The herald., 1895-03-22
NOW, WHO WAS IN THE RIGHT?
Two Doctors Said Ellie Eyraud
Was Insane
THEN FIVE MORE SAID NAY
Consequences of Drinking Sour Wine and
Sheepherder's Delight
THEN FIVE MORE SAID NAY
II the Sheepman Had Had No Friends He
Would Now Be In Highland
With the Cranks

1.-TWO physicians found Ellie Eyraud in
sane on Wednesday and five more found
him perfectly sane on Thursday If Ellie
Eyraud had had no friends he would now
be listening to the vagaries of demented
persons or the complaints of some very
sane ones, sent to Highland under precise
ly the same premises which nearly placed
him there also. 1t is a peculiar case and
suggests that too much care cannot be
taken to prevent so-callcd lunatics from
going to place where environments are
apt to make them non compos mentis
without a peradventure.
Ellie Eyraud is sheep man from Dau-
phine, France, whose only distraction ap-
pears to consist in jags procured by the
swallowing of sour wine and shepherd
ers delight, turn and turn about. On
recent trip TO Fullerton he put up at the
ranch of Pierre Nicolas, a very hospit-
able farmer of that, burg. Before getting
there Eyraud had consumed large guam
tity. of his favorite liquids, and he pro-
ceeded to irrigate his stomach with more
vim du pays when he became Nicolas
guest. The consequence was that Eyraud
was nursing very comfortable little Jag
when it was bed time. He retired into
the cabin of Nicolas, who had offered
him hospitality for the night, and it took
him but short time to fall out with his
host. Eyraud wanted the door locked be-
cause he carried $400 in a sack and was
afraid of being robbed, and Nicolas
wouldn't close It because he had nothing
to lose and wanted fresh air. The talk
and the jag combined soured their tenn
pers and they had fight, Eyraud accus-
ing Nicolas OF attempting his life with a
pistol that lay under the blankets, and
Nicolas alleging the same of Eyraud, after
he had grabbed the revolver
1t is very probable that Eyraud was be-
ginning to acquire wel-deveoped attack
of JIM jams. He was, however, allowed
to depart at the time, but Pierre Nicolas
came to town on the 10Th and swore out
an insanity complaint. Eyraud was found
on Also street and placed in the county
jail. Before any of his friends were aware
OF it the Nicolas crowd had appeared be-
fore Judge York and Drs. Walter Lindley
and II. G. Brainerd and told them a story
which convinced the physicians that
Eyraud was bereft of reason. and upon
their showing the court committed the
man to the Highland asylum. Eyraud
was then quiet enough, and barring a
slight nervousness was said by disinterest-
ed parties to be his usual SELL
When the Dauphinois people heard
that Ellie Eyraud was to be sent to the
insane asylum they raised protest
Attorney .Winder was hunted up by the
ing of the case, which took place yester-
day noon. This time, to make sure,
there were five doctors present, besides
the two of the day before, and one was
held in reserve in the lobby. Eyraud was
as quiet and unassuming, notwithstanding
that he was the cause of "a great commo-
ton. as the day before. He answered IL
long line of questions put to him by DR..
MacGowan clearly and without hesita-
ton. and there was not in his manner or
his talk anything to permit the presump-
tion that he was off his base in any par
ticular.
A dozen of French citizens, all business
men of the town, were ready to vOlun-
teer every point of information they had
to prove that Eyraud is and always has
been sane. He was ordered discharged
from custody, but the court ordered that
he file peace bond for $1,000. and submit
t % the care of DR.. Fitzpatrick for the per-
iod of one month Quite number of
friends of the sheepman were anxious
to become sureties for him, and went on
the bonds at once. The doctors who
called his disease monomana of fixed
delusions, supernduced exclusively by
alcoholism, and their diagnosis was the
result of the tales told by the witnesses
of Mr.. Nicolas, to the effect that Eyraud
claimed to have been poisoned and want
ed to be buried under the cabin he was
then in. But Eyraud reiterated yester
day that he had been given a glass of
wine that tasted so bad to him at the
time that he believed himself poisoned
yet the five doctors didn't think that
such fixed delusion was sufficient to
deprive man of his liberty.