Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-12-21
FREMCH MAD5ousEs AED THEIR
VICTIMS.

The sensation of the hour in Paris is the
case of Jean Mistral, who has been forty
two years in the private luuatic asylum Of
St. Remy, in Provence. He was, it is now
admitted all round, of sound mind when
his father, on doctors certificate aud in
virtue of the law of 1888, locked him up
there. His reason for incsrcerating his son
was to prevent his remarying Polish lady
whom, in good faith, he had married
abroad. The marriage ceremony, on the
petition of the elder Mistrsi, had been set
aside by French tribunal because there
formalities prescribed by the code had not
been observed. Old Mistral was 8 very
wealthy manufacturer of jet and beads.
He wanted his only son 70 heap fortune
upon fortune in marrying the heiress of
Marseilles shipowner. The Polish lady was
very beautiful, of honorable life, but poor.
and she had been obliged to turn an en-
thralling voice to mercantile account by
singing in thea.ers and at concerts. Jean
Mistrai was taking steps to marry her ac-
cording to French law, when his father one
day ran against him in the high street of
Tarascon in tie year 1910, and cried out TO
couple of policemen who were with him
to arrest the msdmsn.
The son made desperate fight for his
liberty, aud soldiers were called in. He
was subjugated, and sent off manacled to
an asylum near Moltpellier, where he still
is. The fact that he resisted la force pub
Eque was taken as confirmation of the doc.
tors lettre de cdchet or certificate, and he
was treated for rsging lunacy. Old Mis-
trail died soon after. The fortune that he
do IN, class &r,n 10 l. Il
captive at Montpelier and to his sister.
Nine. Barnard. As it was a great one.
the Barnards kept the alleged madman
in durance. His wife (the Polish woman
who in law was no wife) died when he
Her daughter, after an interval of six
months, followed her to the grave. Old
Mistral had caused the former to be ex-
PEELED from France on the ground that
she was bad character, was disturbing
the peace of respectable and rich fam,
lily, and had no visible means of exist.
ence. Technically she was vagabond.
as she was reduced TO go from one small
town TO another to sing in cafes. Soon af.
ter she was turned out of France she gave
birth to daughter in Switzerland.
Mother and child died in extreme poverty
some years later.
The news of their death threw the
prisoner in the asylum into state of frenzy.
The fortune inherited by Jean Mistral from
his father has gone on accumulatiug at a
simple and compound interest, aud has
been very carefully nursed by the Bsrnards,
who are his heirs apparent. NJ. Fournier,
who has been exerting himself to get the
lunatic released from the asylum, is his
first cousin. According to an article in
the Civil Code, rich madman or mad
woman is not to be confined in a madhouse.
but placed under treatment at home, and
is to be provided with domestic estab.
lishmeut corresponding with his or her
yearly revenue. Mistral is an ordinary
boarder at the asylum, where he passed
nearly half a century, and is allowed one
man servant, whose business is not to
minister to his comfort, bus TO prevent him
escaping I Pail Mall Gazette.