The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-12-16
TORTUREDBY DEVILS.
Spirits That Whisper Evil to
Unbalanced Minds.
WHY MADMEN TURN AssAssIhs.
The story OF Edward 8. Miller Who
Wanted to Stay President Arthur
and More Recently Harrison.

FoRT STEILAcooM, Dec. 10.-Edward s..
Miller who, according to a dispatch IN the
PosT-IxTELLreENcER of last Wednesday,
was arrested in Washington City on the
9th inst. for threats TO kill President Har-
rison and Secretary Of State Blaine, has an
interesting history. He is one of the most
dangerously insane men extant; fully capa-
bic Of executing a morbid and long-sfand-
ing menace, If not detected and de-
tered, as he was once previously, when
bent on like murderous mission. There
has been up to this time an unwritten,
though eventful and sensational chapter IN
the life of the late President Chester A.
Arthur. 1t is this:
Edward s. Miller was sent to the govern
ment hospital for the insane, situated on
the eastern branch of the Potomac, a short
and beautiful drive from the national capi-
tai, in the fall of 1882, for not merely
threatening the life of President Arthur,
but for actually preparing for the assassin
alton. The merest vaciliation of his mind
alone prevented the contamination OF the
crime, and of course the immediate appre-
hension and incarceration of the would-bc
assassin followed. The shock of the
shooting of Garfield had fastened the
stealthy approach of an idiopathic disease,
and the climax proved the complete I'M
balancing of Miller's mind. The mans
mind, at the time referred to-and it is a
fair presumption that his condition of
mind remains indianapolis what is des-
ignated In Technology as '.false hearing"
1t is one OF the most, if not the most, ter
rible fortunes attendant on all the phases
of insanity, wherein the victim is the sad
and submissive subject of entirely and
wholly imaginary voices that have not
the slightest foundation in fact. This
state of mind is almost totally incompre-
bensible except to those who have suffered
the dreadful dcIirium of high fever, or to
such as are conyersant with the impress
sive import of two Latin words, that
translated, read trembling madness"
The victim of .sfalsc hearing" is contin-
uaIly in kind of horrid waking, dark and
dismal dream with .'halo'' shadow about
it. The visionary voices unremittingly
suggest to the subject, regardless of time.
place or surrounding circumstances, brutal
and indecent acts, and as the disease de-
vclops the brain decays, till ultimately the
0suffercr, if he has not been relocated to
some retreat, yields through Irresponsible
ity and utter inability to cope with and
longer resist these distracting demands
and commands--to him as distinctly clear
as the MONDAY sun, and as audible as
shrill fife and rolling drum in nearly
all cases murder is the result. Such was
the widowed condition of MiIler's mind
in 1ss2, and apparently such it is today.
Miller. prior TO his incarceration in the
government hospital at Washington City,
had been high-salaried and very -compe-
tent clerk in the Office Of the guartermas-
ter general. It was while in this position
and before Garneld's grave was green that
the voices of the "hellhounds"-
termed them. became too much for him.
He wrote General Rufus ingalls,, then
quartermaster general, u. s. A., confess
ing the horrible hold the hell-hounds had
and also revealing what he (Miller) called
ga concentrated cluster of conspiracy, the
subject matter of which is as follows:
1t would appear from the statement
made by Miller to General Ingalls-that
Guiteau was not INSPIRED, :" but instigated
TO remove" General Garneld; the instiga-
tors in question, moreover, took human
shape in live leaders among the commun-
istic and nihilistic populace of Russia.
These strangers" were not only endowed
with the gift, art, or curse OF yentriloquism,
but were likewise empowered with
mos potent and marvelousiy won
derfrl usurpation of its utility; Gas"
says Miller, 1.-The comprehensive re-
ception of these various. frequent.
and intriol:e instructions thrown from
the streets of st. Petersburg clear across
the snowy, sterile steppes of Russia. and
thence over the wide wastes of intervening
waters into the very core of the heart
of this nation, gives most incon-
trovertible proof, and" continues this the
sis deduced from diseased mind, lit was
through this human instrumentality of
ventriloquial vampires that Guiteau be-
came an accomplished agent of assassina-
ton"
Miller, presumably, however, was not
appraised of this state OF affairs by the
visionary voices" until after the murder
of Garneld had so seriously worked on his
nervous temperament as TO bring his dis
ease 10 its crisis and it was there that he
was alternately commanded and threat
ened with the forfeiture of his own life If
be failed to follow the orders of
the yentriloquiss vampires in sacri-
fcing Arthur. Milier's letter also
stated that he had hxed on two differ
ent occasions to fulfill his orders, but
various reasons interposed. and he had
also now finally disposed ofthe balancing
power in the matter, which was that even
the removal of Mr. Arthur might not help
the Garneld party to a restoration Of its
rights, and in that event the dire result
would have been chaos for the country.
Miller remained in the government asy-
lum TIL the expiration of Mr.. Arthur's
term, and was then released on probation
and given into the custody of friends with
the result as seen in Wednesdays issue
of the observation-disclosures
The late ex-president WAS not told till
long afterward of what close cali he had
had; personal friends at the time, al
though knowing him to be a most coura-
geous man, deeming il not advisable to
obtrude, to put it mildly, a disagreeable
matter of which no good could come. and
one, the full of details of which have
never been in print till now