Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-18
QUEER PHASES OF INSANITY.
Some of the Oddities that Hare Been Con-
strued as Shocin0 Mental Disease.
philadelphia Times.

Some of the Oddities that sHdce Been Con-
strued as Sho,cin0 Mental Disease.
philadelphia Times.
The late census reveals the fact that
there are nearly 100000 insane people il
the United States, or an average of two in
| sane to every thousand of the population
AS the census of 1870 showed something
under 10000 insane, there are good many
people who are puzzled to understand why
with 80 per cent. increase in population
in the last decade, there should have been
upward of 40 per cent. of an increase OF
the number of persons who are considered
non compos meats. The answer to this
interesting question is probably to be
found in the fact that the vast increase in
asylums and other accommodations for
the insane has led to more thorough sift-
ing of the great mass of population for
persons who gave evidence of insanity
upon whom to exercise a curative in
fuence.
The definition OF what constitutes in
sanity has been very generously broadened,
especially in the interest of very numer-
GUS class OF people who possess homicidal
tendencies. Formerly such people were
styled murderers; now they are considered
the unfortunate victims OF emotional in
sanity. In the good old days many people
were simply denominated queer, odd, and
eccentric who are now classed as insane
The evidences of insanity, under the new
order of things, are so various as to be
very confusing to the ordinary mind. An
old-time member of the crank family,
Who passed among his acquaintance as a
sort of natural philosopher, used to assert,
when in his cups, that Everybody was
queer, but everybody wasn't queer alike"
The natural inference to be drawn from
such an assertion would be that
every separate member of the queer fam
lily. which, according to the above classif-
cation, included the whole race, would
charge the others of his queer brethren
whose queerness was of different stripe
from his own with being as crazy as
March hare. Some of the proofs which are
offered to establish the charge of insanity
against certain individuals are enough to
convince any ordinary mortal that the old
crank knew what he was talking about.
There are good many people still liv-
ing who have heard the charge of insanity
brought against prominent reform poll
tician of one of our great states because
he insisted that men in public Office ought
to be honest and because he charged that
bribing legislators to vote for big steals in
the form of appropriations was crime.
This particular form of insanity has be-
come so prev Ilent of late however, that no
attempts are made to incarcerate anybody
in an asylum for it, on the principle prob
ably referred to by the clown in Hamlet"
who said Hamlet had been sent to England
because his madness would never be no.
ticed there, where everybody was as mad as
he was.
An instance has lately been brought to
light in one of the courts in which an &C.
centric old millionaire whose property
wasn't willed according to the wishes of
certain would-be heirs, is charged with hav-
ing been of unsound mind because he
sometimes wore odd stockings, forbade his
family to read newspapers at the table, and
told his son it would be good for his health
to walk to and from his business instead
of riding in carriage. In addition to
these overwhelming evidences of insanity
he was unable to understand the mechan-
ism of fire extinguisher, aud on a certain
occasion, when he had company to dinner,
declared his inability to carve a chicken
according to the approved scientific meth
DDS. Another alleged lunatic, who was
confined in an asylum for time, but is
now at large, was incarcerated because he
mistook fire extingusher for soda foun-
tain or something of that sort.
He also refused to allow the
asylum barber to cut his hair.
Insanity is sometimes said to take the form
of failure to predict what the fashion in
dress will be. A wealthy merchant-tailor
was lately charged with insanity because
he purchased quantity of figured cassi.
meres which were too loud in style and col
oring to be salable. A desire to get away
from confinement in an asylum is consid-
cred by the keepers and physicians in
charge as conclusive evidence Of mental
unsoundness
A case has lately been Investigated in
which the chief evidence produced by the
officers of the asylum to prove the mans
insanity was that he had provided himself
with knives, saws and a. key IN order to
effect his escape. There are ps ople who
are Just queer enough to assert that this is
very good evidence of tirst-class insanity.
Another person has been charged with in
sanity because he Will insist on carrying a
revolver in his rocket. If this should ever
become a fixed evidence of insanity, there
is great danger of an immense accession
to the ranks of asylum inmates. Another
man has been charged with insanity be-
cause he gets mad when contractors pre-
sent him with bills, and another because he
writes letters which the readers have diff
Guilty in understanding. Samuel Obreight,
of whom the papers we're full short time
since, was charged with insanity because
he filled his customers glasses with beer in
stead of froth. The beer drinkers would
doubtless be very much gratified if that
kind of insanity would increase indefinite
". The late Miss Sarah Burr willed the
bulk of her immense property to charita-
bic objects instead of to her loving rela-
tives. The relatives are now of the unan-
imoQs opinion that she was out of her head
and offer as testimony TO prove their
claims that she generally bought
'5pecked'' or damaged vegetables because
they were cheap, never allowing herself TO
get cheated in bargain. and always paid
her bills. Mr. Stokes, a dead millionaire,
who failed to meet the expectations of
some of his relatives, had the insane habit
of putting his stockings under his pillows
at night, and was guilty of perpetrating
atrocious puns. The stony-hearted conrt