Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1888-06-27

that. aud he was one of my bes.
friends On two occasions when l was
violently assaulted by patients he came
promptly to my rescue, and saved me
from injury. lie was finally discharged
as cured. But one hallucination re-
NAMED. He insisted that l was Tom
Sayers, and no proof that his friends
could bring up would shake his con-
victions. Although acknowledging
that l was the better man. he chal-
lenged me for n fight to finish, aud
posted fifty dollars as forfeit.
One Of the tragic incidents connected
with my administration occurred soon
after Williams discharge. We had
received patient named Latour, who
was Of French descent. His hobby was
the building of a ladder TO the moon.
Unless one touched upon this particu-
lar theme the man talked as nationally
as any person you ever heard. He had
been sent to the asylum by the officers
of the law, and against his wife's pro-
tests. She therefore began to pull
wires to get him out, and q commits
sion of three doctors was appointed to
examine him. Only the day before
they came Latour had asked me for
six miles of rope to make ladder to
the moon, and, when | put him OFF with
some excuse, he smashed couple of
chairs, and raved and cursed for an
hour When the doctors came the man
was sane enough to realize what fa-
vorablc report would do for him, and
he called up all his nerve and cunning.
1t was wonderful how sharp he was.
The doctors pumped him on every SUBJ
ject they could think of, and he was
the peer of any one of the trio in sa-
gacity and intelligence. When they
touched upon his hobby he laughingly
said:
Eyes, that was a crazy idea of mine,
and l don't wonder people thought me
insane. To think ] expected to reach
the moon by ropc-ladder-ha! ha!
har'
This man is rs sane rs am" said
the spokesman of the commission,
iili MS lnCuItcldtlOn HcIC II OlC VI
the grosscst outragos ever heard of. /"
He was sent here by the courts" ]
replied, rs the doctor was giving the
asylum a hit.
"But you should have seen that he
was sane. Iprcsume that you would
detain me if sent here by some idiot of
a judger'
1.-The man has fooled you, sir. He is
certainly off his balance, and / also re-
gard him as dangerous
"Well, we shall recommend his in
slant discharge, sir. -"
The doctors had seemingly failed to
observe what was very evident to me.
The patient was making determined
effort to conceal his insanity. This is
often successfully done. He clonched
his hands, the sweat started out on his
brow, and he was nerved up as much
as n man on trial for his life The doc
tors had no sooner departed than he
had to lie down 10 recover his strength,
and that evening he came to me, and
whispered:
81 find that six miles of rope won't
do. must have at least thirteen, and
I've been thinking how can hook the
ladder at the top"
The legal order for the mans dis
charge came in few days, and l saw
him depart with dire misgivings. He
had dangerous look in his eyes. and
instead of being cured was really worse
than when received. He went home
to begin on his hobby again. His wife
tried to reason him out of it, but he
chopped her head of with the axe. 1t
was over one hundred miles to the
asylum, but he made his way back to
it on foot in forty-eight hours, and was
arrested while covering on the steps
of the main entrance. He was then
insane on all subjects, and year later
committed suicide. ~ T. Sun