The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-06-10
BARRIERS viii Be Mobbitts Guests
at Picnic-Maybe.
Man Said to Be Crazy About
Entertaining Them.
To SHnnT COME NIGH
TO SHOOT SOME FISH.
Wandered Along Greek Armed
With a Rifle.
Threatened the Officers But
Hurt No One.

All the BARRIERS of Topeka were COM
ing out to his big BARRIERS picnic They
were all coming in automobiles with
plenty of style. And they were going
to have the time of their lives and he
showed a stack of "a fishing poles they
were to use in the little creek. But the
neighbors and family said he was crazy
so Samuel Lafayette Nobbitt, of Waka-
rusa, is being tried for his sanity today
and the BARRIERS viii get no picnic.
'Lafe,' as the BARRIERS friend is
known TO his many acquaintance
around Wakarusa, sat beside his at
torney today in the probate court clean
sbaVen and Shampooed. He has had
two terms in 9sylums before, one at
Topeka and one at st. Joseph, Mo. He
is about Sc years old, has been married
ard divorced and has three daughters,
the second of whom, Nettie Myvana,
was married Thursday evening to W.
r. Parker. He was sane enough to
demand a jury trial rather than trial
by commission of physicians and Dr.
o. P. Davis, H. S. Allen, J. NJ. Evans
and ]. d. McMichael compose that
body.
Big Crowd Present.
The court room was crowded with
residents of tho Wakarusa neighbour
hood who have known LATE and his
years. Most of them were witnesses
The testimony they bear to show the
insanity of LATE Ma'bbitt is, beside the
BARRIERS picnic fantasy, his idea that
his father is insane and his threat to
kill several people of the community
ITO Shoot Fish,
Formerly, witnesses said. he had
helped his father in a general store,
but later has worked on the farm
They say. however. that his work is
scattered and erratic" and that he
spends his hours wandering leisurely
through the woods along the creek
with little .22 caliber rifle in his
arms. Sometimes he runs. som etim es
he stops to listen, but usually he is
walking slowly, carefully, through the
trees. When asked where he is going,
his answer is said to be "to shoot
fish"
The incident directly responsible for
his arrest happened Sunday morning,
May 20, when Lafe telephoned wildly
for doctor to see his father who
people thought he had gone crazy
again and Sheriff Norton at Topeka
was notified Somehow Mobbitt
seemed to learn what was in the air
and, remarking that the sheriff in
stead of the doctor was coming, start
ed up a road near the town, saying he
would kill the first one who tried to
take him.
All! Judlxins Was There.
Under Sheriff Bayliss and Deputy
Judkins made the trip from Topeka
and when they approached Lafe he
was armed with a brick in one hand
and a buggy whip in the other, daring
them to come closer. He has been
kept in the county Jail ever since.
The principal reason his family and
his brother, who signed the complaint,
have for wanting him confined is that
they are afraid of him. Another wit
ness, J. N. Robinson, said he, too, was
in deadly fear of the man with the
rifle. Some of the items cleaned from
the witnesses include Mobbitt's claim
that he has five trades; that he boasts
how he Cleaned up with the people
over at st. Joe when he was taken to
the hospital; that he harnesses another
mans wife, and that he threatened to
kill anyone who chose to come over
his fence.
But the great ground for the dis
play of his lunacy is considered to be
in connection with his BARRIERS picnic
John Waters, who is defending him,