The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1912-06-27
OPERATION SAVED MIND
MAN LEARNS NAME AFTER FOUR
TEEN BLANK YEARS.
Condition Due to Attack of Toughs
and Being Shanghaied-RecoVer-
ing Memory of Former Days,
He Forgets Former Life.

New York.-S. Chandler Rogers,
who was beaten by toughs, thrown in
to the Hudson river and shanghaied
by a British sailing ship on the night
Of May 10, 1897, and who spent the
next fourteen years of his life with
out the slightest recollection of whom
he was or what he had done before
he was injured, came here from Sc
attic the other day to search for his
sister. His mind was cleared last Oc-
tober after surgeons in Seattle had
removed a fragment of bone that was
pressing on his brain.
Rogers. who is now thirty-one years
old, told his story to a reporter.
My principal business in life" he
sand, now is to find the sister that
haven't seen for nearly Is years.
have reason to believe that she is in
Bridgeport, Ct, and l am going there
tomorrow. Mrs. Michael Roy, who
lives in Bridgeport, has identified, l am
told, photograph of me as that OF
her brother. Maybe she is mistaken,
but hope not.
After l was operated on in Seattle
everything l had been doing for four
teen years was wiped out and l re-
membered who I was and what l had
been doing before l was hurt in this
city at Eighth avenue and Sixteenth
street. 1 remembered that my right
name was 8. Chandler Rogers and
that my home was in New York, al
though they told me at the Seattle
hospital that l had been known as
George Kelly for many years.
81 was a newsboy in New York and
later a messenger boy. Once in a
while l got a chance to box in the
alters and made a little money. On
May l, 1897, l got day off from my
work and that evening with friend
and two girls I went to a show. Aft
er the show l took my girl home and
then started for bed, but at Eighth
avenue and Sixteenth street three men
stopped me. 1t was pretty dark and
| couldn't see their faces. One Of
them asked me for a match. told
him l wasn't match factory, and he
made pass at me. | tried to hit him
with brass knuckles l was wearing,
/ but another of the three slugged me
with a blackjack.
When | came to l was trying to
/ keep atioat in the Hudson, swimming
desperately and nearly blind from the
/ pain and shock of my hurts. l man
| aged to catch hold of piece of piling
and screamed for help. That's all
recall definitely. l have been told by
the doctors that l revealed to them
after the operation in Seattle that l
was shanghaied that night by a Brit
ish ship, that | was badly hurt by the
mate and that l had all sorts of ad-
/ ventures in the next fourteen years
under the name of George Kelly. I
/ suppose they are right, but l can't re-
member what did as Kelly.
There's a young woman out in Sc
/ attic who says that | am married to
her. If that is true she is in a mean
/ sort of position. She married me as
Kelly and l have shed the name and
personally of Kelly forever"
/ Rogers identity was established by
a curious circumstance. AS George
Kelly he was living last October at
Fort Blakely and working in lum-
Der mill. On the evening of Tuesday,
october 10th. Rogers-or Kelly-left
home for a trip to Mill Town. He
hadn't been feeling well and his wife
was worried about him. After order
ing groceries at a Fort Blakely store,
he disappeared, Three days later he
! was found naked in a forest near Port
/ Blakely crawling on his hands and
! knees and barking at dogs that were
annoying him He was taken to the
! Providence hospital in Seattle and was
/ the doctors found. unable to speak CO.
herently or to see. On October 18th,
the operation was performed which
relieved pressure on his brain, re-
stored the power Of speech and the
/ ability to see and which gave him
/ back also his former identity.