Crawford avalanche., 1894-05-31
LAPSES OF IDENTITY.



wh.n rh.y H..vS.St !. .rh.urrrl..S.
Y 10 With No Memory 81 Their
WandsrIngs.
A paper entitled People Who
Drop Out Of Sight" by, DR.. A. e. Os-
borne, superintendent OF q home for
children at Glen Allen, CAL, was read
few nights ago at the meeting Of
the Medico-Legal Society at the
Academy Of Medicine. After. speaking
of mysterious Disappearance in gen.
eral, and the usual inability to ac-
count for them. the paper gave several
instances which the author says hap
pened to persons, and under circum-
stances we'll known to him.
The first case was that of man Of
middle age, ''in rugged health, and
free from any inherited homeopathic
taint." He was plumber by trade,
and lived ina town near Philadelphia.
He was prosperous, and was neither
overworked nor the victim Of business
troubles; his life was harmonious,
and he had no bad habits. The SUM-
day on which he disappeared he had
been in the house all day, reading
and playing with his children. About
four o'clock he got up from the
lounge on which he lay, changed his
house jacket for an ordinary business
coat, and told his wife he was going
out for walk. He stepped into the
street and suddenly disappeared, as
If he had vanished into air.
Although conspicuous figure in the
town, and although the streets were
crowded, he was seen by nobody. His
absence continuing the next day an
exhaustive search was made for him.
But nothing could be learned. There
was absolutely no trace Of him, either
in the town or in the surrounding
country. In due course the business
was disposed Of and the family moved
to Chicago, giving up all hope Of
finding clue to the missing mans
disappearance.
One day, two years later, number
of men were working at their trade in
a tin shop in one Of the Southern
States. Suddenly one Of them dropped
his work and clasped his hands to his
head.
"My God /" he cried, looking about
dazedly, where am /? How did /
get here? This ism It my hop!-where
am /? What does it meanY"
His companions were at first dis
posed to laugh; but when they saw
the mans changed expression, the
beads of sweat on his brow, and his
nervous twitchings, they knew he
was not drunk, but under the infu-
ence of some great emotion. They
spoke to him, but he insisted that the
name they called him by was not his.
At last he made his way to the boss
of the shop, and tried to explain
about his family and his business in
the North. The boss was incredulous.
He knew the man as wandering tin
smith who had drifted into the town
seeking work at his trade, and whom
he had employed. He had proved to
be trustworthy and skilled work
man, and no further inquiry had been
made.
"Under fictitious name," DR.. Os-
borne says in his paper, "the man
had been known to his companions,
and had been paid. He remembered
nothing of the past during his period
of employment; but at last dim
recollection had come over him of
that fateful Sunday-his rising to 60
out, his promise to return soon-and
then all was blank. He had no
money, although he had worked
steadily in this shop and had received
good wages. At the last accounts /
had of him he was at Chicago, living
his normal life. Somewhat mystified
over his realization of the strange
freak in which he figured, although
feeling well and apparently in mental
balance, he realized that he had been
the central figure in some overstrange
mental phenomena quite mysterious
enough to make him, at times, doubt
his sanity"
DR.. Osborne's second case he
speaks of thus: "A similar case oc-
Cured to resident of another town
near Philadelphia. This man, whom
we shall designate as X, was law
yer, prominent politicians former
member of Congress, / believes man
Of fine oratorical powers and of bril-
liant attainments.
lone day he got up from his desk,
leaving his law books open at the
pages he had been consulting, and
stepped outside for few moments.
He disappeared. In due course Wig
orous search was instituted, reser-
voirs and streams were dragged for his
body on the presumption that he had
committed suicide, and, in short, all
the means that money and influence
would put into operation were en-
ployed; but in vain-not the slight
est clue was obtained, His domestic
affairs were well known to be most
happy. He was abstemious in his
habits, and more devoted to his pro-
fession than to society. The hue and
cry of premeditated fight was dis
PEELED by the disordered state of his
unlocked desk, over which were scat
tered papers and mass of unfinished
work. His accounts were all right,
and among his papers were found un-
cashed checks amounting to several
thousand dollars.
'After several months had passed
word came through official channels
that x. was in Australia, and had ap-
piled to representative of our Gov
- Al I'll l. A..