The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1883-09-27
SUITORS GONE ASTRAY.
Studies from Life.


Studies from Life.
The English Court of Chancery would
seem Incomplete without little Miss
Elite and the Man from Shropshire. So
would the New York Supreme Court
without the person and papers Of Mr.
Adolphus Heintzlemann, Chief of the
Bar and Acknowledgement of the Human
Race. The casual visitor lettering
through the corridors of the County
Courthouse in City Hall Park is
likely to see an understood old man,
with a strongly marked Teutonic face,
surrounded by n tumbled mass of grizzly
hair and beard, dressed in a suit Of
rusty black, and with a large bundle of
papers under his arm, hurrying with
swift, nervous tread in the direction of
one or the other courtroom. The little
man 5 face is set like flint, and his
dark eyes CLEAN from under shaggy
brows with a strained intentnesS that is
almost painful. He is in dead earnest.
He evidently has on hand business, i'm
portant business, which brooks no
delay.
The visitors mental comment prob
ably is that the man is a lawyer OF the
stripe of Sampson Brass, or Mr.. Pell.
dear friend OF TIE late Lord Chancel-
Tor, Fastening to answer Ready to
the call OF the calendar; and he pities
the clients who have committed their
causes to such hands, if outward ap-
pearances form any criterion by which
to Judge OF the measure of success at
tendant upon his advocacy. But COM
ment and sympathy are alike mis-
placed.
Mr.. HentZlemann is not so fortunate
as to bear vicariOusly the burden of liti-
CATION, with the ultimate certainty of
fees TO Tighten the load. He is. or rather
was, sutton himself, and his errand
now is TO forward the interests of his
suit in his own proper person. For he
can not grasp the fact that his case is
no longer before the courts, but has
been res GCijudicGta these many years.
His case is Il sufficiently sad one.
Years ago he was clever and success
ful inventor; and to-day, in all ikeli-
hood, the fruits of his genius are in
active use by hundreds who do not know.
nor would be Interested in knowing.
that the inventive faculty which is the
means OF serving their convenience or
augmenting their wealth has lost its
power; and that the facile brain to
which they are so much indebted is
eclipsed forever under the dark shadow
OF insanity. With the proverbial bad
fortune Of his kind, he sOwed and others
reaped; he labOred and they entered
into his laborS. On one Inflated day he
brought an action to recover possession
of valuable patent, for which he
claimed not to have received the stipu-
lated compensation. The equities may
have been in his favor. Who knows?
But the law was against him. His case
was tried and an adverse verdict rem
dered. He appealed, and the appeal
was decided in his opponents favor.
Then came the end of things for him.
He went mad. Nor was it wonderful
that he should do so. AS the
genial Autocrat says, somewhere
in those inimitabl ESSAYS of
his: Insanity is often the logic of an
accurate mind overtasked. Good mental
machinery ought to break its own
wheels and levers if anything is thrust
among them suddenly which tends to
stop them or reverse their motion. A
weak mind does not accumulate force
enough to hurt itself; stupidity often
saves a man from going mad"
AT all events, stupidity did not save
Mr.. Heintzlemann. His wrongs, real
or imagined, upset the delicate balance
of his mind, and left in chaos what once
was coherent and coordinate. The
curious may find the details of his case
reported in the published Law Reports
of the State.
His delusion assumes no violent or
1epulsive form. 1t simply consists in
the belief that his suit is still before the
courts, and in the conviction that event
uallv. can he but obtain Tearing, the
adverse decision will be reversed or
modified, and he reinstated in his lost
possessions. And so, every day, sum-
mer and winter, in season and out of
season, he marches up to the clerks
desk, with his inseparable bundle of
papers, and cautiously asks in highly
Germanized English:
''Mr. Clerk, hat you put mine case on
the calendar to-day?'
mo, Mr.. Heintzlemann,' the clerk
invariably replies, 'it is not on to-
day."
"Why haf you not?' he asks, greatly
surprised.
1--WE hadn't room for it to-day,
"Can 1 see the Chudge?'
''No, he's busy"
"Then," he continues, "can I my mo-
ton make to-day"