St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-08-14
HAVE OUEER CHANGES.

The theory that every impression made
upon the mind endures perpetually,and
is liable to rise up, if of hideous char
acter, at very inopportune times, has done
a good deal of pulpit duty. Whether it is
a fully demonstrated fact or not, it is a
part of the common experience that the
imprints upon the brain matter made in
early life are more explicit and endur-
ing than those of subsequent times.
The aged person recalls as fresh and vivid
events the records upon the mental tabla-
ture of childhood. while those of adult
life and recent times are dim, hay or
gone completely. When age impalrs
the faculties and the gray matter
loses much of its vitality, the
mind wanders back to the jul
venile period, and so far some
times falls into the early grooves that
it is said there is a second childhood. A
very estimable and amiable lady of
st. Paul, who is well toward the sun
set Of life, as usually estimated, has
periods of mOnomania when she is
young girl again and back among the
children of her youth. She insists that
she must go out and join in the frolics
Of the playmates whose names she re-
peats. At times force is required to
restrain her from running out to find
these departed dWeliers in the chambers
of memory. While her mind is en-
feebled she is quite rational and tract
able in all other relations. A very
striking case Illustrative of these
cerebral phenomena is related by
the Boston Herald. Some thirty
or more years ago young
man starting out in the world under the
impulse of HORACE GREELEY's injunc-
ton, left his native hamlet in the back
woods of Maine, came West and located
in st. Paul. Here he has lived the three
decades. holding a good business and
social position and acquiring hand
some competency. His family has grown
up, and he has no occasion to continue
in active affairs for material results.
He is now back in the East. The editor
of the Boston Herald has fallen into his
company, and gives this statement in
reference to casual interrOgative state
ment that the old st. Paulite could not.
rural hamlet in Maine.
Welt" he answered, to the surprise
of those who have been wont TO receive
a somewhat derisive Il guess notl' to
the same query, Il have found myself
lately longing to see and live near once
more the hills and rocky shores of my
native state. | don't know exactly
how to account for it, but these are i'm
pressed on my mind and heart with
vlvidneSS that surprises myself. 1t
must be that l am growing old, and
that the panorama of my youthful eX-
perieRces has begun to unfold itself for
my deleetation.
This novel frame of mind had nothing
TO do with the kindred and associates of
early life. They had nearly all passed
away from earth OF, like the narrator,
gone West. BE would be a virtual
stranger and alien in the land of his
childhood. His friends and the assOci-
ates of his adult life are in st. Paul, and
still the infatuatiOn possesses him to be-
come virtual hermit among the rocks,
hills and rude surroundings that have
their vivid panorama in his mind, photo
graphed in adoleseent years. These
are the scenes that stand out in I'M
dimmed cOlOrs, while later events are
dim and forgotten. 1t would, perhaps,
be unkind to say that this man has lost
MS head, and renewed his youth in
mental degeneracy, but he illustrates
queer phase of psychological mutation.