Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-06-25
DANGEROUS INSANITY.
Facts For the timentalists to Read AMI
Ponder Over.


Facts For the sentfmentaIists to Read and
Ponder Over.
Insanity exists, but every one is not
fitted by study and observation to de-
tect slight mental alterations or to see
normality; and in questions of lunacy
it is not uncommon to hear from gener-
ally intelligent persons such remarks
as, 81 don't see anything insane about
him." or, He is just as sane as am, -
or, ST have done business with him and
found him sharp business man"
A man does not necessarily confide
to his business acquaintance, or even
to his family, that he has a fore boding
of his approaching insanity; that he
feels at times the force of an impulse
to suicide or homicide or lawless ex-
cesses which are new and foreign to his
nature, and which for the present he
resists; that at times he thinks he is
followed by spies; that he is talked
about and pointed out as he walks the
streets. But such irrational ideas pos
sess the minds of scores of persons who
are at large and unsupported These
mental perversions may be latent for a
long time and assume the form of fixed
action; and the friends who are not &C
customed to look for such things may
only discover them when accident or
an explosion Of indignation at fancied
wrongs brings them to light The man
so possessed By morbid feelings and
impulses may regain his tone, so that
if he does not Danish them from his
mind he may be able to artfully con-
TL4 oh hat inc
suspicious and projects for revenge
may be concealed or may return under
new stress makes the responsibility for
affected a serious one, and one which
no man should assume lightly.
The dangerous but shrewdly secretive
insane often get their cases into courts.
Their appearance of nationality brings
friends to their aid, and their plausible
disclaimers convince the jury. The re-
ports of their trials and narrow escape
from unjust confinement are almost as
sensational and moving as some ro-
nance of the Charles Reade style.
Perhaps the next column in the news
paper to the one which chronicles the
escape of this victim tells story of an
other kind 4 mother. in a sudden
child and then herself An old man,
insane from sickness and suffering, has
beaten his wife to death and then pois-
oned himself. man haunted by a
sense of wrong and persecution, from
which the law gave him no relief, has
turned on his fancied enemy and re-
venged himself These are no fancy
sketches, but sad occurrences, the
counterparts of which are known to all
readers of the papers and students of
the insane. Instances like the first
two have been recorded within a
month The writer knew personally a
case like the last A highly intellect
ual and naturally amiable man awolze
one morning with an unusually vivid
sense of personal outrage which had
been practiced upon him during the
night and, taking his pistol. he went
out and killed an innocent passer-by
whom he had never before seen, but
whom he fancied to be his tormentoE.
The evolution of the ''Paranoiac."
or partially insane person, is very in
teresting. Usually he is by nature de-
fective. and mentally inclined to take .