The Washington herald., 1914-05-24
tcopyrisht. INA,
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TT was Silas Bannerman who finally
i ran down that scientific wizard and

ran down that scientific wizard anc
arch-enemy of mankind, Emil
GlucN Gluek's confession, before h.
went to the electric chair, threw much
light upon the series of mysteriou.
events, many apparently unrelated, thai
so perturbed the world between the
years 1888 and Io4I.
While the deeds of Emil Gluck were
all that was abominable, we cannot but
feel, to certain extent, pity for the un.
fortunate, malformed, and maltreated
genius. This side of his story has neve,
been told before, and from his confes-
sion and from the great mass of evi.
dence and the documents and records oi
the time we are able to construct fair.
ly accurate portrait of him, and to dis.
cern the factors and pressures that
nodded him into the human monster
he became and that drove him onward
and downward along the fearful path
he trod.
Emil Gluck was born in Syracuse, N
Y. in 1895. His father, Josephu.
Gluck, was a special policeman and
night watchman who, in the year 1000
died suddenly of pneumonia. The
mother, . pretty, fragile creature, who
before her marriage had been a miiliner
grieved herself to death over the loss oi
her husband. This sensitiveness of the
mother was the heritage that in the boy
became morbid and horrible. :.
In 1901, the boy, Emil, then six years
of age, went to live with his aunt, Mrs
Ann Bartell, who was vain, shallow
and heartless woman, and in who's,
breast was no kindly feeling for the
sensitive, shrinking boy. She was cursed
with poverty and burdened with hus-
band who was a lazy, cratic ne'er-do-
we'll Young Emil Gluck was not want.
ed, and Ann Bartell could be trusted tc
impress this fact sufficiently upon him.
As an illustration of the treatment he
received in that early, formative period
the following instance is given:
When he had been living in the Bar
tell home a little more than a year, he
broke his leg. He sustained the in
jury through playing on the forbidden
roof-as all boys have done and will
continue to do to the end of time. The
leg was broken in two places between
the knee and thigh. Emil, helped by his
frightened playmates, managed to drag
himself to the front sidewalk, where he
tainted. The children of the neigh
borhood were afraid of the hard-fea-
tured shrew who presided over the
Bartell house; but, summoning their
resolution, they rang the bell and told
Ann Bartell of the accident. She did not
even look at the little lad who lay
stricken on the sidewalk, but slammed
the door and went back to her washtub
The time passed. A drizzle came on
and Emil Gluck, out of his faint, lay
sobbing in the rain. The leg should
have been set Immediately. As it was,
the Inflammation rose rapidly and made
a nasty case of it. At the end of two
hours, the indignant women of the
neighborhood protested to Ann BartelL
This time she came out and looked at
the lad as he lay helpless at her feet
Also she hysterically disowned him. He
was not her child, she said, and recon-
mended that the ambulance be called to
take him to the city receiving hospital
Then she went back into the house.
1t was a woman, Elizabeth Shepstone,
who came along, learned of the situa-
tion, and had the boy placed on a shut
ter. 1t was she who called the doctor,
and who, brushing aside Ann Bartell,
had tine boy carried into the house.
When the doctor arrived, Ann Bartell
promptly warned him that she would
not pay him for his services. For two
months the little Emil lay in bed, the
first month on his back without once
being turned over; and he lay neglected
and alone, save for the occasional visits
of the unremunerated and overworked
physician.
1t would seem strange that from the
hands of Ann Bartell Emil Gluck
should have received a college educa-
tion; but the explanation is simple Her
ne'er-do-well husband, deserting her,
made strike in the Nevada gold fields
and returned to her a many times mil
lionsire. Ann Bartell hated the boy,
and Immediately she sent him to the
Farristown Academy, a hundred miles
away. Shy and sensitive, lonely and
misunderstood little soul, he was more
lonely than ever at Farristown. He
never came home at vacation and holi-
days, as the other boys did. Instead,
he wandered about the deserted build
ings and grounds, befriended and mis-
understood by the servants and gar
deners, reading much, it is remembered,
spending his days in the fields or before
the fireplace with his nose poked always
in the pages of some book.
He was a remarkable student. Appli-
cation such as his would have taken
him far; but he did not need application.
A glance at text meant mastery for
him. The result was that he did an
immense amount of collateral reading
and acquired more in half year than
did the average student in half dozen
years. In 1909, barely fourteen years
of age, he was ready-"more than
ready" the headmaster of the academy
said-to enter Yale or Harvard. His
juvenility prevented him from entering
those universities, and so, in 1909. we
find him freshman at historic Bow
doin College. In 1913 he graduated
with highest honors, and Immediately
afterward followed Pro. Bradlough to
Berkeley, Cal. The one friend that
Emil Gluck discovered in all his life
was Prof. Bradlough. The latter's weak
lungs had led him to exchange Maine
for California, the removal being facil-
itated by the offer of professorship in
the State university. Throughout the
year 1914, Emil Gluck resided in Berk-
eley and took special scientific courses
Toward the end of that year two deaths
changed his prospects and his relations
with life. The death of Prof. Bradlough
took from him the one friend he was
ever to know, and the death of Ann
Bartell left him penniless. Hating the