The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-11-29
BY WILL w. Keller.


Can man carry red hot Goals 0,
fire in his bare hand: go into frances
where he wildly portrays the might
Napoleon on his death bed; declare
that his eyes have changed in color
have other eccentricities and still bt
perfectly sane?
The aristocratic, wealthy and influ-
entail Chanler family of New Yorl
city said no, and when one OF theil
own kin, John Armstrong Chalone3
(Chanler) acted SO, they Immediately
dragged him before a lunacy commits
sion, had him declared insane, hur-
ried him to Bloomingdale mad house
and placed his property, valued a
81 100000 in the hands of committee
A raving maniac, made so by hi.
impractical study of psychology, hi.
relatives said, and liable at any nom
emit to do his fellows bodily harm. Th'
leading alienists in New York cit,
confirmed these observations, tn
learned judge legally sanctioned it all
and when Bloomingdale was reached
with it's powerful guards and iron bar.
the New York press sighed the pub
lies relief, assured it's readers tina
another rich lunatic. had been judi
cously placed where his insane delu
sions and homicidal demonstration
would harm no one.
For three years and eight months
in his maniac cell Chaloner, blue blood
scion. college graduate, athlete, club
man, world wide traveller, literary ge-
MUS, art lover and inventor, pleaded
with the outside world for justice, and
always the answer came back You're
crazy
Complete desertion by his family
convinced his former friends that
Chaloner was a hopeless lunatic, and
now this handsome Gibson figure
who but a short while before had
been idolized by the Four Hundred of
New York. and whose welcome in
most exclusive clubs and aristocratic
homes never grew cold, found himself
an outcast, surrounded on all sides by
mental perverts, whose wild shrieks
robbed sleep in the gentlest hours of
the night, and whose association was
most repulsive to his delicate nature
in the light of day.
Old favors were forgotten, former
obligations broken, and no one now
desired or dared to help this erstwhile
favorite.
Crafty Plans Escape
Thus thrown upon his own resources
Chaloner determined he would escape
The resolution was not framed on the
moment. but was the result of long
and careful thought, crafty and deep
est planning.
He was successful; the only inmate
that has ever absolutely eluded the
trained human sleuth hounds of
Bloomfngdale.
He made his way to Philadelphia.
while police hunted and private de-
tective trailed him, adopted the pseu-
donym, John Childe," and voluntarily
placed himself in a private sanitarium
for the insane. After six months OBJ
servation the skilled alienists in
charge pronounced him absolutely
sane
Next to still another sanitarium
and then to Virginia where Chaloner
asked the courts to legally confirm the
Philadelphia alienists' decision, which
they did.
stop nieveS, CrleS CndIonef.
Thus exonerated, Chaloner now
cries in vehement tones, stop thieves,
hold perturers; give back my fortune,
and my good name" More than that,
he has entered suit in the federal court
of New York asking that the old pro-
ceedings against him be declared alb
solutely null and void because the
lunacy law of the Empire state is I'M
constitutional; demanding that igno-
rant judges, paid and INSCRIPTIONS
alienists cease to make of sweet just
ice hollow mockery and a reproach
to our boasted civilization.
No fertile brain ever conceived a
more absorbing and dramatic story
than that of John Armstrong Chalon-
err. There is every needed element for
the most elaborate fiction.
He himself, proud claimant of the
blood of John Winthrop, William B.
Astor. General Marion and Charlotte
Corday, graduate of both law and lib
eral arts at Columbia university, hand
some, wealthy and gifted, can we'll
claim to be one of Americas upper
tens" and most fitting person
around whom to build a melodrama
The principal setting is the most
exclusive circles of New York's var
led life. the mad house of the White
Plains, and the happy green fields OF
Virginia. The leading characters EN-.
brace the CHAMBERS. among whom is
Lewis Stuyvesant CHAMBER a brother
just defeated for governor of New
York, and now lieutenant governor OF
that state. the Princess Paul Troubet-
sky, nee Amelie Rives, the we'll known
authoress, divorced wife of Chaloner
the late Stanford Whitet whom Chal
oner charges with the darkest perfidy
and heartless infidelity: leaders of the
bar and medical profession of the east
and of late there has been injected in
to the plot, The Yelled Lady" Ac
cording to Chaloner the lady is one
Of the most prominent members O.
New York society. and she will bs
brought into the pending case in the
federal court. Mr.. Chaloner says thai
he regrets this fact that the case has
taken, and he will shield the lady's
name from the public, by handing il