The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-02-17
= INSANITY OR DRUGS?
Ames' Best Friends Hold One or the Other
ThaarNS a :,

Ames' Best Friends Hold One or the Other
Theory.
At various times in the months proceed
ing his departure from Minneapolis, Mayor
A. A. Ames gave indications of mental
alteration, occasionally Verging upon in
sanity. His friends were greatly con-
cerned over this lapse of the then mayors
advanced in regard to the cause. s,3-
Some Of the closest friends of the
mayor go SO far as to assert that he was
totally unbalanced. mentally, fully a year
before leaving Minneapolis. He was
afflicted by many halucinations, and
among other strange fancies was one that
his wife had been divorced from him and
that the custody of their daughter had
been awarded to her. It was his belief
that his child was able to visit him only
by stealth, and he lived in constant dread
lest his wife should discover the little
girls calls upon her father and punish
her for them. This was one of his most
| fixed ideas.
DR.. Ames also had a great dread of the
telephone. He was unwilling to converse
over the wire lest some one overhear him.
and frequently would force his lieutenants
| ters of the most trifling moment, so much
| did he dislike to use the phone.
| Many other strange fancies were OBJ
| served by those closest to the mayor.
| Upon one occasion he told friend that
he had lost a. watch which registered the
greatly worried by the loss Of this ina
ginary piece Of property and upbratded his
| friend for hiding it from him.
| These Authorizations, together with other
mental and physical symptoms, gave rise
to the suspicion that Dr. Ames was using
cocaine, or some drug Of similar charac-
ter. Some of his friends positively as
sert that such was the case, while others
maintain that DR.. Ames never used any
kind Of drug up to the time of his depar-
ture from Minneapolis. DR.. e. j. Clark
a close friend of Mayor .Ames. and city
physician during his administration, de-
} clares positively that DR.. Ames used nc
drugs DR.. Clark said to-day:
!; Il certain that Mayor Anles never
used drugs while he was in Minneapolis
What he may have done since / canno
} say, but I know that he gave no eVi
dence Of the use of opiates while N
was here, and in fact such was his an
l tipathy to them that he scarcely eve
prescribed morphine for his patients, ant
would often let them suffer agony rattle
than resort to an opiate. In ten thou
Il sand of his prescriptions I do not thinl
you can find five which contain morphine
While DR.. Anes was not a drug f1end
90 however, am positive that he was men
tally unbalanced long before he left tn
, city. He had strange Authorizations
while sane upon most subjects, and h
seemed to lose much Of his reasonin
| power"
l Acquaintance Of DR.. Ames who believ
that he had resort to the use of drug
point out that frequently startling change
occurred in the state of his physics
health. One day he:,would scarcely b
able to walk, and would totter aroun
bowed, and apparently broken, the mex
day he would lead a procession, :walkin
erect with fir mtread, These sudde
changes, they say; could only be &C
counted for by the use of morphine q
| | cocaine. ...-es. .--.-.,..f. o.