Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-01-14

| lS e2%a1-ar2-E EXEfl1Y name Tor q
eEaaeooG z4E2a5EolocG locGStrgs--alic o m IN o n
crime. Yet fair science frowns not with
both Sides Of her face. Medical men,
rs Is their habit, disagree as to the
moral responsibility of the kleptoma-
mac and even jursts do not rest in
sweet accord upon the subject. So emf
nent authorities as Judge Noah Davis
ana Judge Cox have handed down the
opinion that every one is responsible
| VINO knows the nature and conse-
quences of his acts Other judges, ex-
pressing the advanced ideas of their
constituents have tenderly recommend
ed alleged k.eptomaniacs to the care of
their friends, convinced that medical
treatment would cure them.
1t Is not so very long since the world
began to consider insanity an eXtcnua-
ton of crime or n disease amenable TO
treatment. More recently still those
Only have been considered insane who
ragged, raved and were entirely without
self-control or saving grace. Now there
are physicians learned in mental dis
eases who claim that fCur-lfths of the
human race are insane upon some point
are liable to give expression to NOR
bid impulses.
just here the work of the moralist-
jurist If you Will-comes in. AS prac-
ticaIly all men are or may become cap
bly destructive forces in the shape Of
tion to decide Is whether the individ-
uai to whom these come is not always
capable Of suppressing them if he will.
Ibat strange, unmeasured, ungueSsed
power, the human will-how far is that,
or is it not, responsible. Are not terri
BE destructive forces in the shape of
morbid impulses repressed until they
die out of individuals and of races be-
cause the moral balance is maintained
by that same human will?
And is it not the duty of the law to
insist that the moral balance must be
maintained and the giving rein to NOR
bid impulses punished? The man who
steals when under the influence of
liquor is in mentally Irresponsible
condition, yet the law takes no account
of that or holds that he should have
taken care not to become mentally and
morally irresponsible.
English society and English courts
have not the privilege of pretending to
be greatly surprised at the alleged pc
culiariticS of an American cousin-in
law. So long ago as the early seventies
the London Times, in commenting upon
the case of a gcntlewoman who had
been arrested charged with stealing
some handkcrchiefs from a shop, that
any one in society could name off-hand
a dozen danes of high degree who were
terror to the tradespeople on account
of their thieving propensities. Further
more the Quarterly Review, in 1856,
in an article upon the London police,
said: The extent of pilfering carried
on, even hy ladies of high rank and po-
sition, is very great; there are persons
possessing n mania of this sort SO we'll
known among the shopkeeping commu-
nifty that their addresses and descrip-
tionS are passed from hand to hand for
mutual security. The attendants allow
them to sccrete what they like without
seeming to observe them, and after
ward send n bill with the prices of the
goods puroined to their houses" Pre-
sumably the same policy might have
been carried out in the instance that is
attracting such widespread attention
! just now If the shopkeepers had but
known 1t, or had as much faith in for
| egners as in their own beloved, If &C.
centric, aristocracy.
Tales of the exploits of kleptomaul,
acs in the abstract would do very well
| for humorous reading, but for the al
| ways apparent undercurrent of sad.
ness and suffering. One lady, varying
the expression of morbid impulses, ar
rived at complete insanity by yielding
to fancy for throwing things into the
fire. She confessed to her physician
that the impulse was merely playful in
| the beginning. She had thrown an old
pair of slippers into the CRATE, and had
| been amused at the contOrtions caused
by the scorching of the leather Next
| day she threw an old hat into the fire
and enjoyed seeing ii burn. In another
day she was surprised by a strong de-
sire to throw something else into the
fire, and as the object nearest at hand
| happened to be a handsome prayer
book, madame covered her eyes rather
than see it burn. The habit seemed
thus to be established. The victim of it
said the desire came in the shape of
n violent paroXysm which caused her
flesh to creep and culver until she had
yielded to the morbid impulse to throw
something of value into the fire.
a homely instance of the existence OF
| kleptomania is that of an elderly ply
sician. This good man, who is high
ly respected member of the community
in which he lives, and faithful unto
death in his profession, cannot bear to
leave n patients house without some
trihing souvenir Of his visit. Thimbles.
spools of thread spoons and scissors
are carried away in the doctors pock-
cts. The situation is so thoroughly un-
derstood that the doctors pockets are
regularly inspected by his better half,
and the articles are quietly returned to
their owners.