Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-12-25
ADUAL PERSONALITY
THE STRANGE DOUBLE LIFE OF A
FOURTEeN-YeAR-OLD GIRL.
Young Mary veunum's Wonderful Change
from One Individuality to
Another.

Another.
There is being prepared for the next
issue OF the London journal Of Psychi-
cal Research, by DR.. Richard Hodgson,
No. 5 Boylston Place, Boston, remark
able paper on case Of dual personality.
DR.. Hodgson has made thorough study
Of the case, which is that Of girl OF
fourteen years. This is the strange
story the Doctor tells:
Mary Gursney Vennum was living in
Watseks, I'LL, where for nearly year
she lost her own identity with all mem
ory Of her own self and her friends, and
acted the part of another person whom
she really believed herself to be. As a
girl OF thirteen she became subject to
cataleptic fits and frances. She would
often fall upon the floor without warning
and remain rigid and apparently dead for
hours. She had been affected IN
this way for about year when she
awoke one evening after particularly
| long spell of Inconsistencies, and was
not able to recognize either her father
or her mother. Nor could she recall
single event Of her past life, AMI she de-
clared that her name was Mary Roll,
and she wished to 90 home" No
pleading OF reasoning could change this
strange idea.
COMPLETE Loss OF IDENTITY.
Now, Mr.. and Mrs. Rolf were family
acauaintances Of the Vennums and had
taken a deep interest in the afflicted girl.
Thirteen years before their own daughter
Mary, aged nineteen, had died OF SINH
lar malady. The young girl persisted
that she was Mary Rolf, and exhibited
all the signs Of homesckness at being
detained among strangers. All efforts to
convince ner of her own identity con-
tinued to be unavailing, and, to use Dir.
Yennum's own words, "she seemed like
a child, really homesick, wanting to see
her father and mother and her brothers. "
She became melancholy and eventually
peevish, as she would beg piteousIy for
hours at q time to be taken home"
One day Mrs. Rolf, accompanied by
her married daughter, called to see the
strange reminder of her lost child. AS
the two women came in sight far down
the street Mary was looking out OF the
window. She cried out exultingly:
"There comes my mother now and sister
| Nervie."
AS they came into the house she
caught them around their necks and
wept and cried for JOY. From this
time on she seemed more home
sick than ever. At the urgent re-
quest of MIR. and Mrs. Rolf the
girls parents reluctantly consented to
humor their daughter and she was taken
to the RofIs' home. Upon arriving at
the gate she insisted that they had
stopped at the wrong house and that she
lived next door. And strangely enough
though this was unknown to the grl,
the adjoining house had been the resi-
dence of the Roffs at the time OF their
daughters death. She appeared salts
| fed when told that her parents had
moved during her absence.
From the moment she first stepped in
side the door she treated all the mem
bers of the household as old acquaint-
ances. She understands all their pecu-
liarities, as if che had been reared
among them. She was perfectly familiar
with every piece of furniture and every
chair and picture, and seemed IN every
way happy and contented. Though she
| had never even visited the place before,
she Immediately recognized every object
that had belonged to the dead girl and
called it her own. One day she ran
through the house several times as
though looking for something, and che
afterwards said to Mrs. Roll;
"Mother, where is Gyp3 want to
see him. am afraid he has not been
properly cared for.
Gyp had been the favorite pet dog OF
Mary Roff, and had been buried eleven
wears. His name had never been men
toned before Mary. and the Roiis never
remember to have spoken OF him since
their acquaintance with the Vennums.
SOME WONDERFUL TESTIMONY.
One CAV the girl looked up from
sort of reverie and asked roguishly of
Mr. Rolf: "Pa. who was it that used to
say 'confound it so much?" Then
she laughed heartily upon percelvlng
that he understood it to be himself she
meant. The expression was one which
he had frequently used years before.
Upon one occasion a Mrs. Parker,
an old acquaintance Of the Rolls,
came in with her daughter-in-law,
Nellie Parker by name. Mary
Immediately recognized both of the
women. calling Mrs. Parker "Auntie
Parker and the other Nellie. But when
her own acquaintance and school-mates
visited her she did not recognize them
at all, and would not converse with them
until introduced. She thought some OF
her old friends very rude because OF
their familiarity. She was most civil
and courteous, however, TO all friends OF
the Rolf household, and talked with
them as il she had always known them,
md many Of them she startled by the
surprising knowledge she showed OF
their affairs.
One evening Mary was out in the yard
and Mr.. Rolf asked his wife to find
certain head-dress worn by his daughter
tn. wear before her death. 1t was found
and placed upon table. The girl soon
came in and exclaimed excltediy
ooh there is the head-dress l wore
when my hair was short.
She then asked for other things that
she had never seen, and OF which the
real daugter had been very fond. Some
of these were things that the father and
mother had almost forgotten.
HER FORMER SELF RETURNS.
Another time, after rummaging through
a lot of letters Of the girl she supposed
herself to be, she selected several dated
later than the others. and began answer
ing them. They had been packed away
thirteen years, and many of the CORE
spondents were dead. 1t was after an
swering some of these that she arose,
looking very sad, and, with tears In her
exes said 10 Mrs. Rolf: