Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1896-12-25
KLeproMANsA is a DISEASE.


Medical Men rJsiisvo tho Practice IL Due
{" Unhcaithfui Mental Conditions.
The weight OF high medical opinion
Is to the effect that kleptomanis is n
form Of mental unsoundness that does
in some cssscs actually exist. Abou.
six years ugo man was arrested in the
act of stealing pocket handkerchief
from lady in Vienna In HIS sane
days he had been q prosperous baker.
but mania for the acquisition Of CAM
brio pocket handkerchiefs seized upon
him and proved his ruin 1T first IT was
his habit 10 occost ladies IN the street
and offer to buy their pocket handker-
chiefs. II they refused he used to ge
angry and offer them higher and higher
prices, until q bargain wns struck.
Many women traded upon his madness,
;intil at last all his money was spent
and he became bankrupt. Then, no
longer having money to buy pocket
hnndkcrchiefs. he took to stealing them
nad was soon sent to prison. 1t WIS
thought that his Imprisonment would
cure him. But when he was again
taiigst in the net. in 1890, hundreds of
eambric handkerchiefs were found con-
cenled in the room where lie lodged. As
me had never been known to stenl my
thing else, the court before which he
was brought promptly adjudged him
insane md sent him to madhouse.
This is only one of many cases that arc
TO nc found in the medico-legal books.
In the city of Newark, n. j.. recently,
q lady WINS arrested for shoplifting, and,
overwhelmed with shame, refused to
give her name. When she was arraigned
many respectable citizens, including
Clergyman, appeared to vouch for the
fact tliat she was woman of good fam
lily in prosperous circumstances, we'll
able to bny anything she needed, and
Having no need whatever for the artl.
c'es she had stolen. She WINS stubborn
L. determined to conceal her name, even
though she were sent to prison, and the
respectable citizens sustained her in
that resolution, obviously for the sake
Of shielding her family. The court inn
posed n fine Of SIS upon her, which was
many times the value of the goods
taken. The fine was promptly paid by
the highly respectable lawyer who mp
reared for her, and she left the court
room with her identity undiscovered.
Again. in n dry goods store on Sixth
avenue. New York. q woman was ar
rested on similar charge, and IL APP
Feared that she was n visitor to the
metropolis from the town of Port
chester. Residents of that town were
ready to testify in large numbers that
she had been stealing things from the
local stores for three years past, nj
ways taking articles of small value, and
Tor which she had TO need. She wn>.
moreover, wcll-to-do person, owning
considerable property. and the Port
chester tradesmcn, 1t seemed, had all
tacitly agreed TO regard her as n de-
mcnted woman, whom 1t would be u
shame prosecute. She, too, will proh
ably lie discharged with cautionary
fine.
The whole problem Of leleptomania
in the courts resolves itself into n qucs-
ton TINT must he answered according
TO the proved facts in each case as 1t
arises. Whenever it appears clearl,
that there was no motive for theft, no
object in ii, and that the accused per-
son has shown signs of unmistakablc
mental arrangement, the case is prop
crly one for the lunatic asylum and not
Tor the prison.-Baltimore Sun.