Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1882-10-12
A Living Death.

A recent sensation in Paris was the
case of Jean Mistral, who has been forty
two years in the private lunatic asy-
lum of ST. Remy, in Provence. lie
was, it is now admitted all round, of
sound mind when his father, on doc
tors certificate and in virtue of the
law of 1928, locked him up there. His
reason for incarcerating his son was to
prevent him remarrying Polish lady
whom, in good faith, he had married
abroad. The marriage ceremony on
the petition of the elder Mistral had
been set aside by a French tribunal be-
cause there had been insufficient pub
Hcatton and other formalities pre-
scribed by the code had not been OBJ
served. Old Mistral was very veal
thy manufacturer of jet beads. He
wanted his only son to heap fortune
upon fortune in marrying the heircss
of Marseilles ship owner. The Polish
lady was very beautiful, of honorable
life, but poor, and she had been obliged
to turn an enthralling voice to merce-
nary account by singing in theatres
and at concerts. Jean AIistral was
taking steps to marry her according to
French law, when his father one day
ran againt him in the high street of
Tarascon, in the year 1870 and cried
out to a couple of policemen who were
with him to arrest the madman.
The son made a desperate fight for
his liberty, and soldiers were called in.
He was subjugated and manacled and
sent off to an asylum near Montpelier,
where he still is. The fact that he re-
sisted Ia force publiqus was taken as
confirmation of the doctors lettre de
cdchet, or certificate, and he was
treated for raging lunacy Old Mistral
died soon after. The fortune that he
made in glass trinkcts went equally to
the captive at Montpelier and to his
sister, Nine. Bernard. As it was a
great one, the Demands kept the al
legged mailman in durancc His wife
(the Polish woman. who in law was
no wife) died when he had been a
score of years locked up. Her daugh-
ter, after an interval Of six months,
followed her to the grave Old Mis-
tral had caused the former TO he cx-
PEELED from France on the ground that
she was bad character, was disturb
ing the peace of respectable and rich
family. and had no visible means Of
existence. Technically she was a vaga-
bond, as she was reduced to 60 from
one small town to another to sing in
cafes. Soon after she was turned out
of France she gave birth TO a 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 a state Of
frenzy. The fortune inherited by Jean
Siistral from his father has gone on
accumulating at simple and compound
interest and has been very carefully
nursed by the Bcrnards, who are his
heirs apparent. VI. Fournier. who has
been exerting himself to get the pris-
oner released from the asylum, is his
first cousin. According TO an article
in the civil code a rich mailman or
mad woman is not to be confined in a
madhouse, but placed under treatment
at home, and is to be provided with
domestic establishment corresponding
with his or her yearly revenue. Mis-
trail is an ordinary boarder at the asy-
lum, where he has passed nearly half
century, and is allowed one man SER
want, whose business Is not to minister
to his comfort, but to prevent his es-
Gaping.