The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-20
FORMS OF LUNACY.
Mntal Alterations Which Reflect the
PASSIONS of the Times.

Z L
The author of the History of E9i-
denies calls attention to .the curious
correspondence between the established
customs and prevalent diseases OF each
century. and asserts that certain ailments
have ceased TO prevail simply because the
predisposing conditions of their develop
ment have gone out of fashion.
j Mental alterations seem subject TO
similar laws or evolution. Inere IS
method IN the origin of madness Each
country and each age has its predominant
crazes of bygone times have subsidized
from mere lack of encouragement Nis1-
/ tors 10 Walkenried Abbey in the foot
hills OF the Hartz are still shown a glen
where peasant of the fifteenth century
had an interview with the personal devil.
Z The gentleman in black obliged the ma
/ tive 10 furnish the census statistics OF
] the country for miles around; and oeIore
! the end of a week the inhabitants OF
that district seemed TO have run crazy
! en- masse- They rushed TO and fro with
bowls of frantic terror, crowded into
caves, like Kansas farmers into a cyclone
/ pit, and even scaled trees TO take refuge
! in the forage of the top branches
Count Stolbere. in trying to allay the
panic. came near being mobbed, and had
TO hire the town militia of cuedliaburg
before he could even restore the mental
| equilibrium of his immediate neighbor.
/ hood Nowadays the riot act would have
to be read for the protection OF that
census reporter if. indeed. he should con-
trive to dodge strait-jacket for a
4 hours.
Crusades. in their epidemic emotional
forms, would not be equally impossible,
but if il be true that the strange dane
ing mania was a reaction against the
excessive cuietism of the middle ages.
our blue laws might account for a
| specially troublesome type of insanity
found N the Bedlams of North America
and North Britain, viz: the delirium of
the horse-play crank, who shouts tingle-
tangle melodies and startleS his corridor
neighbors with the clatter of midnight
hornpiDes. And ii Is by no means i'm
possible that the NEEDLE craze of our viii
lage gossiDs has a good deal to do with
the genesis OF the Nerfogungs Wahn-
sim, as German lunacy experts call the
Illusion of that numerous class of mono
maniacs who believe in widespread con-
Spiraoies against their peace or personal
liberty.
Did you see how that fellow looked at
me Sideways" whispered an inmate Of
the Pontiac Sanitarium when a plumber
and his assistant passed his retreat in an
rascal" he added. Though l can't re-
call his name this minute: he can't fool
me; l know what he comes for. That
outfit of his is all a sham. He wants to
fasten some cursed SANDER on me. the
same as a year ago, and those two fell
lows he brought along are professional
perjurers, hired TO clinch his internal
lies"
Don't let them scare you, old man, -
laughed his medical attendant. 1t is pos
sible they do look like the rascals you
talk about. but | know them; they are
honest mechanics. and have done our
work these last ten months, and never
caused any trouble
Ten months? l thought So" said the
monomaniac. THAT settles the question.
l lost sight of them ten months ago. but
now I'm on to their tricks. They just
learned plumbing TO get a chance for
tormenting me again.
He had really been troubled with
Scandalmongers, and in the case of Jean
Jacques Rousseau similar causes >un-
doubtedly led to the same result. The
numerous eccentricities of the all-around
reformer had stirred up a hornets nest
OF backbiters. and within a year after
his flight from the garden cottage in
suburb of Paris the author of the Con
trat Social" had come to tremble at the
approach of visitor. David Hume, the
most unseltish worshipper of his genius.
had persuaded him to take refuge in Eng
land and mad Already succeeded in raising
fund for the expenses of the hegira and
the support of the refugees household
Tor years 10 come, when the entire project
was wrecked on the rocks of the Verpol-
SunS Wanasinn. Hume had carte blanche
TO enter the philosophers den at any hour
or the day or night, and was welcomed
as Hercules HbeTator was welcomed by
the chained Titan, but one luckless day he
let himself be persuaded TO use his in
huence for the Introduction of two strang-
erS, and was surprised to notice the
change in the conduct of his protegA
short answers, grunGs of Impotence and
looks OF fierce reproach- Something evil
IDENTIFY was wrong, and when Rousseau
arose and stepped out on the porch. the
visitors took the hint and left. The only
reply to their parting courtesies was a
slam of the door, so violent and unEnis-
takably insulting that Hume turned on
his heel II request an explanation.
Why WHAT'S the matter?" he asked
in his offhand manner. Il thought we
were the best friends in the world
No answer.
Il thought we were friends. monsieur?''
he repeated, with rising emphasis.
Yes, so thought l, burst out the mis-
anthrcpe, land I'm glad you have opened
my eyes in time. And so that's what your
friendship amounts to; that's why you
wheedled yourself into my confidence; to
play. pander for brace of cursed scan
dal-peddling spies, TO rob me of my last
grave"
Pm sorrer than I can say STAN
mered Hume, but 1 declare 1 did not
Didn't know that I could look through
your tricks. Mr. Doubleface, did your
shrieked the semi-maniac, now losing his
ter this, I hope, or III have to convince
you in a manner you will not be apt TO
forget. You mind your own business
henceforth. and let me mind mine. Pen
sion to the impertinent curiosity of such
intrudersi''
Rousseau used TO lock himself up for
days, and as natural consequence had
committee of gossips pry1ng through his
keynots5; and hundreds of our more prac
tical countrymen seek refuge in the
wilderness, where they have TO live self
dependent in a dangerously cOmprehen-
sive sense of the word, but really contrive
to enjoy the luxury OF absolute Seclusion
for weeks and months. From the wild
men of the woods who flee from the APP
proach of their fellow-men, 20 the mis-
anthropic recluse of a tenement attic,
there is only a difference in the mode of /
proceedings, and nearly every county of
the Allegheny highlands harbors refugees
from the worry of social life who. under
preteXt of better pastures or hunting
grounds, retire TO the summit regions of
solitary mountain ranges, and are left
alone as soon as amateur detectives have
established the non-existence of secret
distillereS.
NEEDLE maniacs were rare among the
ancient nations of the Mediterranean, and !
the modern Italians, too, are models of
tolerance with the wtlims of moral dis
senters, but their jealousies are apt to
take the fcrm of family feuds, and Prof |
MantegaZZa describes an amusing lunauc ]
who fed with whoop at the mere sight |
of a stranger in petticoats. Get out of /
this, for heavens sake, he would adj /
monisin his companions, 'or you will have
eight inches of steel in your ribs the first |
thing you know"
Ours has been called the age of Doodle |
whence, perhaps, the grow I
ing rarity of patriotic mOnomaniacs.
They know" says Macmillan Harden, I
that their eioquence would only serve /
the purpose of lecture hall entertain 1
ments, and that dollar and cent argu- |
ments would discount their logic at the |
polls"
But disappointed reformers now and 1
then try 10 correct fortune after the man |
ner of their opponents, and an incurable 1
at Longview o., evinced an abiding faith
in the omnipotence of brides.
These visiting commissioners, he said, /
would be all right Il | could only con-