Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1901-10-03
DRIVEN TO MADNESS.
TIMES WHEN AN EXCESS OF JOY IS
 LINKED WITH INSANITY.
Some of the Saddest Cases of Lunacy Are Those Where the Mind IS tn- able to Stand the Shock of Sudden Good 'Pidin-s.

nDle TO stand inc ShOch oi ShuuSa Good fidings.
 1t is no exaggeration to assert, said aH asylum doctor of long and varied experience, tIat there are scores of mea and women in our asylums who have literally been sent there through excess of joy Many of these cases which are, in my opinion, the Saddcst of all have come under my own observation.
 1 remember in the very first asylum patients was a Strkingly handsome and very well educated man, who WIS Is sane as you or l except on one point. He was really man of c3nslGeraDlc wealth, but his delISiou was that he was q pauper, and he would tell the most pitiful tales of his Restitution, begging, with tears ia l.s eyes. for q few eoppers with which 10 buy bread.
 According 10 the story told me. he was the oily son of Il wealthy mer= chant. In his youth he had fallen am0ng evil companions and had led such q assolute life that his father aot only threatened to disinherit him, put forbade him ever to enter his house again. After that he seems to have sunk into the lowest depths of poverty lntil he was glad to earn few cop 5ars by selling papers or matches in he streets.
 t was at this last and lowest stage hat news came to him that his father rad died intestate and that he was heir 0 all his vast fortune. The sudden ,pWs completely turned the mans yraln and brought on such a condition If excitement that he had to be sent to an asylum, and when le calmed Town again he had lost all recollection f his good fortune. and nothing can shake his deluSion that he is on the verge of starvation.
 Another patient in the same asylum was a young and in his lucid moments most intelligent fellow. whose "brain vas t;lrned.' as the saying l., on learn 5ng that he had passed an examination. He had sat for the luatricuiation exam nation at the University of London. on passing which he had set his heart aud had asked ;l friend ill London 10 Wire the result as soon as the names were screeGed at Burlington House.
 About three weeks later came fatal telegram, Hailed sorry which sent the young man into the lowest depths of despair for he was too old to sit again Not many hours later, however. came another telegram, "Passed honors very sorry crush so great did not see name t!iis morning The revulsion of feeling was so great that the stu dents reason gave way. and he be- cane so violent in his excitement that he dad to be confined. Fortunately ie was not with us long and is DOW. l am glad to know, doing very well as so- licitor
 Disappointed love sends many peo- pie to asylums, but it is very seldom that success in Wooing drives a man mad II had this strange effect. how eNer on one of my late patients. The gir! he loved had gone out to India to keep house for her brother before he had screwed up his courage to the point of proposing to her, but an offer fol. lowed by mail very quickly after her
 Weeks and months passed. and no an swnr came to the impatient lover until after waiting two years in despair, he became engaged to q girl who had nothing but her money bags to recom- mend her and for whom he had not q particle of love. Scarcely, however, was his fate sealed than he received the long desHaired of letter from India, ac- ceptng his offer and explaining that the girls brother had received and mis laid the letter. which had only just been found and had come into her hands
 Within an hour of the receipt of this letter the man was q raving maniac, and although his condition is improved I doubt whether he vii! eyer recover his reason.
 Ill another remarkable case it was the joy at seeing her husband again that robbed q lady patient of her req son. Her husband was the captain of I merchant ship which was reported to have gone down with all hands. The widow had deeply mourned her hus- band for nearly year, when one day on returning from walk she found him sitting in the drawing room as hale and robust as ever.
 , With shrek she fell unconscious on the floor, and when she recovered her reason was gone. It seems that her husband. after floating for some time had been picked up by passing tramp and had been landed on the west coast of Africa from which he bad returned home by the first availa I ble veSStl-London Tit Bits
 : 'Tis Different In England. l T suppose it's all right for Ameri