St. Landry democrat., 1883-09-29
sUITORS GONE ASTRAY.
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 Advocate General 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 q strongly marked Teutonic face,
surrounded bya tumbled mass of grizzly
hair and beard, dressed in 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
mans face is set like flint, and his
dark eyes CLEAN from under shaggy
brows with strained intentness that is
almost painful He is in dead earnest.
He evidently has on hand business, inn
portant business, which brooks no
delay
The VISITORS mental comment prob
ably is that the man is lawyer of the
stripe of Sampson Brass, or Mr.. Pell,
sdear friend of the late Lord Chancel-
lor,'' Fastening to answer stReady'' 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 80 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 1djudicata these many years.
His case is a sufficiently sad one.
Years ago he was clever and success
full inventor; and to-day, in all likei-
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 OF
augmenting their wealth has lost its
power; and that the facile brain tc
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 ill-fated day he
brought an action to recover possession
of a valuable patent, for which he
claimed not to have receive the stipu
lated compensation. The equities may
have been in his favor. Who knowsi
But the law was against him. His CASE
was tried and an adverse verdict rem
dered. He appealed, and the appea
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 tn,
gen1a! Autocrat says, somewhere
In those inimitab1 essays o
his: Insanity is often the logic of al
accurate mind overtasked. Good menta
machinery ought to break its owl
wheels and levers if anything is thrus
among them suddenly which tends t
stop them or reverse their motion. I
weak mind does not accumulate fore
enough to hurt itself; stupidity oftel
saves man from going mad.
At all events, stupidity did not saw
Mr.. Heintzlemann. His wrongs, rea
or imagined, upset the delicate balanc
of his mind, and left in chaos what ono
was coherent and coordinate. TIL
curious may find the details of his cas-
reported in the published Law Report
of the State.
His delusion assumes no violent o
repulsive form. 1t simply consists il
the belief that his suit is still before tn
courts, and in the conviction that event
ually, can he but obtain hearing. tn
adverse decision will be reversed Q
.znnditied and he reiustated in his los