Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1897-04-23
MURDERER LAUGHED
HIS PRETENsE or FElGNlNG INSANITY
IS PROOF Of ITS REALITY.

Is PROOF VI lJS REALITY.
Something New In Neurology-Lunacy Ii
Many-Odditics Of Word or Action That
May Mean Much.
In tho reports Of the recent examination
by Il sheritf's jury to determine, the mental
condition Of murderer In st. Louis it
was stated that after tho prisoner had been
made co9nizant of the verdict he chuckled
and upon his return to the jail gave ex.
preston to his satisfaction ut having de.
ceived both sheriff and jury. s5,lG 3,=5,
The statement was afterward denied.
But whether true or false Is not material,
being of little consequence in comparison
with an opinion alleged to have been given
in connection with Il by one Of the neurol.
ogists in attendance, who is reported to
have said that, II the man did actually ex.
press himself as stated that fact was Of
itself evidence Of bis insanity. No doubt
the gentleman who came to this conclusion
had gOod reasons with which to support
it, for whatever may he thought Of the re-
suits reached by the neuroiogists their
methods are in the highest degree scien-
tiac. But in the incident people who are
not skilled In the phenomena of insanity
can see nothing but the momentary forget
fulness of a foreigner who has succeeded
in escaping the gallows by his own clever.
ness and is overjoyed by the fact that his
life is spared by the verdict.
But, on the other hand, it must be con-
fessed that no one is SO competent to give
an opinion on such subject as the men
H. ~, ifo
work, who have carefully observed the &C.
tions and noted the words of great num-
bcrs of people unquestionably demented,
and who, by virtue of the information
thus gathered, are able to detect mental
alteration in all its stages and to decide
definitely what may be the significance
of particular incidents which to the ordi-
nary observer have no meaning at all.
The expert certainly has one fact In his
favor-that every day one meets people so
queer in word or action, or both, that when
they become insane, If they ever do, no.
body is surprised at the fact.
The man who talks to himself, the man
who does not talk at all, even to himself,
the man who flies into a passion at an ap-
parently inadequate cause, the melancholy
man, the man who is always talking poll
VII
the subject of religion, thu jealous man,
the man who is forever in a hurry and
never on time, the man who is never at
ease unless he is making love to somebody,
the man who is so completely wrapped up
in himself that he can neither talk nor ap'
parently think of anything else-they are
all peculiar, and it may be they arc all in
the incipient stages of lunacy and only
for hQn
to develop into raging maniacs.
1t is also probable that there are many
persons usually considered sane who are
constantly hanging on the verge OF violent
madness, for no other hypothesis than this
can explain the we'll known fact that the
suicide of a prominent person or a suicide
by an uncommon method is speedily fol-
lowed by other suicides, often in the same
way, while crime of unusual brutality, to
which wide publicity is given, is. quickly
succeeded by one or more of the same gen
cral character. These facts would appear
to Indicate that the same general idea iS
often uppermost in the minds of several
persons, and that conspicuous example
is all that is needed to impel several along
the same roud.
In the case of several men OF proml-
nencc and unquestioned ability, the discov-
cry has been made after death that their
brains were in condition which rendered
healthy mental action very improbable, II
not impossible, while in other instances
the statements Of intimate friends regard
ing admissions made by the lnen them
selves during their lifetime showed that
they were constantly on the verge OF lu-
macy; that they were perfectly cognizant OF
the fact and dreaded the fate that they
feared awaited them.
How many such there are today no one
can tell The thought, however, that the
man who rooms above you may at any
moment he seized with a murderous mania
and come down stairs and cut your throat,
that the we'll fed butcher may suddenly be
unable to control his insane desire to split
your head with his cleaver that the baker
may be led in a crazy fit to knock out
your brains with rolling pin and burn
up your body in his oven, is far from reas-
surfing. Louis Globe-Denocrat.