credible
newspapers had also given currency to such state
mentS.
GUITEAU SAYS HE NEVER FEIGNs
Here Guiteau interrupted Mr.. Scovile and said !:
never fefgn; act myself out, sane or insane"
Mr.. Scoville said it would be shown that it was
trait OF the prisoners family never to feign any,
thing. He (Mr. ScOville) had said that the de-
lendant was insane when he was a boy; when
the President was shot he said at once that the
man was crazy. He understood President Gar
held and Secretary Blaine had both expressed
their belief that the man was insane
THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY STATES THAT PRESIDENT
GARFIELD AND SECRETARY BLAINE NEVER SAID
GUITEAU WAS INSANE.
District Attorney COrkhill here Interrupted the
speaker, and said that President Garfield never
said such thing, and Secretary Blaine never
stated such a thing; he had stated under oath
that he believed the prisoner was sane.
Mr. Scovile said what he stated he had learned
rom neWspaperS. Persons Stimulating in
sanity usually fe1gned forgetfulness but this did
not appear in Guiteau'S case; another thing was
tnat persons thus simulated generally seemed to
become insane by sudden attack and then kept
insane. That was not the case with really insane
people. Some days they appeared perfectly ra-
tionai; A sane man attempting to palm himself
OF as insane did not usually understand that
Another common thing with these pretanders was
that when spoken to they hesitated little they
dld not speak right up as an insane person does.
HE WANTED THE JURY TO JUDGE
whether what Guiteau did were genuine acts, in
dicating the condition of his mind He called the
Jury'S attention to certain things OF which they
would have to take account in settling this Ques-
tion. If man was proved to have been insane
once in his life it was presumptive proof that he
might have been insane at the time he committed
or said since July ID any evidence of the condition
of his mind on that day. They claimed that in
They wanted to look first at his family history and
then his own history to show the condition or his
mind on the 81 Of July. He spoke or Guiteau's
Huguenot ancestry, and said the same religions
fervor and spirit that led the Huguenots had come
down to the Guteau family OF the present day. Mr..
Scoville here gave
HISTORY OF THE GuITEAU FAMILY,
from DIR. Francis Guiteau, the prisoners grand
father, who settled In Utica, 80 years ago. He had
found only one witness-an old man In Dakota So
years Of age, who knew the grandfather and grand
mother. So the deposition of this witness would be
the only authentic evidence as to the grandfather
The doctor had ten children. He understood that
the evidence would show that one OF the daughters
Julia, had become insane before her death, Dos
seSsed w tn the delusion that she and her family
q Nhn had
ter. named Abby, who lost her reason became talk
ative and silly; she talked always on religion, and
Julia lMrs. Maynard,) was partially delormed;
side of her head and body was not
full fully developed; Mrs Parker, ,Julia's Sis
and soon afterwards became insane, diving at Os,
wego In that condition She had son, Augustus,
the insa ne taint OF his mother. He moved to Chi
cago and taught music: he sought the agency OF
the Decker mo in Chicago; it was held in abey-
to some one else, and the revuston OF feeling made
him insane. The other three sisters he knew little
died in FreapOrt, Ill, having become in the latter
years OF life weak-minded and sensual, appearing
to have no control over himself This, he was ado
vsed was fair inference OF the faint OF insanity
In the blood. Another son. Francis W. Guiteau,
when quite young was disappointed in love: chal-
loaded with blank cartridges Afterwards he
learned the deception, and that discovery together
and he was finally sent to the Boominodae sSX
ium, where lie died. Another brother was Luther
w. Guiteau.
THE FATHER OF THE PRISONER
and the proof would show that he was erratdc
peculiar, especially In his religious views, though
OF undoubted integrity, and in his religious views
he became so extreme that he thought it would be
called insanity. One OF his views was that he had
come into vital union with Christ, so that he was
part and parcel OF the Saviour During his last
illness, In $780, he was deranged most OF the time
He thought it would appear from the testimony of
the witnesses that the disease would not have
caused this insanity II he had not been tainted
with hereditary Insanity. With him insanity took
the form of certain deluSionS during his last ILL
ness At one time he believed his daughter was
going to commit Suicide and grteved over 1t as ac-
Iually as though it had been fact Another time,
Wnen arrangements were being made for Ma
sonic celebration In Chicago, he believed it was in
fact an arrangement for his death and funeral
He wanted to avoid Chicago so as to escape the
demonstration which he thought would be made
over him. These were the facts as to the family
history.
THE PRISONERS MOTHER
was most amiable woman, Christian In every
sense OF the term. His father had the same traits
Gentle as woman, loving as q little girl. They