Kansas City journal., 1898-02-27

lapse. ard to heighten the effect he has on
more than one occasion called for a priest
to administer extreme JUNCTION.
His object? Simply to insure for himself
a bed to sleep in. soothing foods to tickle
his palate. and the attentions of trained
nurses, upon whose susceptible sympa-
thies he has invariably played. He is too
lazy to work. and. having cultivated his
veloped II into a positive art. he has been
simply living in the hospitals.
Has Seen Better Days.
The count is a man of about 35 He
speaks with a decided foreign accent His
manners are winning and he dresses fairly
well, having about him the air of man
who has seen better days. 1t is easy for
him to deceive women. and he delights
In their sympathy. He never fails to en-
list the attention of trained nurses and
altogether is an admirable patient.
He does not solicit money or clothing: he
simply wants the attentions bestowed upon
an invalid. and is content to remain in bed
FOR weeks at time to get good nursing
and delicate foods. Who he is and how
he lives when out of hospitals no one
knows, for he Is not at all communica-
tive.
The count first became known at the
various hospitals of Chicago about twelve
months ago. and during the past year he
has led a most lazy and luxurious exist
ence. It is in his power-might make
thorough and exhaustive examination but
since his latest exposure he has not been
seen, and the police are unable to get even
the slightest trace of him. He seems to
1t. together with his board and lodging.
He arouses sympathy, and with 1t gets
nice warm beds. chicken broth and port
wine. He Is schemer whose tricks have
aroused the admiration OF the police the
medical profession and the hospital au-
thorities. His latest scheme is to have a
denly taken ill. There he will remain un-
til found out, or some one who knows him
tells his, nurse who he is: The hospitals
can no longer be deceived. for he is on
their black list.
Has Many Resources.
to expose the count. He ran across the
phenomenon In a purely professional way.
When the count first became known to To-
cal fame it was through a violent attack
of what in any other person would have
been dangerous fever-that is. the ply
sicians at the county hospital were Of the
opinion it was dangerous. He commanded
the closest attention and the best of food
and received both 1t seemed really nee
galloping at a great rate. and his tenn
perature was only to be compared to that
of the inside of a busy brick kiln. After
a long spell Of sickness he was pronounced
convalescent and discharged. and it was
not until the patient was far out of their
reach that the doctors at the hospital
temperature at will.
In few days he turned up at another
hospital, and in this case his Illness was
brought about by unrequited love. He had
made. so he said, an unsuccessful attempt
at self-destruction, and in his deiirium
caused, as the physicians thought. by the
poison he had taken. he necessarily moaned
and cried aloud for agnes. the light of
his life and the fond object of his love"
OF course this won for him the sympathy
of the female nurses.
But he was not consistent. He worked
the same game at other hospitals where
Agnes was supplanted in turn by Marie
and Lucille. Had he stuck to Agnes he
might not have been SO readily found out
but when notes were compared it went
hard with the count of tickle imagina-
tion.
Morphine Has No Effect.
Again and again was he taken suddenly
and mysteriously Ill, and in several in
stances morphine was given to him as
being the only means by which he could
be kept alive. One day, at one of the last
OF the public hospitals at which he was
a patient, nearly two grains of the drug
were used without perceptible or visible
effect. What would have been a deadly
dose to any other man did not appear to
pheese the count one bit.
HE Is the most remarkable man I ever
knew" said DIR. Burkholder. He could
counterfeit any sickness any symptoms
and deceive the most practiced physician.
can not explain it, although ] have
talked with the best physicians in the
city"