The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-12
HE STOOD THE TEST.
A Prisoner Who Feigned Insanity
Until at Deaths Door.

Until at Deaths Door.
From the Pittsbttro Gazette.
Speaking of the wife murderer Smiths
case yesterday led Warden Berlin Of the
Allegheny county Jail to indulge in a few
"reminiscences relative TO feigned insanity.
The warden is evidently Of the opinion that
Smith is sane, and does not think that the
prisoner is even feigning insanity. Said the
warden: "We had case of feigned insanity
in the jail about three years ago, the most
extraordinary that has ever come within
my experience. The prisoners name was
Brant. He had been convicted of trying to
sell goods under false pretenses. He was
first sent to the workhouse, where he lived
for twenty-five days without eating. They
brought him from the hospital department
of the workhouse to the Jail on a stretcher.
When he was first locked up he was a man
weighing 200 pounds, but he starved him
self until he became like a shadow. We
stood him up on the some floor, aud he
would fall his full length as if he had been
a corpse, bruising his forehead, aud yet
gave no indication that he was in pain.
For thirty-six DAYS not a morsel of food
passed his lips. We placed milk in his cell,
but it remained untouched. He would in
sist on keeping his knees bent, and we
thought to make him straighten his legs by
stringing him up in the air and letting him
hang there, but the position Of the legs
never changed.
1--WE tried every possible way TO make
him give some evidence that be was sane
but it was no use. Finally we got a stom-
ach pump and pumped milk into him every
DAY. In this way he was kept alive, while
che doctors continued their experiments
with him. He was an old soldier, and the
grand army folks became interested in the
case. They visited him and they were posi-
tive he was insane They asked me for a
letter stating that he was demented, but |
refused to give 1t, because | was sure the
fellow was shamming. We had infor-
nation that he had been convicted of
crime somewhere in Missouri, was
sent TO the insane asylum, and afterward
discharged. The grand army people be-
came indignant at me because | would not
say that Brant was crazy. In the mean
time we continued pumping milk into his
stomach. He was like putty man. Any
where you placed him, there he would stick
Finally other prisoners attempted to catch
Brant mapping, but without success The
grand army men secured commission in
lunacy for Brants case, and the commission
declared him insane. He was then removed
to the insane department of the city poor
farm. He had to b. carried to the train on
a stretcher. l don't believe he weighed so
pounds.
ne second DAY AFTER he arrived at the
farm he commenced to eat, and the pump
ing process was discarded. Before week
he had splendid appetite. and in a very
short time his form rounded out into some
thing like its old time proportions. One
day Mr.. Brant got hold of file, tried it on
the bars of his window, found it worked to
a charm, filed the bars in two,
made knotted rope from his bed
clothes, let himself down to she
ground, and has never been heard
OF from that day to this. 1t was the most
remarkable case of which l have heard
Imagine the amount of pain and suffering
that man had to endure. He never flinched
for an instant that person could detect.
We knew that he was shamming, but the
proof seemed to be the other way. There
have been other prisoners in here who
feigned insanity, but few sharp, severe
tests would generally bring them to a
realization Of their senses"