Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-24
A FEMININE GUITEAU
Gagged in Time to Prevent Her From
Removing President Harrison.
SHE Is PUTIN AN INSANE ASYLUl
At the Request Of Her son-In-Law, After .
Medical Examination.
ONE CRANK TAKEN CARE oFIS TINE

NEW YORK, Dec. 23.-Mfs. Ada iThofpe
Lotus, who, according to the statement Of
Rudolph v. Martinsen, came to this,co
try for the purpose of removing" Presi-
dent Harrison. was sent to the Blooming
dale Asylum this morning from Bellevue
Hospital, having been pronounced insane.
She arrived on the Britannia last Sunday,
and put up ct the Fifth Avenue Hotel.
Mr. Martinsen, who is Mrs. Lotus SON.
in-law, occupies the position of President
of the Maxwell Land Grant Company. He
firmly refused to make any reply to the
charges made BY his mother-in-law that he
was conspiring to have her imprisoned.
ssMrs LOTUS is insane" is all he would
say, stand in Justice to her am forced to
proceed against her. It is perfectly true,
as she says, that secured her commitment
to an asylum in Paris She has caused me
great trouble and is dangerously insane /.
81 had hoped to spare my wife and
family" Mr.. Martinsen said, "the publica-
tion Of the real facts in this matter, but un-
der the circumstances Of unjust suspicion II
may be best to tell all.
She Threatened to Kill Harrison.
'sMrs. Lotus threatened the life of the
President and as necessary precaution
against the possibility of such an awful
lutely necessary. This fact is not known to
me alone, for officials OF the Government
have been cognizant Of it for months.
"Mania in this terrible form came upon
Mrs. LOTUS some time ago. Prior to that
her insanity had found vent in a trouble
some form of correspondence. Months ago
she demanded of me the immediate sur
render of nv children. She claimed that by
q natural law the grandmother's right to the
custody of her child's children was superior
to any other.
"Of course no attention was paid to her
rawlings, which for the most part were car
ried on by letter. But the craze for posses
sion of tho children steadily grew in inten-
sity, and threats began to accompany her
demands. She wrote that she would kidnap
them and that nothing should keep them
away from her. '-
"We were all abroad when the matter
eliminated in the threat upon President
Harrison'e life. I became cognizant of her
deadly purpose in this way: Mrs. LOTUS
knew Mr.. Lathrop, the United States Con-
sui at Bristol, very WELL She wrote to him
one day, stating her determination to secure
possession Of my children at any cost, and
telling how she proposed to enforce their
surrender.
"I shall sail at once for the United
States she wrote, and will 60 dires:t to
Washington. My purpose there will be to
see the President. He can help me. If he
refuses I will remove him-there will be
no President
s'Mr. Lathrop, knowing of her insanity
and realizing the probability Of her put
ting her threat into execution, lost no time
in taking action. He cabled the news to
Joel B. Erhardt, then collector, who at
once notified my attorney, Simon Sterne.
He, in turn, cabled to me the startling in
formation.
'sMrs. Lotus sailed for New York shortly
afterward, and then employed Detective
Travers, who met her upon her arrival
here. interestel her in visionary scheme
of magazine publication in England,
and lured her back to Europe, where
she was examined by famous lunacy
experts and sent to an asylum.
But through the interference of injudiclous
friends, upon whom she cleverly Imposed,
she was released, and came here undoubted-
ly with the old homicidal purpose in her
crazed mind Since her letter to Consul
Lathrop she has written in q similar strain
to me, showing the fxity of her mania
"Her immediate incarceration was the
only thing to avoid the possibility of a
tragedy"
The doctors who examined Mrs. Lotus
yesterday were informed of her threat to
''remove" the President, and DR.. Douglass
said last night that from the peculiar form Of
her insanity he regarded her as capable of
almost any crime. "Her insan-
ity is yery similar to Guiteau's," he said,