The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1889-07-06
ABOUT CRANKS.
Some Queer Specimens Known
to New Workers.

stefan who has made a speciality OF
mind diseases, is "a person whose
mind deviates in some one or more
notable respects from the ordinary
standard, and yet whose mental pro-
cesses are not directly at variance with
that standard"
A crank therefore is not necessarily
insane. A man may attend to business,
be a prominent member of a church,
kind, provident, clever, and yet when
he possesses one distinctive popularity
it at once sets him apart from other
people who are perfectly balanced, and
he is more or less of a crank accord
ing to the absurdity of his popularity
and the hold it possesses over him.
There are cranks of many varieties
and they are all about us. We read of
them in the daily papers. we know of
them among our acquaintances, and
we laugh at or pity them as the case
may be.
A clergyman in the West was seized
with rhyming mania. Every request
was made in impromptu rhyme. and he
began to deliver his sermons in high
flown doggerel. Except for this he
was perfectly sane in every way. His
friends at length persuaded him to lay
his case before DR.. Hammond, and &C
cordingly he wrote him the following
letter:
Dear Sir, If this you willsllow me to call You,
write to inform you that my friend, Mr.. Ballou,
Has advised me to see you in regard to my
health,
| If my means viii admit for have but small
wealth.
I'm preacher with little of this worlds goods
Beyond a small salary and . little house in the
backwoods.
shall leave here on the fourth, that is Wednes-
day next.
And will be in your city If by railroads not vexed
! On the following Saturday, and hope there you
to meet
At your city residence in Fifty fourth street."
His first words as he entered DIR.
Hammond's Office on the day named
were:
GOOD morning. DR.. Hammond. hope that you
are well.
I've come . long distance my story to tell.
They say am insane but that's an inanity,
I've q rhyming inspiration but that's not in
sanity"
Another patient visited him and sat
quietly talking for short time. Sud-
denly she walked across the room and
overturned a chair. after which she
resumed her seat and talked as quietly
and nationally as before.
"Why did you throw over that stool?"
asked DR.. Hammond.
Il don't know" was the answer.
do you know that you did throw it
downr'
20 yes, know"
Then why did you do itp"
IL was obliged to. can not tell you
any more. had no wish to do it, but
it irritated me. and after had thrown
it down felt perfectly satisfied. This
often happens with me-"
Another girl who was not insane and
entirely free from any hereditary faint,
and was haunted by a sigular verse:
my father and mother were both insane,
And inherit the dreadful stain.
MY grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts and
uncles
Were lunatics all and had carbuncles"
Night and day this verse pursued
her. Going about her duties and pleas
ures she mentally hummed it to every
tune she had ever heard, sometimes
emphasizing one word and sometimes
another, sometimes fast sometimes
slow, and with every conceivable kind
of variation. Often when spoken to
she would wait to mentally finish a line
before replying.
''Cranks," said young doctor who
was for sometime house surgeon in
1.-THE Retreat" in Virginia, ..are as
numerous as flowers in the spring. L
knew one young woman who was well
balanced except for certain wish to
cruelty the flesh. which led her to do
the most unheard of things. She was
very wealthy. and one time when she
was i'll she requested to be taken to a
hospital and placed in bed between two
paupers. Nothing could make her see
the folly of her wish, and as she was
her own mistress she was obeyed. An
other patient of mine had such an aver
sion to dirt that speck upon window
pane would almost throw her into con-
vulsions. She frequently speut three
hours at time washing her hands;
she would take no money unless it
was enclosed in an envelope and would
not touch q chair or table unless her
hands were gloved."
Another physician tells of q man
who never buys any article singly. He
may only want one book, but an ire
sistible impulse makes him buy two or
four or half q dozen, and frequently
copies Of the same work. He may
only require one umbrella stand. but