The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-09
A CRAZY COMPROMISE.
A Queer Case of Self Defense by
Physician.
From the washington Star


From the Washington Star.
"As a rule" remarked the physician at
the foot OF the dinner table. when It came
his turn to prescribe a story for the list
eners at the feast, Il do not minister to
minds diseased, though there are times
when may have patient for a short sea-
son whose mind needs healing. When
such case does come into my hands I
get 1t into the care of a specialist Just as
soon as / can, and so far there has been
only one patient whom could not get rid
of until had effected a permanent cure"
The listeners looked their surprise, for
the talker had no reputation whatever in
that line nor did he seek it.
In this case" he continued without inn
mediate explanation. II presume l would
have done as usual had It not been for the
very unexpected development of the dis
ease. The patient was friend of mine,
man of about 80 years, whose strength was
much more muscular than mental, and
when he broke from over exertion he
broke in the mind. At first there was only
the merest sign, and ] felt that d. would
be cruel to throw him into an asylum for
the insane until / had given him a fair
chance to show that my Judgment might
be at fault, so I concluded to wait a week
or two.
Two days after this conclusion I call
ed on him and. found him unusually bright
and cheerful albeit 1t was rather ner-
vous than natural cheerfulness, though
l paid no particular attention to that. l
talked along with him as always did and
when / was about to go he quietly asked
me to come with him to an annex OF his
house where he had recently fitted up a
handsome new billiard room, which he
wished me to see. The room was quite
remote from the living parts Of the house,
and when we had entered and 1 had ad-
%. ,ketl "a
door and began acting in a manner which
made me feel any and all ways except
comfortable, seeing that ! was absolutely
in his power physically. ] felt that at
once, and think it must have strength
ened my mental power, for / seemed TO
feel that II a conflict arose between US l
would come off conqueror unless he kill
ed me at once and before ] had an OPP
portunity to use my influence upon him.
"As with insane people under such cir
cumstances, the first feeling he displayed
when he found he had men In his power
was delight, and II was his laugh which
first startled me. Then he began talking
wildly of what he had been studying in she
way of thought transference and how he
was sure that the brains of two or more
persons could be connected by a wire and
become as one brain with the combined
force of them all If the connection were
thoroughly made by direct contact with
each brain. He continued his argument,
very learnedly. and at last informed me
that he had hoped TO make his first exper-
iment on more than two persons, but that
circumstances over which he had no con-
troll had prevented that, and in lieu of II
he would take himself and myself and
by those two prove his point without
question.
"As he reached this part of the pro,
gramme he took revolver from his
pocket, and holding II so I could not get
1t from him, he showed me how he had
fastened a wire at one end OF the bullet
in the revolver and had twisted the other
end (the wire was about three feet long,
around wooden handle a foot long, pre-
sumably to prevent the wire from fol-
lowing the bullet. The plan, as he tx
planned very carefully to me, was to shoot
the bullet through the heads of the two
persons on whom the test was to be made,
and when the connection was fully made
the two were to have thought transfer
ence or transmittance to the desired end.
"In other words, It was q cold -blooded
killing by maniac, and ! was to be a
party to 1t by being part OF It. He was
for carrying out the experiment at once
and actually caught hold Of me with a
clutch that was powerless to resist, and
dragged me UP to one side of him. Putting
his head alongside Of mine, with mine TO
the right of his, and the revolver In his
right hand, he was about to pull the trig-
ger, when / got my wits together suffi-
GENTLY to ask some kind of question that
stopped him for a moment. You see, had
been talking with him all along as IL
quite agreed with his ideas, and that he
would soon have a discovery made which
would astonlsh the world Now, when !
spoke he listened though his eyes were
dancing and he was evidently getting
crazier every minute. Dropping the re-
volVer and releasing me, he asked me what
suggestion / had to make, and / at once
urged upon him the greatest carefulness
to insure the highest success In his first
experiment I showed him that as he was
about TO perform 1t, to wit, with my head
between the revolver and his head there
was danger that his hand, held so far from
his body would be less steady, and that
the bullet might be DETECTED and fail to
enter the brain at the proper point and at
the proper angle, whereas II he let me put
my head to the left side OF his head, SO
that he could hold the revolver firmly
against the right side of his own II was
absolutely impossible to make a mistake.
Thus the bullet would pass through both
brains on a perfect line, carrying the wire
with il and establishing the grand trans.
initial connection.
HE was enormously pleased with my
brilliant suggestion, and at once reversed
the original order. and after at least five
minutes OF changing my head so Il would
NJ TO his just as he thought 1t should, he
pronounced all to be IN readiness, and
then. with especial care he placed the
revolver 20 his temple and fired before I
really felt that he was going to do IL
Tho sensation TO me was most peculiar.
and / distinctly felt the jar of the shot.
SO distinctly, in fact was the bump of his
head against mine at the shock Of the
shot that mine bounced away far enough
to escape q violent concusslon which
would have been produced by the bullet.
which for some reason only came half
way through the bone OF the skull on the
left side. / had calculated on Il coming
clear through, and had thought / would
be able to escape 1t, but IL Il had come
through as / had expected / am afraid,
after all my valuable suggestions 20 nv
patient and experimenter / would have
had a case Of bullet on the brain almost
as permanent In its results as his through
the brain was.
1T killed him. Of course, and aided and
Allotted the killing, but / explained the
entire thing TO the family. and nothing
was ever done about 1t, as It was very
evidently a case OF sef-defense, and the
police haven't found II out yet, though
that was a dozen years or more ago."