The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-26

ed to a passage and asked me to read it.
did so. 1t was the description of a wo-
man who had been taken 10 a dungeon
and there bound hand and foot, the thongs
around the hands being tied to those
about the feet. The woman, after having
been thus bound, was left to die by her
assailants.
After reading the description, / ques-
toned Mrs. Ballard about Miss Mayo's
characters ties 1 learned that, some time
ago. the young woman had been found
walking in her sleep. She had come
downstairs to the room where her alleg-
ed assailant found her in the middle of
the night. She wore only n night dress,
and over her arm she carried a dress
skirt The Billiards. had been awakened
and Mrs. Ballard led her back to her room
and put her to bed. l also learned that
none of the money which was in the house
when the Billiards. went to church was
missing. There was, in different draw
ers, all of which had been ransacked by
the alleged robber, about $40. Every dol
lar was found
Learning these facts, and some others,
I was forced to tho conclusion that the
story told by Miss Mayo was a creation of
her own fancy, but real to her as life itself.
A girl naturally of a highly sensitive ma
ture, hard student, with an overworked
mind, greatly impressed, may be, by the
SlOIy she ndu READ OF the woman IN the
dungeon, had become suddenly afflicted
with a form Of hysteria, or insanity, or
whatever you may choose to call it. Cases
something like this one are recorded in
the medical books, and, oddly enough,
every single case was that of sleep
walker.
"A day or two ago Miss Mayo sent for
me- In the course of the conversation
asked her If she remembered what she
thought she was doing the night Mrs. Bal
lard found her walking in her sleep. She
said she dreamed that dress skirt need
ed to be mended, and that she had taken
it and gone downstairs to sew it on the
sewing machine. Then l asked her:
" Don't you believe the time will come
when you will recall this assault, as you
now recall that dream and remember it
only as horrid nightmare?
She seemed astonished at my question
and declared that her experiences on
Sept. were actualities and that there
could possibly be no mistake about them
Then l told her how Mrs. Ballard, to sat
isfy her own incredulity, had tried to tie
herself up as Miss Mayo was tied and
! had succeeded SO well that after she had
done the tying she was unable to help
herself.
Even this could not shake her belief
in her own story, and this makes her case
the most peculiar on record, so far as /
know. Two weeks have passed now since
the alleged assault. The girl Is perfectly
rational on all other subjects. on this
one, however her mind is in the same
condition it was on Sept 5. There is no
recorded case in which the hallucination
has lasted so long. This shows a most
serious mental condition.
Miss Mayo is now at ner fathers house
After deliber4yng over the matter for
some time the School trustees of Milling
| ton decided IL would be best to dispense
! with the services OF their young teacher
The decision was conveyed to her in a
delicate manner because the trustees had
sympathy for her. When she learned Of
the decision Miss Mayo burst into tears.
| exclaimiug:
"Oh, l wish he had killed me. 1t would
have been better than this"
Miss Mayo's father. who was seen by
the Sun reporter yesterday, is convinced
himself that his daughter imagined the
assault. He cannot understand however
what it was that so upset her mind A
Boston physician, who has become so
much interested in the case that he has
been here to make a personal investiga-
ton of it, has offered this explanation af-
ter learning the story of the girls life and
her temperament:
THE girl is motherless," he said, rand
the desire of her life-to go through col
lege-has been beset with difficulties. Her
mind is overactive. When not studying
she is thinking of herself and comparing
her lot iththat of other girls. This brood
ing has excited a desire for sympathy-a
not unusual form of hysteria Alone that
Sunday morning, with the story of an I'M
happy woman fresh in her mind, her de-
sire for sympathy overcame her reason,
and she saw the qualification of her desire
in putting herself in the condition of the
woman who excited her sympathy"