Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-01-09
AWAKE FOR FIFTEEN YEARS
WILLIAM r.. KELLY'S REMARKABLE
ATTACK OF INSOMNIA.
Since Suffering Fifteen Years Ago
From Nervous PrOstration Kelly
Declares He Has Not Slept
Either Night or Day.

From the Philadelphia Record.
After having consulted several prominent
physicians of this and other cities in the
hope of being cured of the most extraordi-
nary case OF insomnia on record, William
R. Kelly. of No. 1913 Melon street, who
claims that he has not slept night or day
for over fifteen years. is about to apply to
the eminent specialists of the University Of
Pennsylvania for relief. Thus far all the
doctors to whom he has submitted himself
for examination have been puzzled by his
disorder. and none of them has been able
to afford him even temporary aid by the
use =, OF opiates IN moderate quantities.
protracted period Of sleeplessness seems
incredible. yet Kelly is still alive and
stoutly maintains that his story is true.
He AYERS that he goes to bed every night
as does the ordinary mortal and closes his
eyes. but that he is never in the state Of
Inconsistencies which rests the brain.
Instead. he is as fully conscious of every
thing that takes place within his range Of
hearing as If he were sitting up in a
every passing footstep in the street, every
tick of the clock in the room beneath the
one he occupies. and all the strange noises
of the night.
Started With v Prostitution.
Kelly, who is now 2s years old. is a ma
hhs 18th 4 ts year he Sui sare near f frem ana a IN
months in a Cleveland hospital. and his
SA'AA nahchS DStASVA II Tx udlcD
from that time. He came to this city eight
or ten years ago and secured work at the
Baldwin works, where he is
still employed. As soon us he had saved
enough money to pay for medical advice
he sought it. hoping to be enabled to sat
isfy a natural craving for the sleep made
impossible by his shattered nervous sys-
tenn.
The doctors to whom he applied. ons
after another. including DR.. Costello.
formerly of Spring Garden street, above
Twenty-firSt. but now residing in Nice
town. advised the patient to give up the
confirmed tobacco chewer and coffee drink
er, consuming about two ounces of the weed
and a quart of coffee every day, but for
several weeks at a time he has forsworn
obtaining relief. On the contrary. such
abstinence only made his nerves unsteady
during the day. and the medicines given
him for the building up of his nervous
system seemed to do no good.
Severe Mental Strain.
The sufferer from this peculiar trouble
usually retires between II and 1 o'clock
and arises at half past 5. Sometimes he
becomes so wrought up over his inability
to sleep that he gets up an hour or two
earlier. and waits downstairs until the
time arrives for going to his work. Even
in the brief interval that Kelly spends
in bed each night. he obtains. physical
been sleep, but the continual mental
strain is telling upon him. He is of slight
build. and 1t is strange that he has been
able to bear up without brain rest for SO
this optical disorder was said by some of
the physicians he consulted to be a result
OF insomnia.
Kelly's friends have advised him to con-
suit the authorities at the University hos
pital, and he has at last decided to do so.