Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1893-12-15
FACE UE THE CRANK.
Twenty Portraits Of Monomaniacs
Photographed Into One.
Norcross and Ten of the New Batch In .
Composite Gotham Picture Study
Of the Species-An Interest
ing Combination.

When Norcross attempted to loosen
Uncle Russell Sage's purse strings with
dynamite a couple of years ago, as
usually happens after such an event,
other cranks with manias more or less
violent sprang up on every side. The
New York World selected ten of the
most notable specimens of this crop,
and with the aid of camera made
them into a composite picture which
exhibited some startling results.
Immediately following the assassin
alton of Mayor Harrison another tidal
wave of the same sort struck New
York, and to that remarkable photo
graph ten more cranks of the last
batch have been added, making of it an
''up-to-date" composite picture of
twenty cranks. 1t will make an inter
esting study for physiognomists.
Most of these unfortunates are pitia-
BILE objects. They are poor, shabby,
and even pathetic, and ordinarily
would pass for what the doctors call
idiopathic cases, and what we know as
harmless. But they are likely to pass
very quickly from melancholia to acute
mania under the stimulus of exciting
causes. Henry Frank, who desired to
kill the Cuban consul and carried
about with him an apple which he in
sisted he had Clipped off the moon,
presents an interesting case of ''delu-
sion" in itself of no particular peril un-
til it becomes focused upon an act of
violence. That he was influenced by
the event in Chicago was instantly
shown when he was arrested by the
voluntary information that he had
been selected to kill Mayor Harrison,
but the other fellow got ahead of him.
Under proper treatment in an asylum
this man would have been tractable
enough, and the treatment would have
been mainly efficacious by removing
the causes of irritation.
The other case of Reilly, who called
on Superintendent Byrnes and wanted
800, 1000, with the interest of $25, 1000 all
in pennies, comes under the same head
of delusion, with the symptoms of
acute mania more clearly marked. The
faces of these men at first sight are to-
tally unlike. Frank is a man of emo
tional temperament. tall, slender and
rather good looking, with curly hair
and a rather pleasing expression.
Reilly is also slender, but his face is
haggard, melancholy and careworn.
His clothes were neglected and his
hair matted. But in both men there
was observable the mental stress in
the fixed gaze, the wrinkling of the
brow, attendant upon any effort to
hold the mind to sequence, and the
stealthy drop of the head. They both
used their hands in a peculiar manner,
the fingers working automatically, and
they both started at times as if some
Elusive sounds had put them on their
guard An alienist who saw both men
said that Frank would, if he lived. be-
come an imbecile, and Reilly would at
the slightest provocatior commit an
unreasonable act of violence.
The policemen are getting to know
the glitter of crank's eye-that fore
boding basilisk CLEAN in the iris.
Breilhag, the Swede, who claimed that
he owned the Wilson steamship line
and wanted $4,000 on account. pre-
served the most amiable manner until
Policeman Rose had him within a
stones throw of the Yorlzville police
court. Then the mania overlook him
In an instant he was converted into a
mailman, let out a wild yell and started
on desperate run. When finally
captured he was raving maniac, and
fought with the irrational desperation
of fiend.
If you take the profile of Henry
Frank and that of Breilhag and put
them together you will notice the same
line in the receding foreheads.
Margolia Andrews, who demanded
$4,000 from Edwin Gould, has not,
from appearances and from &C
counts of him, reached the de-
velopment of acute mania. This APP
pears to be case of pure and simple
melancholia and can only excite pity
SO far as it has gone. But even here
there was observable in the pathos of
this man and the sullen desperation of
Thomas Bradley, who shot Superinten-
dent Mathes in the postal telegraph
building, some lurking resemblances of
eye and action. That expression can be
best described as that of a hunted ami
NAL. They are all pursued. Some
ghost of their misfortunes keeps step
with them and eventually takes pos
session of them. They all wear, at
times, the strained look of having
dwelt too long with their own miseries.
The artist has grouped these points
of agreement in the various cranks in
one composite face. In this feat the
camera may be said to have done what
Hazlett once said great painter can
do-who makes portrait reveal the
secrets that the sitter all his life con-
cealed.
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OLD-TIME RIVER TRADE.