The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1896-11-28
KLEProMANlA 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 lIleptomania is n
form of mental unsoundness that does
II some cases actually exist. About
six years ago man was arrested in the
act of stealing pocket handkerchief
from n lady in Vienna. In his sane
days he had been a prosperous baker.
but mania for the acquisition of CAM
brio pocket handkerchiefs seized upon
him and proved his ruin. At first it WIS
his habit to accost ladies in the street
and offer To buy their pocket handller-
chiefs. If they refused he used to get
angry and offer them higher and higher
prices, until 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
handxerchiefs, he took to stealing them
and was soon sent to prison. 1t was
thought that his Imprisonment woul1
cure him. But when he WIS again
caught in the act, in 1890, hundreds of
cambria handkerehiefs were found con-
cealed in the room where he lodged. As
he had never been known to steal any
thing else, the court before which he
was brought promptly adjudged him
insane and sent him to a madhouse.
This is only one of many cases that are
to be found in the medieo-lega books.
In the city of Newark, n. j., recently,
lady was arrested for shoplifting, and,
overwhelmed with shame, refused to
give her name. When she was arraigned
many respectable citizens, including a
clergyman, appeared to voueh for the
fact that she was woman of good fam
lily in prosperous circumstances, we'll
able to buy anything she needed, and
having no need whatever for the artl-
cIes she had stolen. She was stubborn
II 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
q shielding her family. The court in-
posed 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 ap
peared for her, and she left the court.
room with her identity undiscovered
Again, in a dry goods store on Sixth
avenue, New York, a woman was ar,
re sted on similar charge, and it ap.
peared that she was a 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, al
ways taking articles of small value, and
for which she had no need. She was,
moreover, well-to-do person, owning
considerable property, and the Port
chester tradesmen, it seemed, had ali
tacitly agreed to regard her as de-
mented woman, whom it would be q
shame to prosecute. She, too, will prob
ably be discharged with n cautionary
fine.
The whole problem of kleptomanin
in the courts resolves itself into ques'
ton that must be answered according
to the proved facts in each case as j.
arises. Whenever it appears clearly
that there was no motive for theft, nc
object in it, and that the accused per-
son has shown signs of unmistallable
mental arrangement, the case is prop
erly one for the lunatic asylum and not
Tor the prison-Baltimor Sun.