The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-02
HERE is NEW STYLE OF FAKE.
Young Fellow Plays Total Loss OF
Memory Trick.


About nonth ago. said a. CONNER
clal traveller who arrived in Washington
the other day, when / got into small
town In Iowa, on my way East, found
the town in a state of considerable COM
motion over the peculiar case of a man
who had reached the place the day be-
fore. The man, it seemed, had one of
these sudden-loss- of identity cases about
which we've been reading so much in the
newspapers during the past four or five
years. This found out before had
seen him. He had stepped off a train
bound from Omaha to Chicago on the
day before and had engaged the station
master in conversation as soon as the
train pulled out. He had clean forgotten
who he was, where he had come from,
where he was going, anything what
ever about himself, the young man told
the stationmaster.
1.-THE stationmaster, of course, was
willing to knock off work any time to
talk with such a queer proposition as
that. The StationmaSter took the young
man to the hotel of the town and and
interested several of the solid citizens
in the case. In conversation with all of
these the young mans manner was ex-
actly the same as it had been when he
had tackled the stationmaster and told
that official Of his sudden loss of identity
In a quiet pathetic sort of way. and
manner across his forehead, he told them
that-he had no more idea what his name
was than of any of the events that had
led to his dropping off the train into the
little town in which he found himself.
He didn't remember ever having seen the
town before, and what his purpose had
ben in stopping off there was too much
for him.
1.-The leading physician of the town was
called into the conference after awhile,
and he was as much puzzled over the
young mans story as the solid citizens.
He questioned the young man closely as
to whether he had recently received any
injury to his head, and the young man
replied that he didn't rcall anything Of
the sort The medical men examined the
young man thoroughly, and found that he
was in tip-top condition physically and
that he was perfectly rational and level
headed mentally, except that all recol-
lection of everything connected with his
previous life had absolutely departed
from him. The towns press correspond
ent, of course, got hold Of the queer
story, and interviewed the young man,
and he sent the story out all over the
country.
''All of this was on the day before I
got in. When arrived at the hotel the
landlord pointed the young man out to
me- and went up to the table where he
talk with him. He was a chap of about
twenty EIGHT or so, good looking and very
well dressed. He had landed in the town
without a cent of money and without any
papers whereby he could be identified
but his case seemed so extraordinary that
the solid citizens had taken care of him
and volunteered to stand for his hotel
bill, and so on, until it could be decided
what to do with him. The solid citizens,
as a matter Of fact, were rather proud of
the business, knowing as they did that
the story had been wired to the papers
all over the country. They considered
| that it sort of advertised their town.
''The townsmen who had volunteered to
look out for the young fellow assembled
at the hotel on the night that got in for
the purpose of arriving at some decision
as to what should be done with him.
There was no hospital in the place de-
signed to cope with cases of lost identity.
1 happened to mention at the conference
that perhaps the young man would be
better off in Chicago, where he could go
| to one of the big hospitals for treatment
| The young chap came In at that point
| with the remark that he had vague
! sort of recollection that the name Of the
place from which he hailed began with
a &C.
"'Tm going to Chicago tomorrow said
to the conferenoesof citizens, and, If
| you gentlemen desire it, could take this
| young fellow along with me and see that
! he gets into the right hands for treat
ment.'
""They all looked upon the suggestion as
good one, and thanked me for it. Then
| they took UP a collection for the young
mans benefit, and raised nearly a hun
| dred dollars, which they wanted me to
keep for him until we arrived in Chicago
told them that / would rather not do
that, however, as the young man ap-
peared to be perfectly rational, and in
| shape to take care of the fund himself
| So they handed the money over to him
on the following morning, and gripped
his hand in cordial goodbye handshakes,
and the pair of us climbed aboard the ex-
press train bound for Chicago.
I'VE got into the smoker and the young
man pulled out a handful of good cigars
| and offered me smoke. Then he pro-
duced from Ills valise a quart bottle Of