The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-08
THE H0ADLEY WILL CASE
HYPoTHETICAL QUESTIONS PRO-
 POUNDED TO DR. STEARNs.

POUNDED TO DIR. SIEARNS.
 The Examination of the Expert Consumes
 the Whole Day-Witness States His
 Reasons for the Answers Given.
 Dr. Henry Stearns, superintendent of
 the Hartford Insane asylum, was the
 principal witness in the Hoadley will
 case yesterday and the examination was not concluded when court ad-
 journed. Dr. Stearns was asked a hy-
 pothetical question by MT. Case, based
 on the conduct of the life of the testa- tor.
 Among the things upon which the
 question was based was the following letter, which is from Dr. Hoadley to his
 sister Lydia. The letter, which is un-
 signed, bears the date of October %, | 1894 It is as follows:
 Wednesday, 29th inst, Oct, 1894
 My Dear Lydia: Your loving and
 loveful letter of the 27th is just at hand
 and l am very glad to get it. I have
 but few moments to write, as am
 expecting the carriage to take me to
 the depot very soon. l am going away for a short time, partly on business | and partly on pleasure. I cannot tell you now just when shall be able to SC you in your home, but I will
 not take you unaware, I'll give you
 plenty of notice so as you may be ready
 to receive me in the way you wish.
 The warm words of love and the assur-
 ed welcome make me long to be with you soon than I can. You referred
 in one of your letters to my apparent despondency. I cannot on paper enter into details which I might give you
 viva voce, but I will say this, I am in
 excellent general health and have no | mental, physical, or bodily ailment;
 neither have I any other cause to be despondent except those which arise from past and present family disor- ders. May I ask you a question? Do
 you think, if you were situated as I am, alone in the world, so to speak, you would be Respondent and blue, or have any occasion for so being, if you had been turuned out of house and | temporary home by your only sisters drunken husband and for no cause
 whatever except what he had conjured
 up in his distorted brain and at the same time your sister sat by compla- gently and made no remonstance, this | too after you had given time and money
 and what energy you had to help her 1 through case of confinement? Do you think you might feel | blue, sometimes, if subsequently, (be- cause you did not make friends with the drunken husband, and visit freely | at his house without his or her ever | having made the slightest allusion to a | retraction, or apology for such previous
 abuse), you were told by your sister | never to come to the door for you would not be admitted if you did come, | that she never wanted to see your | face again, and that even were she dying she hoped that her last hours | would not be troubled by your despised | presence? Suppose your only sister | deliberately and purposely robbed you | of your birthright from your mothers | estate and in order to cover up such an illegal and criminal act your cousin who was administrator of your father s
 estate went into court and took false oath representing that you had received | what your sister had stolen from you I and then charged you with the value | of the same as so much. cash? Suppose | your sister used for her own purpose | money you had put aside for your
 adopted sisters support and would not
 make it good? Suppose your sister has
 cast your adopted sister off entirely Hot taIr \.
 never, and would never contribute one cent toward ner support since? Sup
 pose you had this responsibility to | shoulder all yourself and were then
 abused because you helped the poor,
 sick and disconsolate orphan instead of
 spending what money you could spare on your sister who Haunted her dia-
 mond earrings, finger rings, and brooch
 in your face and other such ill-gotten | flnery? This is only a part, and it is all
 I can now say I would rather not have written it. but told you of it. Do you 1 think you would ever get blue over | these things and others still as bad or | even worse that are still going on? | Would you not rather forget all these | things in the wild wood among the
 birds and flowers and the trees and all | the good and beautiful things in nature | that the good God has made? Would you not rather go even on a voyage to | the Arctic and get away from the sight | and memory of these things? Lydia, I have no one to whom I can open my | heart and let this pent up flood of
 grief flow forth, and is it strange do at 1 times feel Respondent? I have only | begun to tell you what I have been | through with since I saw you, and yet | this is perhaps enough to explain to l you in a measure what you don't and can't understand. When I return from | this trip I am now going on I will try 1 and some and see you and talk with ! you face to face. With love to you and l your kind husband I am as ever your | true and loving cousin whom you want | ed to hear from.
 As soon as return I will let you hear l from me.
 The witness testified that in answer | ing the hypothetical questions put to him in the morning by MT. Case he con- sidered that it embraced every fact necessary to base an opinion as to | soundness of mind. On being asked whether if the hypothetical questions | omitted any facts material to form an