The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-03-28
IS DREYHJS Insane +?
Query Discussed Pro and Con
by Alienists.
HIS LIFE IN PRISON
How Newspaper FakerS Made
His Lot Worse.

Chicago, March 27.-The Tribune asks:
Has the prisoner Of Devils Island lost his
mind? Tortured by the hope of justice
long deferred, and badgered for years by
his secretly instructed jailers, has Drey-
fus become demented? The Tribune then
proceeds to discuss its own question as
follows:
certain passages in ga Pile du Diable, ="
the graphic and well authenticated work
of NJ. Jean Hess. the explorer and dis
tinguished colonial editor of Paris, would
answer affirmatively these startling ques-
tons. VI. Hess made a prolonged and con-
sc!entious inquiry into the condition and
treatment of Dreyfus, the concrete results
of which are given in thi book. recently
publihed in Paris.
Its most important chapter is the one
in which the prevalent habit Of the life
Of Dreyfus is briefly described. When he
has had his meal and taken a few rounds
in his little paisade promenade he seats
himself at table and resumes his eter-
nal complicated calculations on freakish
>
eccentric plans for ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
eccentric plans of immense palaces and
vast structures of many kinds, totally OBJ
livious to the presence of the armed guard
near by, to whom ne gives as little atten-
ton as he does to any one of the pieces
Of movable furniture in the prison.
In the French workshop the character
istic and idiomatic expression INDUCED IN
during breathing spells is 'Ca va bien."
Absentlymindedly putting his pipe, and alb
soTbed in his architectural schemes. Drey-
fus frequently mutters to himself, ga ne
va pas tarderT'
For a long time this IS the only phrase
sssssss hsssss hhhhh tao taoao OF INF
and these are the only words the guards
have heard him speak.
When NJ. Danel, the Governor Of French
Guiana, started for France last summer
he wanted to make sure that he left Drey-
fus behind him on Devils Island. Conse-
quently he topped off on the way to see
tho prisoner. He had the double locks on
the door opened and entered the lobby of
the keepers. Only the bars of the interior
cage separated him from the victim of the
French military mystery.
''Dreyfus," SAND he ST am NJ. Danel,
Governor of Guiana. have come to see
you before returning to France. Have
you any complaint to make to me?"
The risoner eyed the Governor from head
to foot, but made no reply. While this
persistent, and rather aggressive, silence
of Dreyfus might be the polite determin-
alton of a sane man placed in his unique
situation, his preoccupadon on the subject
of architecture, and on a single phase of
that subject, may well arouse the anxiety
Of his friends for the day he will have
need OF all his faculties and health in MS
own defense.
Experts in the study Of ihallucination
long ago observed the frequency with
which sufferers from insanity applied
themselves strenuously to designing arch
itectural impossibilities and novelties.
The Chicago alienists interviewed on the
subject of the probable breaking down
of the Captains mind were Of the opinion
that it was impossible to determine from
the fact of his constant artistic occupa-
ton that he was insane.
Dr. ]. G. Kienan was inclined to believe
that Dreyfus had taken refuge in an art
diversion, which his polytechnic training
made possible. Said he:
-'Tha question whether hitherto I'M
artistic military man, confined in prison
for supposed treason, has become insane
because he suddenly devotes himself to
drawing palaces and great buildings and
no other objects is not 50 easily settled as
would at first sight appear. 1t is true
that at the outset of certain forms of in
sanity artistic and other powers are de-
veloped which have not been previously
noticed. This is particularly true of the
exalted emotional stages (hypomania)
whether occurring at the outset of the
acute mania or 70 other forms of insanity
as the results Of a conservative tendency
struggling with disease. A hypomaniac
period sometimes removes checks on early
training so that difficulties are ignored
and a seemingly mediocre artist executes
a great work. PaoH mas observed the
case of an artist whose copy of a Madonna
of Raphael, painted during an attack.
is evident from the relative infrequency
gained a prize medal a the exhibition. It
of artists among the English-speaking in
| sane as compared with the mechanicians
that such a conservative factor has much
10 90 with the appearance of artistic
| sports
''Nacaulay evidently a little puzzled by
the influence Of such a factor that owed
It's power TO the intellectual period Of
storm and stress which produced such pro
! gress in science during and after the Puri-
| tan revolution of 1910. says. anent England
/ in the reiSn Of Charles Ii. that Il Is not
/ easy 70 explain why the nation, which
was SO far before its neigh5ors in science.
should have been IN art far behind them
/ II is true that in architecture. an art
which is half science, an art in which IS
! nothing but what IS directly dependent on
/ utility an art Of which the creation de-
rive a part AT least, Of their majesty from
mere brick or stone, England should boast
/ Of one truely great man. Christopher
! Wren. But at the close Of the reign Of
| Charles II. there was not a single English
! painter or s,atuary whose mama IS now