The herald., 1896-11-04
KLEPToMANIA is A DISEASE.
Medical Men Believe the Practice Is Due
to Unhealthful Mental Conditions.

The weight of high medical opinion is
to the effect that kleptomania is form
of mental unsoundness that does In
some cases actually exist. About six
years ago aman was arrested in the act
of stealing a pocket handkerchief from
lady in Vienna. In his sane days he
had been a prosperous baker, but a ma
MIA for the acquisition Of cambria pocket
handkerchiefs seized upon him and
proved his ruin. AT first it was his habit
to accost ladies in the street and offer to
buy their pocket handkerchefs. If they
refused he used to get angry and offer
them higher and higher prices, until a
bargain was struck. Many women
traded upon his madness, until at last
all his money was spent and he became
bankrupt. Then, no longer having
money to buy pocket handkerchiefs, he
took to stealing them and was soon sent
to prison. 1t was thought that his i'm
prisonment would cure him. Rnt when
he was again caught in the act, in $780,
hundreds of cambria handkerchiefS
We're found concealed in the room where
he lodged. As he had never been known
to steal anything else. the court before
which he was brought promptly ad-
judged him insane and sent him to a
madhouse. This is only one of many
cases that are to be found in the medico-
legal books.
In the city of Newark, N. j., within a
month past, a lady was arrested for
shoplifting, and, overwhelmed with
shame, refused to give her name. When
she was arraigned many respectable
citizens, including a Clergyman, appear
ed to vouch for the fact that she was
woman Of good family in prosperous
circumstances, we'll able to buy any
thing she needed, and having no need
whatever, for the articles she had sto-
len. She was stubbornly determined to
n Uh ha
sent to prison, and the respectable cti
zenS sustained her in that resolution,
obviously for the sake of shielding her
family. The court imposed a fine of $75
upon her which was many times the
value of the goods taken. The fine was
promptly paid by the highly respectable
lawyer who appeared for her and she
left the court room with her identity un-
discovered. Again, in a dry goods store
on Sixth avenue, New York, on Monday
week a woman was arrested on a SIM
liar charge, and it appeared that she
was visitor to the metropolis from the
town of PortcheSter. Residents of that
town We're ready to testify in large num-
bers that she had been stating things
from the local stores for three syears
past, always taking articles of small
value. and for which she had no need.
She was, moreover. a well-to-do person,
owning considerable property, and the
Portchester tradesmen. it seemed, had
all tacitly agreed to regard her as de-
mented woman, whom it would be a
shame to prosecute. She. too, will prob
ably be discharged with a cautionary
fine.
The whole problem Of kleptomania in
the courts resolves itself into a question
that must be answered according to the
proved facts in each case as it arises
Whenever it appears clearly that there
was no motive for theft, no object in it,
and that the accused person has shown
signs of unmistakable mental derange-
ment, the case is properly one for the
lunatic asylum and not for the prison.
Baltimore Sun.