Middletown transcript., 1884-02-22
Written for the MtddtetotUn Transcript.
ONLY A WONIAN's COLUMN.

the city papers are not at q loss 10
items. The fearful disaster to th'
steamship Columbus has filed every
heart with horror. Then the Nut
trial has given wide field for discus
sion. Of course no one was surprised
when he was cleared, but the plea Of
insanity, it seems to me to be almost
ludicrous, for it appears that every
murderer enters it /; and then it brings
forth the fact THAT every one wishes to
conceal and deny), the insanity OF vari-
GUS members of the family. II we
search families thoroughly on both
sides, we can nearly always, if we wish,
trace up some insane member, or &C.
centric member, or crank member
Our smartest men are guilty of harbor-
ing some hobby. Now, there is our
Ex-Mayor r. Vaux,-he wears white
hat in winter, and black one in
summer ring on his thumb, because
every one else wears it on the finger.
And our United States Attorney Gen
eral, B. H. Brewster, is crank in his
dress, and wears nothing made in the
United States, but every thing comes
from London. l had a friend who
died some time ago, and because he
had had stroke of paralysis before
marriage his brother tried to prove
him insane and gobble up the property
from wife and children. He said he
was insane. l was a good bit en-
lightened during the trial as to certain
medical ideas, or whatever they may be
termed. Two doctors gave in their
evidences-one the regular physician,
and DR.. Mills, consulting physician.
They said paralysis was always pre-
ceded by softening of the brain that
is, that softening Of the brain was fol-
lowed by paralysis in some degree and
that it was secondary sometimes only
one limb, or two, or all one side, or the
tongue, sc. That person with soft
ening of the brain could carry on bust
ness as well as any one else it just
depended on what area Of the brain
was affected. Now l always thought
any one with softening of the brain
was an imbecile. Now my friend was
very eccentric, did the most unaccount-
able things, kept his marriage secret, secret
with no earthly reason men swore he
was crazy, had heard him say over and
over that he was crazy but the doc
tors swore he was not crazy, but very
intelligent and collected, and so the
widow gained her suit, as she ought to
have done. So it seems that the in
sanity plea is used by every lawyer,
either one way or an other, until it
amounts almost to a farce. We have
here a remarkable occurrence, in which
the insanity plea will be entered. AT
the dime museum a living skeleton is
exhibited. A bright, pretty girl, with
some education, fell in love with or
was fascinated by him and married to
him. After living with him two days
she ran away home, and has been crazy
ever since. Though her father says she
has been crazy since the first of July.
If this is the case, why was she allowed
to frequent public places of amusement
alone, for weeks together, all the way
from Hestonville i? Why was she not
under restraint or watched If her
mind was wrong, she might have been
lured into something worse than mar
riage in large, wicked city like Phila-
delphia. have heard from those who
knew her. She was what is called a
1irt: Respectable and snowy, could
sing well, and play the piano; but
would fiirt innocently (you know, and
this terrible trouble has come out of
her flirting with a skeleton. The min
lister who married them comes in for
his full share of censure also he is
liable to fine of one thousand dollars
and imprisonment for one year, accord
ing to the law of the State. If her
father had forced her to marry this
monstrosity for money, or other reasons,
what a terrible time there would have
been but for a pretty young girl of
eighteen to marry a "freak'' of her
own accord, is clean beyond every ones
comprehension.
We have two brutal murderers in
jail-McGinniss, who killed his mother
in-law and tried to kill his wife, and
Briggs, who cut his wife's throat in the
cellar without any provocation. Both
have lawyers who plead insanity for
them. Last week a doctor in the Uni
versity shot another doctor and was
hurried off to New York and fastened
up in a lunatic asylum before the deed
was known by the authorities. The
other doctors said it was emotional
insanity. By what right they could
hustle criminal out side of reach and
land him into an insanse asylum re-
mains to be seen. Young Mutt may
be weak and silly, but he had brave
heart to kill the worse than murderer
Dukes but it is a pity he could not
have been cleared on any other plea
than the almost farcical one Of ' emo
tional insanity.''
Another case in this city which has
attracted great deal of attention is
that of Mr.. Merideth, lawyer who has
just succeeded in being released from
an insane asylum. He imagined voices