The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-12-22
SEATTLE. T6EsDAY. DEc. 81.
THE UNEXPECTED INSANE.


Norcross, who exploded a bomb in
RUSSELL Sage's Office and destroyed himself,
was good representative of the class OF
men who might be called the unexpected
insane; that is, a man whose last act was
clearly that of an insane man, and yet a
man whose past record includes no act of
insanity, and whose entire sanity has
never been previously suspected by his
friends. In the letter found in his safe by
his father Norcross said:
] go 70 New York today to get 8, 10000. IF l
do not succeed shall kill myself.
Here we have a man avowing the plan
OF a mailman whom nobody had ever sus-
pected of madness Eorcross had been an
excellent scholar at school; he had always
been person OF correct life and pure
morals; he was a devoted son to his
parents, with whom lac lived; he
was an intelligent and capable &c
countant and careful business man;
he wcs gentleman in his tastes
and manners and was regarded by
shis business friends as cool, resolute.
sane man in the ordinary affairs Of life he
miration for Russell Sage as successful
finanoier, and yet his last act was an at
tempt TO destroy the object OF his admira-
ton.
This man of unblemished record, whose
sanity has never been suspected, Boston
broker, esteemed in business circles, whose
credit was good, deliberately locks the
door to his Office, takes the train to New
York, and on the following day walks
into sage's office, quietly demands s. 200
oo0 is refused, blows the building into tat
tiers, Kills himself and two others and
maimsynumber of persons If this record
does pot stand for that of the unexpected
ins2yie, where shall We find it2 The man
was clearly insane when he wrote the
letter which declares his design:
how long had he been insane? When
we study the record of Norcross we
discover that while he was a man of regu-
lar life, and an intelligent, competent man
of business, he had one characteristic of a
badly organized mind: he was a man of
one idea, and men of zone idea" are nj
ways persons of whom the passage from
enthusiasm to insanity is to be appre-
hended. The testimony is unanimous
that Norcross had but one idea, that was
to be rich; he thought of nothing else; he
talked of nothing else but to get rich and
get rich quickly; he was doing fairly well,
but his disappointment at failure to get
rich rapidly, his constant brooding over
his failure to realize the all-ahsorbing pas
sion OF his life, finally broke down his men,
tai equilibrium; he began to talk in favor
of a law of limitation of individual wealth;
he was working harder and earning less
money than formerly; he was a bachelor
with no ties of wife or children To draw
him aside from his lifelong interpretive.
brooding habits He was insaney anxious
to get rich, and he went insane over his
failure.
Constant dropping of water upon one
spot will wear away stone: the constant
pulsation of the human heart against
granite pillar would in time wear out the
granite; the pillar would fall and the tenn
pie with it. So incessant. intense think
ing ard broodIng unon one idea, TO the ex-
clusion of all other ideas, is dangerously
likely to undermine in time the mental
soundness of the man. He may not Al.
ways reach the ultimate of absolute. ~
gressiye insanity. like Norcross. hut be
will become what.is called crank. and
every day from the roll Of cranks
drops name that has been trans
ferred to the insane asylum. or 70 The
list Of homicidal lunatics o. suicides
Your one idea man is always in DANCER
If mental overthrow; if not en- Incip.tnt
lunatic. he has certainly one characteristic
of the insane temperament. a violent. an
reasonable, immoyabie. egotistic faith IN
himself and his philosophy Of life ana in
the all-absorbIng consequence of the real-
ixation of his methods or ideas TO the
world to the complete exclusion Of aA
other ideas as non-essentials- This kind
Of temperament IN its iacapacily 10 under
stand that the progress Of civilization and
the sound conduct Of life necessarily IN
wolves, not one idea. but great many
ideas, is presumpively temperament
that lacks balance and is OF defective
vision.
1t is no answer to say that such creatures
sometimes seem 10 serve as instruments