The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-22
STUDY Of THE !"
HUMAN HYENA
History Shows But Few of
Most FerOCiOuS.
CALIGULA AND TAMERLANE
Make Tsi of China Look Like
Cheap Stuff
AND TAMERLANE

Edgar Sartus, writing in the New York
Herald on the study of the human Hy'
ena, says:
The lives of good men are handsomely
bound and never readily ourselves, at
least-though no doubt there are people
to whom they constitute source of Sc
we're satisfaction. Conversely the lives
of bad men have yet to appear. When
they do the fascination of their charm
will be that which attaches to the abb
normal For though hyenas alarm they
also attract. In history as in romance
it is the shudder that tells. In menager-
les and ZOOS it is the widest beast that
obtains the best attention.
Quite naturally, too. There are so few
beasts now that are not entirely tame.
| BY the same token shoulders were never
! more scarce. Contemporaneous crime is
very commonplace. But occasionally, by
| accident, something out of the ordinary
will occur, and then even the virtuous
| take to reading about it. Particularly
if there be a woman IN the case. Yet
it is only, in addition to petticoats, when
murder and mystery are agreeably fused
| that you feel that you are getting your
moneys worth.
That, too, is natural There is nothing
| so comforting as a good old fashioned
murder. There is nothing so poetic,
ither. For behind it is an effort to out
wit destiny the attempt to change the
course of events, and TO change them
after the fashion of fate. intellectually.
The idea of being able to do all that
is highly poetic. But it is also primitive.
| Primitive man had three or four ideas.
! Civilized man has not many more. With
this difference, however. Primitive man..
disturbed in his ideas. vanished In his
place there sprang a beast That beast
civilized man has quelled. But not
exterminated. The brute is among US
still Yet so tame that the majority of
US forget that he is about. 1t takes a
murder like that which recently occurred
| in Buffalo to remind US of him.
! Murder is neozoic 1t shows a relapse
| of nature The murderer may have in
his appearance nothing resembling the
| cave dweller, yet behind appearances
! always illusory-is the troglodyte.
! Through causes generally reducible to
| crises of the emotions the creatures few
| ideas become disturbed. Then abruptly
the bein apparently civilized evaporates.
He has gone. In his place is the hyena
There is a shrek. a silence. The next
morning the papers are full of it.
That is the ordinary case. There are
others. There are crimes in which there
is no atavism. There are murders in
cidental to grating in its various forms.
felonies of the professional order. These
are accidents. According to statistics
and what should we do without them?
in the Benighted States there occurred
last year nearly nine thousand cases ap-
pertaining to this and to the former va
riety That is nice showing. In addi-
ton there are murders effected by men
who are not professional or primitive
but wise. Concerning these two we have
no data. They leave noIe. They leave
nothing except now and again death
which is attributed to natural causes.
These people are not hyenas. They are
men of ability. They are very interest
ing still. They form the coterie OF GRIM
inaIs who are above the law. We viii
get to them in a minute.
Meanwhile in ordinary cases, just prior
to the shrek, to the silence and to the
headlines in the papers. there occur. al
most invariably. certain phenomena
which are perhaps worth nothing.
First is a condition OF irritability in
ducea by disturbance of ideas. From
this >condition paralysis of memory re-
suits The patient forgets the past and
its lessons. the present and its penalties.
In his mind there is a complete oblitera-
ton of all knowledge except the fact that
some particular person is Extensively oc-
cupied in continuing TO be. That fact,
f,,Is Cf
quasi somnambulistic. OF all the cells
of the brain there is but one that is
awake. over the others sleep has slipped.
But in that cell is an Indictment melting
the patient TO kill
Then it is that there ensues the shrek
and succeeding silence. But before the
reporters get TO work other phenomena
have occurred. Paralysis subsidies. SOM
nambulism ceases. There is an immediate
awakening of the entire brain. The past
with its lessons returns on its heels
the present and it's penalties troop. In
their sudden rush the troglodyte de-
materialiEes. Civilized man resppears.
The ratient sees what he has done. and.
seeing. It seems to him that another
must have done ii.
He is right. The mind has many cell
lar In them strange tenants prowl- Be
meath the brain are the caves OF sub
consciousness. There, influences that we
know nothing of. impulses which the ma
ioritv of us never feel. watch and wait.
Our individuality is dual. Half our being
is unaware what the other half is about.
In normal condition man Is a bundle Of
ideas and sensations arranged in order
and sequence. But in certain crises OF
the emotions the orderly arrangement
gets twisted. and from the individual
ordinarily normal emerges the human
hyena-
Usually the beast is subordinated, con-
,roried. but never banished 1t is there.
rrouching n the caves Of the soul. y
distinguished trait OF the gentleman Is
that he never betrays its presence
thinker is too phiiosophic- Hence the
value Of blue blood Hence also the
beauty OF sound logic But when in
pathological causes induced by causes az
vet obscure the other. the simian. the
secreted self. breaks loose. then there Is
the devil 10 pay and something TO read
about in the papers
That. rerahps. is the psychology 81
every night murder. Among servants
there is some OF the first and much Ct
with cogsed dice. Among professionals
there Is some OF the firest and much Of
the latter. IN the criminals who are
above the law both elements are present
with power added
Power consists in having million bay
onets behind, you. Its diffusion IS not
general. Blu, there are people who pos
-. . To- o-a rre German Kaiser