The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1909-08-13
JUDGE CL A
HOME ONCE MORE
His Story Is Just as Strange
as Anything in Fiction.
FOUND IN A BUTTON FACTORY

Well Known Jurist Compelled by I'm.
comfortable Desire to Live Over
Again the Days of Eighteen Years
Ago, Days He Spent as a Wander
er After Disappearing from His
Family Circle as He Did in Pres
ent Instance.
Kenosha, Wis, Aug 9.-Former
Judge Joseph B. Clarkson has returned
to his home here after mysterious
absence of several weeks.
He was found in button factory at
Sabula, Iowa, where he was toiling az
a laborer and known as John Paul.
John Burns, a friend of Clarkson, To-
Gated him after a patient and systema-
tic search.
The sight of his friend Burns brought
a return of consciousness of his own
identity to the clouded brain of the ex-
jurist and as in the case of his for
mer disappearance eighteen years ago,
his memory became clear, not alone as
to things connected with his real exis-
tence, but also-strangely enouIh-as
to the things he had done and the
places he had visited since July II
The date of his second disappearance
while laboring under the hallucination
that he was another personality.
Repetition of Former Experience.
1t is thought that the jurist's dis
appearance is a repetition OF his
strange disappearance from Omaha
eighteen years ago, when he was MISS
ing for four months At that time he
he had just retired from the office OF
district Judge of Omaha and he was
found at small town near Clinton, Ia.
He had been working in the fields and
had not been conscious of his actions
since leaving Omaha.
No weirder story could be told than
how Clarkson fed from home in pur-
suit of memories of eighteen years ago,
and how his mind slipped back and
blurred his reason, leaving him wander
ing over a life he had once forgotten.
No drama of fiction gives climax like
that at the button factory, where a
toiler was awakened to distinction and
a few minutes later delivered an ad-
dress with fellow workmen gathered
ment. 1t was lapse of mind exactly
like that of nearly score of years ago.
His earnings as a maker of buttons
for the four days he worked were q
trifle over 81. The tools he used were
taken home by him as souvenirs
Burns, for the lost man found, made
this statement:
Judge Clarkson desires it to be
known that he left Kenosha on the
morning of July Is, after spending the
night at his home here. He went from
the house at o'clock in the morning
and walked west to a railway track
and then south to the Illinois state
line. Early in the morning he caught
a Chicago and Milwaukee electric car
which took him into Evanston and
there he took another car for Chicago.
He remained in Evanston only few
minutes. He had been in Chicago but
a few minutes when he had his beard
and mustache shaved and later he
went to a store and sold his clothing.
and purchased a suit of rough clothes,
such as is worn by workingmen.
Forgets Days Spent in Chicago.
"He remained in Chicago for two or
three days, but this part of his trip is
a blank. He remembers buying tick
ct to Morrison, Ia.
Later he walked from Morrison,
stopping at Rock Island Moline, Daven-
port, Lyons and other Iowa cities. He
remembers being in all these towns
and in the meantime he was out in the
fields. He finally reached Clinton and
from there went to Sabula, where he
was found.
1.-The first thing he did when he got
into Chicago was to ask in regard to
the standing OF the Cubs and the
White i5ox, and this was another evil
dence that he was getting back into
the line of his old life
HE is feeling in excellent spirits
and his awakening interests in the
things of today shows that he is sound
of mind and body. He is in perfect
DhvSical condition.