The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1894-04-19
KLEPTOM ANA.
Officially Recognized for the first time
by the Gov. of Michigan.

"Gov. Rich of Michigan has pardoned
a woman who was convicted last May
of stealing from shops in Detroit, and
by his pardon has given official recog
milton, for the first time in that state,
of the existence of the disease known
as kleptomania. The woman confessed
that she had been stealing for two
years, did not need and never made use
was irresistible impulse that compelled
her to steal. She had a husband in
good circumstances, and was member
of the Methodist Episcopal church.
She is now an inmate of a private asy-
lum for the insane. New York Times.
The world moves, and an event like
this proves that men are daily learning
to think. True, an error was made
when they sent her to an insane asylum,
for she is no more insane than we are
at this moment. Insanity results from
a diseased condition of the brain. Ev
identity her brain is not diseased, but
imperfectly organized, and SO far as
that imperfection extends, just SO. far
she is idiotic Thus the reader will
perceive that there is vast difference
between insanity and idiocy, although
in neither case is the person responsible.
We, as an individual, cannot distin-
guish one tune from another if both
are in the same time, although we dis
tinguish the difference in time very
readily. The same tune, played in diff
ferent time, sounds to us like two diff
ferent tunes. Are we idiotic? Most
assuredly, SO far as music is concerned
and to punish us for this inability
would be an outrage, yet no more an
outrage than to punish kleptomaniac
for stealing. Both result from an i'm
perfect mental organization. Prof.
Combe, of Edinburgh, was man of
marked ability in all art and science
except mathematics, in which he was
an idiot, for in seven years he confessed
that he was unable to learn the null
twenty-four hours.
This unfortunate woman is now shut
up in an asylum for the insane. This
may be little better than the peniten-
tiary, but not much. Restrained of
her freedom, surrounded by the insane,
she would soon become mad if her
brain was in the least diseased. Patti
is great singer, as [ have heard, yet
to me her singing is only noise, a
sort of measured sound. I can say
this and not be sent to an insane asy-
lum, but deserve it just as much as
this woman who has been bounded by
justice (?) into the penitentiary and
, finally to madhouSe. AS we look at
it, the burning Of a witch was no more
disgraceful in the middle ages than al
this enlightened age to send a klepto
maniac to prison, or to an insane asy
lum.
For many years we were engaged il
, the practice of law. We have both
prosecuted and defended alleged Grim
inals, and in our younger years held tt
no such cranky notions as sympathy fol
t criminals We viewed them as enemies
l that deserved determination and onl,
3 regretted that their snfferings were no
D greater. We can therefore understand
4 the revengeful feelings which promp
g so many good men and women to thirs
t for the blood of the criminal, and il
e turn we have sympathy for these goo(
t but mistaken people. 1t is the unwrit
n ten law of the land that the father
L hnchand ofo ic il1ctifia bio in fal1inI