The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-16

Mr.. Tielst was not to be shaken. Flnally
he came around to my affairs. and asked
how I was getting on. I told him that
affairs were not prospecting. He went to
his desk and drew check for 1900 marks,
which he handed 10 me.
Here" ne said, put this into your
business. I may need your asylum yet
After a protest ! took the money.
was able to pay him back 5000 marks when
sold out and went to the United States.
Il heard no more Of Tielst till couple
of years ago. Then / received q note in
his well known handwriting. The note
read: 1 have come to New York to collect
my 1000 marks. 1 am not yet broken
down. I will show you what / can do.
Now suppose you will try to kill me-
Hour by hour 1 expected that this
strange visitor would follow the note. He
never appeared. 1 learned afterward that
he had landed on Wednesday. and sailed
back again on the following Friday. For
some reason he had not dared to face me.
Later 1 heard that he had opened coffee
house in Hamburg and lost 5000 marks.
Hard on this came the news that he had
shot himself.
Now" said Mr.. Loewy, sententiously,
that is the case Of a man who had been
insane from the beginning. The vivid
imagination and nervous force which are
| often seen in lunatics had enabled him
/ to take daring chances, and so make the
most brilliant successes and the most dis
\ mai failures.
/ NO man is absolutely normal. or, at
/ least, the only really normal men are the
/ stolid peasants who come over from for
eign farms and are content to work in the
streets for pittance. But abnOrmality
of some kind is present IN all great men
in statesmen and poets, and in merchants
/ of exceptional ability.
Now let me tell you curious case Of
heredity. There was a Mr.. Johann, we will
call him, the manager of an insane asylum
| in Lubbock His father had been erratic
| and something of drunkard But he was
the quietest, most careful, most self-cOn-
tanned of men. For twenty years ne went
his daily round Of duties in the asylum,
apparently absolutely contented with his
lot. His face was placid, his temperament
| was even. his manners were calm and COL
| lected. One day he disappeared. He left
his wife, his children, his business. To-day
| he is working his way around the world
as a tramp, i'll conditioned and i'll fed, but
resisting all appeals to return to home
and comfort.
/ Gustav Buschman was another strange
| case. He was one Of firm of pianomakers
in Hamburg. HIS father had been eccen-
trio, but his four brothers and two daugh-
tiers were normal beings When his broth
er was married Gustav set fire to the
house in which they lived and the young
couple narrowly escaped with their lives.
Gustav was sent to prison for twelve
years. Then he tried to hang himself and
was sent 70 the asylum for examination as
to his sanity. When / came down to see
aim he was holding his hands to his head
and moaning piteOusly.
" oh, my head my headr tDe. cried He
was sent to the department. for insane
criminals. He saw visions and could not
sleep. He was visited by the ghosts OF
his father and his mother He asked for
work and was first made manager of a
farm and later transferred to the main
house. He could draw and paint and
made himself a universal fayorite, but ne
still found it impossible to sleep.
Please let me have the little room ir
front OF the house. he begged one day.
The room was given him. The upshot
of the matter was that he seduced the
keepers daughter, and one night she stole
and brought TO him her fathers keys, with
which she escaped. She is to-day an out
cast. AS to Buschman he was eventually
captured and taken back to the crimina
wards.
THAT is the case of a man who success
fully mimicked insanity.
when his term expired he opened g
salon of the pictures which. he an
nounced, had been painted during his
'martyrdom," and made thousands of dol
lars. To-day he Is a great man in tho
piano business.
Let me tell you another curious story
of an escape, or, rather of series of es
capes. There was a man named Helmkt
in the Hamburg asylum when l first went
there. He is still there, by the way, after
thirty years of Incarceration. But he has
repeatedly broken away and made good
his escape.
when first went to the asylum l was
promised the high reward of seventy-fivt
cents a month extra in case he did not es
cape from me. AS my entire salary was 3,
a month, l gladly accepted the terms
! a. 81 Ike caV haf he hi
beer and cigars, and never left him out oi
my sight until pay day. 1t happened tina
on that day l had no cigar to give him II
answer to a request. put him off with &
promise to give him cigar at night Thl,
made him sullxy. At noon I went down t
the office to draw my wages, leaving two
nurses in charge of Helmke. In less thai
half an hour returned. Helmke had gone
He ran away no less than twenty-five
times during the sixteen years that l wal
in the office, but he always came bacl
again sooner or later, and his escape!
were made in spite Of the fact that
wall fifteen feet high had been erected
especially to outwit him.
in 1852 he made wooden keys, which
fitted the five locks that were necessar!
to his escape, and found his way to Eng
land. He enlisted as a volunteer in tn,
Crimean war, and was gone for TIVE
years.
"One morning the chief nurse in ou
hospital rose and couldn't find his trou
sers.
Great heavens he cried, 'Helmk
has been herer
And sure enough. a few hours late
Helmke was brought to the asylum b,
two policemen, wearing the stolen breeche
How he had got In. and out again is
mystery
Now, here is a picture" said Mr.
Loewy. reaching for his photograph al
bum. which has some interest. II wer
to mention the mans name you woul,
recognize II as one OF the most promin
ent names in Germany. He Is a membe
og a very aristocratic and intellectual
family. Let Us call him schmd Person
ally he ~ a Degenerate. He never CAV
much trouble. but he was always veal
minded. and from the age Of IS he ha
been a lunatic. with certain mild De
iusl0nf. Though weak ia mind he Is
giant in strength and stature. His Is
curious case Of what Is known az alta
ylsm."