The broad ax., 1897-03-27

~ They have submit
~ ted kleptomania In
its stead. Mrs. Castle Of San Francis
co Is not a conveyor but a kleptoman-
lac. For kleptomania, we are told, Is
a form Of insanity which renders its
victim irresponsible. Nice distinctions
Of this sort were not known to our an.
cestors. In their simpler view a lun-
attic was a raving maniac-a person
who did not know the nature and con-
sequence Of his acts. On this point
law and medicine were fully agreed.
But medicine has advanced far more
rapidly than law and is gradually
teaching its sister science that a luna
tic need not rave and rage in order to
be morally Irresponsible; that from
that extreme point there are numer-
Gus gradations toward the normal state
till we reach a class on the borderland
between sanity and insanity Of whom
ii is difficult to decide the exact de-
gree OF their responsibility. In one
light they may be insane and ire
sponsible, although in all o.her rela-
tions of life they may be absolutely
sane and responsible. A kle otomaniac
for example, is a person who may be
perfectly rational under ordinary cir
cumstances. yet when placed under the
stress OF temptation is irresistibly i'm
PEELED to steal Medical records are
full Of illustrative cases. There was
the man who would not eat unless his
food was stolen. His attendant hui
mored him by hiding his food in a cor
ner, so that he could imagine he was
purloining it, There was the fash
ioDable lady who at her trial for theft
confessed TO so wild longing to pos
sess everything she saw that at church
she could hardly refrain from rifiing
the altar. There was the woman men
toned by DR.. Rush, exemplary in the
obedience to all the commandments
save only the eighth. who, when there
was nothing else to lay. her hands up
on, would often at the table of a
friend secretly fill her pockets with
bread. Even before DR.. Rush's time
the German Lavater had chronicled
similar instances. He mentions a doc
tor Of medicine who could not leave
his patients rooms without taking
something away unobserved. His wife
would make it practice to search HIS
pockets whenever he returned home
and would find and restore to their
owners the knives, thimbles, scissors
and other knick-knacks with which
they were stuffed. He makes a rec
ord Of a still more curious case, the
almoner Of a regiment OF Prussian
cuirassiers, well-educated man, who
frequently on parade stole the hand
kerchiefs of the officers. But what are
all these cases to that of the penitent
whose kleptomaniac passion asserted
itself on his death bed so that he
quietly distracted the snuff box of the
holy father listening to his confession?
So long ago as 1856 the Quarterly Re
view Of London, in an article on the
metropolitan police, noted the fact that
the extent of pilfering carried on even
by ladies of rank and position is very
great. There are persons possessing
a mania of this kind so well known
among the shopkeeping community
that their addresses and descriptions
are passed from hand to hand for mu-
tual security. The attendants allow
them to secrete what they like with
out seeming to observe them and after
ward send a bill with the prices of the
goods purloined to their houses"
Twenty years later the London Times
repeated the charge Every one who
is acquainted with London society. II
said, could at once furnish a dozen
names Of ladies who have been MOTOR
ious for abstracting articles of trifiing
value from the shops where they hab-
itually dealt. Their modus operandi
was 80 we'll known that on their re-
turn from their drives their relatives
took care to ascertain the nature of
their paltry populations; inquired from
the coachman the houses at which he
had been ordered to stop and, as a mat
ter Of course, reimbursed the trades
men to the full value Of the differed
goods. In other cases a hint was Civ
en- to the various shopkeepers at whose
establishments these monomaniacs
made their purchases, and they were
simply forewarned to notice what was
taken away and to furnish the bill.
which was paid as soon as furnished.
and, as a matter Of course, by the pil-
ferer himself, without any feeling of
shame or emotion Of any kind. It is
only recently that kleptomania has be-
come recognized by the courts.