Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-06-06
A BLOW IN THE HEAD
Which Changed a Mans Character
and Set Him to Work.

l ------
What effect a blow on the head
may have upon the one who receives
1t no man can predict. Stories have
been written the turning point of
which was the recovery of memory
lost by such a blow. In more recent
times instances have come to light
Through modern psychological
treatment-in which personality was
apparently quite changed by a blow
on the head. Many backward
schoolboy, even when apparently
eager to do criminal things, has been
found to be suffering from the effect
of such a shock received years before
and to be durable by surgery.
| Seldom is such story more thrill
ing than the true one which changed
the life of young writer who died
recently in Western city.
From his earliest boyhood he had
been incorrigible. He began running
away from home before he was three
years old, and as soon as he was of
school age became terror to his
teacher. He stole from his mother,
led other boys astray, and by his
misadventures and his habit of going
on long journeys with the roughest
OF tramps kept his mother on the
| verge of nervous prostration.
Every imaginable plea was tried in
vain with him. He made promises,
only to break them. He seemed unable
| to resist the mad impulse to vaga-
bondage which impelled him. Several
times his parents had him examined
| for sanity, and the verdict of the
alienists was that there was some
cause of mental disturbance which
they could not determine. The po-
lice of many States came to know
him.
At last his behavior so wore on
| his mother that she was driven to
Europe in order that she might rest
| for time out of hearing of his ad-
ventures. Even in Europe, however,
she was not free from him, for,
tramping through the Continent, he
encountered her in public park.
No one could have been more dis
reputable in appearance than the
! tramp who thus confronted her, but
the mothers heart went out to him,
! and she persuaded him to remain a
little while.
"At least" she said. 'if you must
do this way, let me provide you with
money. Let me hear from you once
in a while. Let me know you are
safe and we'll
All this he promised to do. and
having a desire to see South America
went with her consent to England to
embark on a. sailing vessel for
tramp through that Continent. Az
they lay at anchor in the harbor
mouth waiting for clearer weather.
fellow passenger and he stood In
the bow, looking out into the fog.
Suddenly, without warning, huge
steamship crashed into them and cut
far into the sailing ships wooden
hull. Spars fell from aloft. and the
fellow passenger was instantly killed
Inc American WdS piChSu up uhSoA
scious, with jagged wound In his
head where a spar had struck him.
He lay unconscious in the hospital
for long time, tenderly nursed by
his mother, and then passed through
a siege of brain fever. But when the
illness was over and he was rational
and conscious again a change had
been wrought. Something had been
altered in his brain, and all the pas
sion for vagabondage had left him.
He cared for tramping no longer.
IL only want to go to work to turn
my knowledge of the tramp's world
to account" he said, 80 that may
prevent as many other boys as pos
sible from going the terrible road
went"
To that end he long devoted him
self. He wrote many stories OF
tramping days, but through them all
ran the note of sorrow that so many
wears of his life had been lost In dis
reputable wanderings.-Youth'sC Com
panion.