The midland journal., 1897-01-29
kLEPTOMANIA is A DISEASE.
Medical Men Believe the Practice Is Due
to Unhealthful Mental Conditions.

Medical Men Believe the Practice Is Due
to Unhealthful Mental Conditions.
The weight of high medical opinion
is to the effect that kleptomania is a
form of mental unsoundness that does
in some cases actually exist. About
six years ago a man was arrested in the
act of stealing pocket handkerchief
from lady in Vienna In his sane
days he had been prosperous baker.
but mania for the acquisition of cam
brio pocket handkerchiefs seized upon
him and proved his ruin. AT first itw
his habit to accost ladies in the street
and offer to buy their pocket handller-
chiefs. If they refused he used to get
angry and offer them higher and higher
prices, until bargain was struck.
Many women traded upon his madness,
until at last all his money was spent
and he became bankrupt. Then, no
longer having money to buy pocket
handkerchiefs, he took to stealing them
and was soon sent to prison. 1t was
thought that his imprisonment would
cure him. But when he was again
caught in the act, in 1890, hundreds of
cambria handkerchiefs were found con-
cealed in the room where he lodged. AS
he had never been known to steal any
thing else, the court before which he
was brought promptly adjudged him
insane and sent him to madhouse.
This is only one of many cases that arc
to be found in the medico-legal books.
In the city of Newark, II. j., recently,
lady was arrested for shoplifting, and,
verwhelmed with shame, refused to
give her name. When she was arraigned
many respectable citizens, including a
Clergyman, appeared to vouch for the
fact that she was woman of good fam
ily in prosperous circumstances. well
able to buy anything she needed, and
having no need whatever for the arti-
cies she had stolen. She was stubborn
II determined to conceal her name, even
though she we're sent to prison, and the
respectable citizens sustained her in
that resolution, obviously for the sake
of shielding her family. The court i'm
posed fine of $75 upon her, which was
many times the value of the goods
taken. The fine was promptly paid by
the highly respectable lawyer who ap-
i3eared for her, and she left the court
room with, her identity undiscovered.
Again, in a dry goods store on Sixth
avenue, New York, woman was ar
rested on similar charge, and it APP
reared that she was q visitor to the
metropolis from the town of Port
chester. Residents of that town were
ready to testify in large numbers that
she had been stealing things from the
local stores for three years past, al
ways taking articles of small value, and
for which she had no need. She was,
moreover, a well-to-do person, owning
considerable property, and the Port
chester tradesmen, it seemed, had all
tacitly agreed to regard her as a de-
mented woman, whom it would be q
shame to prosecute. She, too, will prob
ably be discharged with cautionary
fine.
The whole problem of lleptomania
in the courts resolves itself into ques-
ton that must be answered according
to the proved facts in each case as it
arises. Whenever it appears clearl :
that there was no motive for theft, no
object in it, and that the accused per-
son has shown signs of unmistaliable
mental arrangement, the case is prop
erly one for the lunatic asylum and not
Tor the prison.-Baltimore Sun.